ISL season 4: Chennaiyin FC hold the aces in south India derby

Chennai: Chennaiyin FC are on a high in the Indian Super League, having won four of their six matches. More importantly, the former champions have beaten Bengaluru FC, one of the strongest teams in the fray, in own their backyard. Chennaiyin will now be hoping to take all three points against another team from south India, Kerala Blasters, at the Nehru Stadium here on Friday.

The hosts can be proud of their performances so far. After a miserable first half against FC Goa in the season-opener, John Gregory’s team have rebounded with commendable displays. In stark contrast to last season in which Chennaiyin conceded late goals to lose matches, they have regularly been scoring last-gasp winners to remain in the top three in the table.

The home side have been neat in their style of play, knitting together passes and playing through the team to create chances. It has also been visually appealing to see the team maintain composure when the pressure is on and not just throw balls forward hoping for a chance.

Their back line has mostly been tidy and defensive midfielders D. Ganesh and Bikramjit Singh have impressed, making it a hard-to-breach fortress.

Meanwhile, Kerala have their own reason to smile. They tasted success for the first time in Season Four when they beat North East United 1-0 last Friday. They had drawn three and lost one prior to that. On the flip side, their star striker and former Manchester United player Dimitar Berbatov is still to recover from injury and has also not scored in the four matches he has played.

Clashes between the two teams have been fiery in the past, with the intensity more often than not spilling into the stands between the two set of supporters. With four wins in eight matches, Chennaiyin have the upper hand. Can they make it a high five on Friday?