Another week of the 2025-26 Indian Super League season is done, and it was, as usual, one filled with drama, as the league table begins to take definitive shape at this stage of the season.
Almost a third of the way through the season, it’s clear that it’s now a two-horse race for the title this season, while the battle to avoid relegation may just involve more teams than those tangibly in the title race.
We muse, on games 22 to 28 of the ISL:
Blasters are in serious trouble
Relegation for the bottom team in the ISL is in the rulebook for this season. Whether that will be implemented, we don’t know, because… Indian Football. But if it is implemented as promised, the Kerala Blasters are in serious, serious trouble.
They are one of only two teams that haven’t posted a point on the board yet. The bigger concern for the Blasters is that there is not much anger in their fanbase anymore, as there is indifference. When the most passionate fanbase in the league stops caring, you know that things aren’t going too well.
Their latest defeat, a 1-0 home reverse against Chennaiyin FC, was perhaps not the fairest reflection of the game, but it was decided by a moment of sheer quality from Imran Khan. The Blasters are struggling to find that quality to keep their head above water at this point in time. They’ve scored only once in four games. For much of those other three games, David Catala hasn’t looked capable of putting together an attacking unit capable of being a consistent threat.
SC Delhi‘s comeback against Mumbai City FC to draw 2-2, and Mohammedan‘s performance against Bengaluru FC, where they arguably deserved a lot more than a 2-1 loss, will only cause the alarm bells to ring further loudly in Blasters ranks.
Blasters fans, look away. Or don’t. With relegation on the horizon, this could be the time your club needs you the most.
Maclaren is the best player in the league
At a similar stage of last season, we were in a dilemma when trying to declare who the best player in the league could be. This season, there is no such uncertainty. As those of a certain (extremely recent) vintage would say, Jamie Maclaren is him.
Four games into the season, Maclaren has seven goals already. He’s opened up a handy three-goal lead at the top of golden boot race over East Bengal‘s Youssef Ezzejjari. In a league where so many teams are struggling to find that focal point, that consistent goal-scorer, Maclaren is a precious commodity for Bagan to have. His hat-trick against Odisha featured three goals from a combined 20 yards or so out. He is the proverbial fox in the box.
With the number of talented players around him, he doesn’t have to be much else. As long as Maclaren puts the ball in the back of the net from close range, Sergio Lobera wouldn’t care less about what else he does, or doesn’t. Bagan have their Aussie hitman to thank, as they continue to show why they’re odds-on favourites to finish a third straight season on top of the league table. The mentality of champions is one thing that is often spoken about in leagues around the world. Being able to win while not being at your best, while facing adversity, is an important quality of champions. Owen Coyle’s Jamshedpur showed that side of themselves in abundance in their win against Inter Kashi. They played more than 70 minutes of that game with ten men. Vincy Barretto was sent off early, and those of a Mohun Bagan persuasion might have been forgiven for an early celebration of an ISL lead of at least two points. Not on our watch, said Coyle and his team. Not, at least, for now. Stephen Eze popped up in the opposition box, as he so often does to give them the lead early in the second half. Albino Gomes made some superb saves to keep his sheet clean, and Coyle fist-pumped and roared in joy on the sidelines. Jamshedpur are here to play, that’s for sure. With the kind of build-up that East Bengal had to this season, both in terms of their new additions to the squad, and that Super Cup campaign, where they did beat Mohun Bagan, they’d have expected themselves to be challenging for the title. Four games in, they’re five points off the lead. An impressive start that saw them win their opening two games to spread hope within their fans has been succeeded by one point in their next two games, and a familiar feeling of what-if among the East Bengal faithful. Ezzejjari and Miguel Ferreira did try their best against FC Goa, but they misfired. So did the likes of PV Vishnu and Nandhakumar Sekar, as East Bengal just couldn’t find a way past a stubborn FC Goa defence. East Bengal are far from out of the title race, but they need to right the wrongs of the last two games, and they need to do that now. They face the bottom two sides in their next two games, so it’s the perfect opportunity for Oscar Bruzon’s men to roar back into contention, and perhaps even rack up the goals. It’s been a peculiar year for Manolo Marquez. That ill-fated national team stint was followed by a return to FC Goa, and doing what he does best – leading his team to a trophy, the Super Cup. But then, the uncertainty around Indian Football meant their squad was ravaged by the departures of key foreigners. That has meant uncertainty in Goa ranks, and a shaky start to their ISL season. Mind you, Goa are still unbeaten, the latest game in that run requiring Marquez to show all the managerial nous that has made him one of the great coaches in the ISL’s history. Against East Bengal’s mighty squad, Marquez set his team up in a way that East Bengal found difficult to break down. It was an exhibition in not overcomplicating things too much. Goa defended superbly in two blocks of four, they had Dejan Drazic buzzing around Ishan Pandita in the hope of springing on counter-attacks, and they did have a certain amount of threat, even if not the number of clear-cut chances that East Bengal managed. If East Bengal aren’t out of the title race yet, then Goa aren’t either, given they’re a point ahead as it stands. It will need a miracle, but there’s no one more capable of providing such a miracle to them than Marquez. If Maclaren is the best striker in the league, then there’s no striker in the league whose stock has risen as much in the early weeks as Punjab FC’s Nsungusi Effiong. A couple of weeks ago, he produced a masterful first-half display with a brace against Bengaluru FC, that set Punjab on their way to their first win of the season. In their first home game of the season, Punjab found themselves trailing to NorthEast United, after Parthib Gogoi had scored on the hour mark. Up stepped Effiong. Muhammed Suhail did superbly on the left to buzz his way past Redeem Tlang and to the byline, his cut-back found Effiong, but he had plenty of work to do, having darted past the near post. He contorted his feet superbly in a flash, and sent a backheel past Gurmeet Singh in the NorthEast goal, to ensure that Punjab finished the game with a point.
Jamshedpur have grit to match quality
Time’s running out already for East Bengal’s title challenge
Manolo Marquez is still the best coach in the ISL
Effiong is Punjab’s big hope
