After the 'Big Three', Kaizer Chiefs, Orlando Pirates and Mamelodi Sundowns won their opening Betway Premiership encounters for the first time in five years, statistics show that the title race could go down to the wire.
It was the first time since the 2019/20 season that all of Chiefs, Pirates and Sundowns won their opening league matches, after Amakhosi edged Marumo Gallants 2-1, the Buccaneers also narrowly beat Chippa United 2-1 and The Brazilians beat SuperSport United 2-0 in matchday one.
Since the 2020/21 campaign, Masandawana have been too dominant, winning league titles by a landslide. However, with a seemingly instability of technical team changes at the Tshwane giants and judging by statistics, when all the big teams are firing, the 2024/25 Betway Premiership title race could be back to being a close contest.
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In the aforesaid 2019/20 season, Chiefs opened their campaign with a 3-2 win over Highlands Park, Pirates thrashed Bloemfontein Celtic 3-1 and Sundowns beat Matsatsantsa 2-0.
As a result of opening league victories in the 2019/20 season, Amakhosi finished second, the Buccaneers third, with The Brazilians winning the title by two points.
The other previous time Chiefs competed for the league title was in the 2014/15 campaign and after winning the opening game against Free State Stars, the Glamour Boys went on to claim the Premiership title.
Amakhosi also won their opening game in the 2013/14 season after edging Cape Town City 1-0 and finished second on the table, two points behind Sundowns, who won the title.
The Glamour Boys also after winning the 2012/13 title, they had opened their campaign with a 6-0 thrashing of AmaZulu.
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However, Pirates have not had a 100 percent correlation between opening their season with a victory and competing for the title, other than the 2019/20 season, as the last time they came close, in the 2018/19 campaign, where they finished second, two points behind champions Sundowns, they had opened their season with a draw against Highlands Park.
A season prior, Ezimnyama had also finished second on the table, after an opening league victory against Chippa gave them the momentum only for them to lose the title to Masandawana by three points.
