This season’s fight for the Premier League title is going to be one of the closest fought in the history of the EPL. At the moment, only four points separate the top five teams, and the first place position has changed many times. At the moment, it is Chelsea who leads the pack after going on a six-game winning streak without conceding a single goal. What makes it even more impressive is that they managed to turn things around so quickly after suffering a humiliating defeat to Arsenal 3-0. Since then, they have been playing like the team that won the title in 2014/15. The run they’re currently on has made them the favorites to be crowned champions with many of the best sport betting sites such as Totesport.

All of the teams fighting for the Premier League title have been inconsistent, and the one that manages to put together the longest winning run will be the favorites to win the title. Chelsea is the team currently in the best form in the league, but they have a number of matches coming up against the other title contenders. With the advantage of not playing European football this season, it will help them concentrate more on each EPL match, along with the players having enough energy to battle until the end of the campaign.

Before the season kicked off, many punters had written off Chelsea as genuine contenders to win the EPL. They were hugely disappointing last term under former manager Jose Mourinho, who got the sack before the campaign ended even though he had won them the title the year before.

During Chelsea’s title-winning campaign in the 2014/15 season, players such as Diego Costa, Nemanja Matic and Eden Hazard all played exceptionally well. The following season, they were all dreadful, which lead to many fans criticizing them. Under new manager Conte, however, they have turned it around and look like the world class stars they are capable of being. Costa, especially this season, has been outstanding and is the Premier League’s current leading goal scorer. Hazard, who was almost invisible last year, is now back to his best for both country and club.

Chelsea is the current leaders, with Liverpool their closest rivals at just a single point behind. The Christmas fixtures will play a huge part in which team will go into the new year as favorites to win the league.

Liverpool this season look like they have a genuine chance of claiming the title. Jurgen Klopp has finally put his stamp on the team, and they are playing the style of football the German manager demands. They have played exceptionally well against the big teams this campaign, with wins over Chelsea, Arsenal and last year’s winner Leicester City. They suffered a shock defeat at the start of the season against Burnley 2-0, but that is the only game that they have lost so far.

Liverpool managed to draw against the other title contenders, Manchester United, Southampton and Tottenham Hotspurs, which have given them the consistency needed to fight for the title. It makes the Christmas period a vital period in the season, as the team that manages to go on a run over the busy schedule will put them in prime position to win the Premiership crown.

How surreal would it be to go to your local Buffalo Wild Wings for some food and have Landon Donovan, the greatest male soccer player in U.S. history, stop you at the entrance and challenge you to a game of one-on-one?

Recently, at a Buffalo Wild Wings in Los Angeles, the above scenario played itself out. Would you have the guts to jump in the net and try to stop the all-time leader in goals and assists for both the U.S. Men’s National Team and MLS? The answer may not be so easy after you watch this video:

We had the opportunity to speak to Donovan about his experience making the video, hanging out with fans and life after retirement.

You teamed up with Buffalo Wild Wings on this video and it looked like a really cool, fun spot to produce. Tell us about it.

It was fun for me, and I think it was fun for the fans too. We set up shop right in front of the Buffalo Wild Wings in front of Sherman Oaks in L.A. I don’t think people really understood what was going on at first. We had a goal there and I was just juggling the ball, passing it around with people walking by. And then I walked over and said, “Does anyone want to try and get in goal and save some shots?” I don’t think people knew if I was for real or not. But then we got a couple people who were pretty brave and wanted to be the first ones, so they suited up, got in goal and I just got to unleash on them, and it was really fun.

Then we spent some time just hanging out, about an hour or two. I signed autographs, and then we invited everyone inside to watch the Mexico vs. Jamaica game. We had some beers and some wings and it was really fun. It was enjoyable for me – not something I would’ve probably ever enjoyed doing while I was playing and trying to focus on the next game – but now that I have time, it’s really fun to engage with people.

Did the fans expect you to kick the ball as hard as you are able to?

I don’t think they expected it. And there were a few particularly macho guys that were competitive, and I think they really believed they were going to get in there and stop some of the shots. I made sure for those in particular I focused a little more.

What was your overall conversion rate on the day? Like 80%?

Probably. I think 80% is probably right. Not bad for an old retired guy.

How many miles per hour can you kick a ball?

I think generally it is probably in the 70 MPH range or so. But I think the really strong guys can kick it in the 90s.

At this point, are you tired of soccer? How do you feel?

No, it’s different. When I was playing, believe it or not, I didn’t watch much. I would never go to games. Because you’re so involved in it, you just need time away from it to keep yourself sane. But now that I’ve been out of it for a year and a half, I’ve had time to appreciate it in a different kind of way. For the first year, I just got away and didn’t watch much soccer. But this has been my life, right? And so, I have all these relationships and friendships through this beautiful game. And it’s fun to be a part of it.

I think what sticks with me and resonates with me is I’ve constantly tried to grow this game. And just because I can’t kick the ball like I used to, I can still grow it in other ways. And it’s been enjoyable for me in other ways, and I think the fans, too. They actually get some time to spend with you and talk with you, get a glimpse inside your head to see what it was like, and I think people enjoy that.

In the video, there was a guy who mentioned that he never gets starstruck but that he was literally shaking because he got to meet you. That’s got to be a cool experience for you.

It’s really cool. And that guy and his fiancé in particular were really genuinely excited. I actually sat inside with them afterwards while we ate and drank and watched the game. They were such a nice couple. And it’s really cool for me because I think sometimes we forget, as athletes or as people in the public eye, how much influence we have.

I was thinking of him and put myself in his shoes. He was walking by that day to go to the gym with his fiancé, and they just happened to see us and he stopped. Within an hour, he was taking shots from me, and inside, eating Buffalo Wild Wings and drinking beer with me. That’s pretty cool to be able to do that and just hang out with people. It was a really successful day and a lot of fun.

Becky Sauerbrunn is a co-captain of the United States women’s national soccer team. She’s won an Olympic gold medal, a World Cup and is one of the best defenders in the world.

In this interview, we spoke to Becky about the upcoming Rio Olympics, what it feels like to win a gold medal, the process of making the U.S. women’s national team and her inclusion on Team Budweiser.

When Steven Gerrard signed for LA Galaxy it felt like a watershed moment for soccer in the United States.

Here was a man who had dedicated his life to one club in the Premier League, a player in the mould of Ryan Giggs or Paolo Maldini, choosing the MLS as the only place he would ply his trade away from his Liverpool heartland.

With fellow European heroes Frank Lampard and Andrea Pirlo moving Stateside during the same summer, the attention was firmly on this side of the Atlantic, and the smart money at football betting sites everywhere was on Gerrard catapulting Galaxy to success in the 2015 season.

Muted finale

But, by the time the final day of the season arrived and Gerrard lined up alongside Robbie Keane at CenturyLink Field against Seattle Sounders, the chance of securing silverware had long since slipped out of reach. A 3-2 defeat to the Sounders ensured Galaxy ended the season in mid-table, nine points behind Western Conference winners FC Dallas.

With the season over, Gerrard wasted little time in heading back across the pond to his native Liverpool, where he is spending the winter training with his former club. Since hitting home soil, the 35-year-old’s talk has been of next season being his last, and his mind seems to be more focused on what life will hold after he hangs up his boots rather than what he can achieve in a white jersey in 2016.

Galaxy fans must be scratching their heads and wondering where it all went wrong with Gerrard, who inspired Bruce Arena’s team to a four-game winning streak as recently as August. But those who have followed Gerrard’s career closely will understand that incorporating a player with his particular qualities into a new team is not always a straightforward task.

England underachiever

Since the turn of the century, successive managers of the England national team have tussled with the problem of trying to accommodate Gerrard into a winning team, with little success.

Despite being blessed with perhaps the most talented generation of English midfielders in history, even astute coaches like Kevin Keegan and Sven Goran Eriksson couldn’t make Gerrard the linchpin of a winning team. Followers of the Three Lions saw Gerrard paired with central midfield partners of the very highest calibre, Lampard, Paul Scholes, David Beckham and Gareth Barry. But time and time again England disappointed at major tournaments and in international friendlies.

Meanwhile, at club level, Liverpool managers spent the better part of 17 years building teams around Gerrard, and though the trophies came flooding home in the cup competitions, the Reds couldn’t sustain a title challenge in the Premier League.

Final fling

Many have pondered the Gerrard puzzle and tried to ascertain why this remarkably talented star didn’t quite hit the heights of success expected of him in his career.

The best guesses seem to point towards a lack of positional discipline in his pomp; Gerrard would maraud around the field as he saw fit, making scything, precision tackles, spraying raking cross-field passes, and thundering the ball into the net from all angles.

But when it came to fitting into a game plan that didn’t permit him the freedom to do as he pleased, and again when his ageing legs ceased to give him the right to roam every inch of the field, soccer found in Gerrard something of a misfit.

Sadly for the MLS, Gerrard is struggling to come to terms with the limitations that all players must come face-to-face with towards the end of their careers. If next season is to be his final fling, perhaps he will throw caution to the wind and play with the unbridled freedom and passion that made him one of football’s world stars.

With the sights and sounds of the summer’s World Cup in Brazil now just a distant memory, the focus has switched to the upcoming Premier League kick-off next month. With the likes of Manchester City, Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool all looking set to be in the race for this season’s title, we could be about to witness the most exciting Premier League campaign in recent years.

Despite winning the league in two of the past three seasons, Manchester City won’t be starting the new campaign as the favourites. Head to the Unibet iPad App and it’s Chelsea who are the narrow favourites for the title ahead of defending champions City.

After his first season back at Chelsea, everyone’s dream uncle Jose Mourinho has been tipped by many to be the man who brings the title back to London. The signings of Cesc Fabregas and Diego Costa have reminded the division that Chelsea are still serious players despite City’s current mantle as the Premier League’s big boys.

While Arsenal and Liverpool both had moments last season when it looked as though the title was theirs for the taking, neither club are being backed to be in genuine contention this year. In Liverpool’s case it’s unsurprising, coming after Luis Suarez’s move to Barcelona, which left the club without the man who has been key to their return to the top four in recent years.

Arsenal, however, are heading into the season with their tails well and truly in the air following the signing of Chile star Alexis Sanchez. The forward arrives at the Emirates on the back of an impressive World Cup showing and Gooners won’t mind the fact that many football pundits have already written off their chances this year.

It seems odd to talk about Manchester United being possible dark horses, but after last season’s dismal 7th place finish, many could be forgiven for thinking it will take another couple of years before the club manage to get back to where they were before their slump. The arrival of Dutchman Louis van Gaal, as well as a host of exciting signings, has led to a growing number of betting fans believing United could bounce back from last season by reclaiming the title this year.