Sundowns Are Seven Clear. Pirates Have Three Games In Hand. Do The Maths.

Look at the top of the Betway Premiership this morning and it reads like a procession. Mamelodi Sundowns, 20 points, plus 12 on goal difference, seven clear of the field. Look again at the played column and the picture changes completely.

Sundowns have played eight. Orlando Pirates have played five. Pirates sit second on 13 points with a goal difference of plus 11, one behind the champions and from three fewer matches. Win all three of those games in hand and Pirates go two points clear at the top without Sundowns kicking a ball. That is not a title race being decided in September. That is a title race that has not properly started.

Saturday underlined why the gap is soft. Sundowns went to Chippa United and came away with a 1-1 draw, two points dropped against a side nobody has pencilled in as a contender. Three days earlier they had beaten Siwelele 3-0 at home, so this is not a team in trouble, but it is a team playing every week while the side behind them banks fixtures.

Behind those two it is congested rather than settled. AmaZulu are level with Pirates on 13 points from six games after grinding out a 1-0 win over Marumo Gallants, though their goal difference of plus two tells you how they are getting there. Kaizer Chiefs are fourth on 12 from six after being held 1-1 at Polokwane City, a result our fans did not see coming at all: the most common Prediz prediction for that match was a 1-3 Chiefs win, submitted by two fans. Then there is a drop to Sekhukhune United in fifth on eight points with a negative goal difference, which is a measure of how quickly this league thins out after the top four.

At the other end, Kruger United have one point from five, Siwelele and Marumo Gallants two from six each. Kruger, like Pirates, have a game in hand, which in their case is a lifeline rather than a weapon.

The number to keep in your head this week is Thursday. Pirates host Durban City on Thursday night, the first of those three catch-up fixtures, and only one Prediz fan has touched it so far. Get that one right and you are predicting a table that could look very different by the time Sundowns next play.