Orlando Pirates are beginning to show the form they were expected to have from the start of the season but is it already too late to challenge Mamelodi Sundowns, even if they maintain their current 80% win rate?
The Buccaneers have won four out of their last five league matches and have kept five consecutive clean sheets, a form they were expected to produce at the beginning of the season, to challenge Sundowns.
Pirates have 17 matches remaining while Sundowns still have to play 19 matches and if the Buccaneers maintain a win rate of 80% until the end of the season, that could put them around 62 points at the end of the campaign.
However, that figure may no longer be enough to make a title challenge against the Brazilians, who have had a better start than last season (with a 100% win rate), where they posted 70 points at the end of the campaign.
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Under normal circumstances, 62 points would be enough to challenge for the league title but Sundowns have raised the bar higher.
The Sea Robbers' have seemingly once again succumbed to being unable to manage the period around the MTN8 tournament at the beginning of the season, as they dropped points in three successive matches after winning the cup and also lost a league game against Sundowns before the MTN8 final.
The Brazilians have won the MTN8 trophy only once under the current sponsors and not winning the top eight trophy has allowed them to have a better run in the early stages of the seasons, with six consecutive league titles.
Not starting the league campaign strongly has become an Achilles heel for Pirates, who had a similar hiccups after winning the MTN8 last season, before finishing the second round of the season on a higher note.
The Buccaneers head coach Jose Riveiro admitted that they are in a good moment and he's happy that the good performances are accompanied by good results after their win over TS Galaxy.
"Important three points, we consolidate with this victory, good moment of the team in terms of performances and finally, not only performances, also good results," Riveiro told reporters.
"So I'm really happy for the boys because it's not happening for free, they are fighting a lot and now we're getting a little bit of reward," he added.