L2 | S3 | W17: Birmingham City pull clear as Hearts build a Tynecastle fortress

📰 Week 17 at a glance

European Elites is through the halfway mark of Season 3 and the shape of the season is coming into focus. Four divisional leaders, four different stories – and only one of them looks anything like comfortable.

Birmingham City are pulling away at the top of Division 2, five points clear with the best goal difference in the league. Elsewhere it is tighter. Rapid Vienna lead Division 1 by a single point with four sides breathing down their neck. Bristol Rovers have turned the Memorial Stadium into a Division 3 fortress. And Borussia Dortmund climbed two places this week to take top spot in Division 4.

Mix in a cracking Cup Round 2, four new managers joining the league, and a couple of famous names in serious relegation trouble – and there is plenty to unpack.

🏆 Division 1 – Rapid cling on, Hearts are coming

Rapid Vienna sit top of the pile after a 1-1 home draw with Cambridge United. Barrenechea [14] cancelled out Herrera [17]’s 33rd-minute opener to keep Rapid’s lead intact – just. Heart of Midlothian are a single point behind and produced the standout performance of the week, demolishing Bayer Leverkusen 3-0 at Tynecastle.

💡 Hearts’ home record is frankly ridiculous – five wins from five, eleven goals scored, none conceded. If they can fix their travelling form (just one win from eight on the road), they are the side to beat.

Five clubs are within three points of the lead. Atletico Madrid’s slide of two places this week is the mover to watch – they appear to have stopped scoring. Rangers nicked a 2-1 away win at Huddersfield Town with Altidore [20] opening the scoring inside four minutes and Mubama [23] grabbing the winner on 77. Walsall climbed two places thanks to Jones [17]’s first-half strike against Sporting Lisbon, and Real Madrid beat fellow strugglers Atletico Madrid 1-0 through Yamal [19] – a small bright spot in an otherwise bleak campaign.

⚠️ Bayer Leverkusen’s away record: played 8, lost 8, scored 0. Something has to give.

💙 Division 2 – Birmingham running away with it

Birmingham City made it look straightforward with a 1-0 home win over Fulham (Fonte [5] on 39). That extends their lead to five points, and their numbers are excellent across the board – 10 wins from 17, balanced home and away form, +14 goal difference. On this form they will take some catching.

Paris Saint-Germain stayed in touch with a 1-0 win at Bayern Munich through Ronaldo [21] on 40 minutes. Tottenham Hotspur climbed a place into third after a wild 2-2 at Brighton & Hove Albion – Hummels [5] and Stokes [17] had Brighton 2-1 up at the break, but Musiala [14] and Hernández [21] hauled Spurs back into it. Middlesbrough jumped two places to fifth after a 3-2 away win at Sheffield United with Ansó [20], Gonzálvez [21] and Venuti [19] all scoring in the first half.

💡 The match of the week, though, was at Juventus. They hammered bottom club Liverpool 4-0 with an Idah [21] hat-trick (26, 29, 66), Braaf [22] adding the fourth on 76.

Liverpool sit rock bottom on just 7 points from 17 games – the worst record in the league by some margin. Manchester United (10) are the next closest to them. New Liverpool manager gilbert burnett has his work cut out.

❤️ Division 3 – Bristol Rovers untouchable at home

Bristol Rovers top the division with a home record that borders on comical – nine wins from nine at the Memorial Stadium, fourteen goals scored, two conceded. Their 1-1 away draw at Bradford City (Ponce [20] opening, Zekhnini [21] replying on 75) barely dented the lead.

Aberdeen are four points back in second after a 1-1 with Barcelona, Gnonto [22] cancelling out a Watkins [21] opener. Charlton Athletic and Everton are keeping pace – Charlton drew 1-1 at Arsenal thanks to Desailly [8] (83), Bowyer [18] having put the home side ahead inside ten. Everton ground out a 1-0 home win over Chelsea through D’Orazio [19].

The standout result of the division came at Vicarage Road, where Watford dismantled Aston Villa 3-1 – Breunig [16], Bett [15] and Kaplan [17] all on the scoresheet, with Oxlade-Chamberlain [17] grabbing an early consolation for Villa. Napoli also made headlines with a 3-1 away win at Leicester City, Milovanović [19] bagging a brace (58, 69) and Stockwell [17] opening on 41.

⚠️ Sevilla FC have been declared unmanaged this week – currently 12th on 18 points and likely to drift without a boss. If anyone fancies a relegation scrap with thirteen weeks to turn it around, this is the club.

At the bottom, Celtic (13), Crystal Palace (12) and Chelsea (12) are all in real trouble.

💛 Division 4 – Dortmund climb, Ajax in freefall

Borussia Dortmund moved up two places to lead Division 4 after a 1-0 home win over Leyton Orient (Crouch [22] on 9). Cardiff City drop to second after losing 2-0 at AS Monaco – late goals from Dijks [3] and Ferdinand [4] did the damage. Cardiff remain scary at home but their travelling form is letting them down.

Leeds United and Port Vale share third. Leeds beat York City 2-1 at home thanks to Carrillo [19] (55) and Batty [15] (81), with Júnior [17] having put York ahead just before the break. Port Vale lost a proper game 2-1 at home to Nottingham Forest – Hughes [6] opened early, Ducksch [19] and Gonçalves [21] turning it around either side of half time. AC Milan climbed two places into fifth with a 1-0 win over Newcastle United (Vidal [18] on 23).

⚠️ Ajax are in serious trouble on 10 points. A 0-0 home draw with Grimsby Town was their fifth stalemate of the campaign. One win at home all season.

Manchester City (14) and Nottingham Forest (15) are not far above them.

🔍 York City’s 160 disciplinary points are the worst in the division by a distance. No other Division 4 side has even reached 80 – and York are only a third of the way to matching them.

🏆 Supremos Cup – Last 16 coming up

Round 2 wrapped up this week and the draw for the Last 16 is set for Week 18. Eight ties, sixteen clubs still in it, with the winner banking £1,100,000 at the final. Pick of the round looks like Cambridge United v Chelsea and Nottingham Forest v Manchester United, though Bristol Rovers (given their league form) might just be quiet favourites to go all the way.

🔎 The wider league picture

A few league-wide numbers worth pulling out this week.

🔍 Huddersfield Town have the best attacking squad ratings in the entire league – yet sit sixth in Division 1. Brighton & Hove Albion come second on attacking ratings but are 11th in Division 2. The disconnect between squad quality and league position suggests both clubs could yet surge – or confirm that something else is going wrong.

Real Madrid draw the biggest home crowds in the league (78,880 average) despite being bottom of Division 1 – the Bernabéu faithful have not given up yet. Norwich City (78,738) and Tottenham Hotspur (73,285) complete the top three. At the other end, Manchester City’s travelling support averages 3,633 in Division 4 – the lowest in the league.

On discipline, York City’s 160 points in Division 4 is extraordinary – wildly out of line with the rest of the league. The worst side in Division 2 for cards (Salisbury, 100) is lower than the second-worst in Division 4. Walsall top Division 1 on 124 points, which might just be aggressive style rather than indiscipline.

👋 Community and rivalries

Four new managers joined the league this week – welcome to David Griffiths at Bristol Rovers, Andrew Burton at Grimsby Town, Mark Cowie at Celtic and gilbert burnett at Liverpool. Great to have you all on board.

Seven managers correctly called this week’s ten score draws and each bank £114,285. Congratulations to Peter Shuttleworth (Atletico Madrid), Nonno Coia (Cardiff City), Ady Lippiatt (Bayer Leverkusen), Simon Futcher (Salisbury), Loz Newbold (Athletic Bilbao), G.Haining (AC Milan) and Phil McCracken (Heart of Midlothian). Nice work folks.

💡 Arsenal, AC Milan and Portsmouth all hit the Rival Awareness milestone this week – the first stage of the rivalry system kicking in. One to keep an eye on as these develop towards the 200-point Official Rivalry threshold.