The real winners of the Israel football week were no doubt Hapoel Beer Sheva and Hapoel Tel Aviv.

Beer Sheva opened up a 6-point lead over Beitar Jerusalem atop the table after downing Ashdod at the port city, while Hapoel moved into third place with a win against Hapoel Jerusalem at Bloomfield Stadium which puts them 1-point ahead of their arch rivals Maccabi Tel Aviv.

As shocking as it reads, it’s true. The reds are in front of the yellow-and-blue on the table after Matchday 23 as the Hapoel Tel Aviv fans look down on Maccabi instead of up which had been the standard for years on end.

Hapoel Tel Aviv under Elyaniv Barda have looked very good all season long. They are invincible at home and are improving away from the friendly confines of Bloomfield as the season continues on. While they were dominant against Hapoel Jerusalem who are deep into the relegation battle, they are going to battle it out with Maccabi and perhaps Beitar all the way through the end of the Championship Playoffs.

If you think about it for a minute, Hapoel could actually be ahead of Maccabi by 7 points on the table then been able to win the abandoned derby when the reds fans lobbed flares and smoke bombs onto the Bloomfield pitch and they not only could not earn any points. The yellow-and-blue were rightfully given a technical 3-0 victory and snatched the points, but this was a massive lost opportunity for Barda and his club as his own supporters did their own in with an act of stupidity. Add the other two points that were deducted by the Israel Football Association court and they would be a whopping 9-points ahead of Maccabi, that’s absolutely incredible.

Let’s be honest, Hapoel has been the better team of the two Tel Aviv squads and they’ve also been much more exciting. Barda has his side playing some fantastic and thrilling football and now that arguable their most important player in Stav Turiel is back, the sky’s the limit. Maccabi on the other hand, made a coaching change last month and while Ronny Deila had a good run to start of his time with the yellow-and-blue, he came up short, actually extremely short in their clash at Beitar Jerusalem in the capital city.

Deila had done a nice job in the side’s first few games, but it should also be noted that the wins came against shall we say lower profile opponents and not the heavyweights of Israeli football in Kiryat Shemona, Bnei Reineh and Yaffo as they outscored the trio to the tune of 13-1(!).

However, up against a slumping and struggling Beitar Jerusalem, Maccabi looked as if they went back to their old ways when Zarko Lazetic coached them for the vast majority of this season. Tentative and closed up football, not being able to set up any type of offensive structure as well as being able to build up their attack from the back.

While the game ended in a goalless draw as both sides took home a point for their efforts, Barak Itzhaki’s team played extremely well and just couldn’t finish off what seemed to be one of their million chances. He also commented that it was his team, Beitar that was able to close down Maccabi and not just Maccabi having issues and not being able to play to close to their potential. That’s very true as his midfield trio were able to stop their transition and forced them to play long balls which weren’t for the most part very successful.

Adi Yona had multiple opportunities as did Yarden Shua and the club’s new striker Gonzalez. Even Maccabi’s Kristijan Belic admitted that Beitar deserved to take the victory in what was the yellow-and-black’s 5th straight match across all competitions that they remained winless.

The draw allowed Hapoel Beer Sheva to move 6-points ahead of Beitar and in reality, with a better goal differential that currently stands at 8, it’s really more than a half a dozen points that Itzhaki’s team needs in order to overtake the southerners.

Ron Kozuk’s team went into one of the most difficult pitches in the country at the Yud Alef Stadium in Ashdod and accomplished what many others haven’t been able to which is to take the maximum points. Beitar drew there recently and many other teams have dropped points at the port city so it would not have been a huge surprise had Beer Sheva dropped a couple of points. But they didn’t and extended their lead.

While Beitar spent a few weeks in first place last month, that seems like eons ago at this point as all they want to do is get back onto the winning track while Beer Sheva has made their statement that they are in fact the better team. They’ve beaten Beitar twice, they took a home win over Maccabi in their first meeting with the second match of the regular season coming up on Matchday 26 and they split the two encounters against Hapoel Tel Aviv. Add to that a win and a draw against Maccabi Haifa and there is a reason why there are in first place.

Beitar on the other hand split with Hapoel Tel Aviv, won and drew against both Maccabi Tel Aviv and Maccabi Haifa while they were swept against Beer Sheva as mentioned above. Maccabi Tel Aviv haven’t beaten any of the top three teams on the field of play and that says a tremendous amount about their season.

Deila isn’t interested in looking too far ahead to see if his team is in the title race and stated that with five games left he’ll discuss whether the championship is a real goal or not. He understands that 11 points from Beer Sheva is a lot and his focus is going to be just on winning games from here on in. While they can cut down the lead to Beer Sheva in the 3 matches the sides have left between them and that there are plenty of points, 39 that are still left in the pot, Deila has other teams along the way that he needs to make sure his side focuses on with Ashdod being the next in line.

But it’s becoming clearer by the day that Beer Sheva is at the head of the class and that it’s going to take a miraculous effort from Maccabi Tel Aviv to be in the title hunt. They have the most firepower and are a contender season in and season out for the championship. That is experience that one can’t just go and buy, it’s earned over time.

Beitar as Itzhaki has said is in building mode and that they will be challenging for the championship but in all honesty Beer Sheva is the superior team and did take both meetings between the two. The yellow-and-black will no doubt cause some issues for Beer Sheva in the playoffs but they would be in a much better place if Omer Atzily was not out injured. His unavailability has been one of the key reasons that they have been in this five game winless slump and for a team to have to rely on one single player which is not the case at Beer Sheva, well that’s a pretty big ask.

Finally, Hapoel Tel Aviv will probably not be in the race until the end, but how could anyone expect them to be after just having earned promotion with this being their first year back up in the top division. However, they will be a big player in the championship playoffs and could very well play kingmakers and spoilers. That’s an extremely good accomplishment for a club that is also in the process of building from the ground up back in the Premier League.

The future is bright and there could still very well be some surprises in store as all of the teams will play one another twice in the postseason. It’s been a terrific season thus far and there is no reason to think that this will not continue through the end of the campaign.