ISL Musings: East Bengal make it seven-team title race; Nemil's importance for Goa as BFC and Mumbai stall

Only one team have remained unbeaten across the last five fixtures, and that's East Bengal. After a stutter mid-season, Oscar Bruzon's men have rediscovered their early season form and are smashing in goals for fun again (their 25 goals in 9 matches is six more than the next highest - Mohun Bagan) and Odisha stood no chance. A 3-0 win, yet another Youssef Ezzejjari brace and East Bengal have pulled up to within two points of their great rivals (same games played).

If they maintain this form, and Bagan maintain theirs... that May 17 derby could be the most important we've seen in quite a while.

Confusion over the last round of fixtures

What makes the end-of-season clashes so interesting isn't just the fact that the title race is so close, it's that you could get a chance to play in the ACL 2 with even a third place finish. Mohun Bagan are banned from Asian competition, FC Goa already have their slot sealed... which means a shot at Asian glory and all that it entails is very much up for grabs.

With so much at stake, so much potential drama in store, wouldn't it be wonderful if fans could book their tickets, block their schedules and put everything aside to watch their club's last match? If your answer is "of course", clearly you don't work at the All India Football Federation.

Look up the fixtures on the official ISL site and you'll see the last fixture is the Kolkata derby (the boro match) on May 17 - at the end of which every team would have played 12 matches. The only problem is that for the season to end, you would assume every team has to play every other team once... and that means every team needs to play 13.

When then, will they play this potential last round of fixtures? (They were originally scheduled for May 17, by the by). As we write this, even the clubs aren't sure... and that tells you everything you need to know about ISL 2025-26.

P.S. The Indian national team will be in action May 26 onwards at the Unity Cup in London. And we all know how they like a pre-tournament national camp...

What else happened?

Mohammed Sanan lit it up for Jamshedpur FC vs Chennaiyin (is there a more exciting player in India right now?) while homegrown youngster Prakadeswaran's stunner should give Chennaiyin hope for next season (this season is done for them, and then some).

The Blasters are turning into a force to reckon with under Westwood, but their off-field management vs fans issue remains the biggest talking point.

Mohammedan are showing stellar fighting spirit in what's been an awfully hard season for them: their 2-2 draw at SC Delhi means they've now got three points on the trot.

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