Things are looking really positive for Fenerbahce and their fans. After spending a club-record fee of £30 million on Matteo Guendouzi, as well as acquiring Samsunspor winger Anthony Musaba, they defeated Galatasaray in the Super Cup final on January 10th to lift their first trophy since 2023.
On Saturday, they would have also enjoyed watching their Istanbul rivals drop points in a 1-1 draw at home to Gaziantep.
With Victor Osimhen and Ismail Jakobs just returning from AFCON duty and the team really suffering with fatigue and injury problems, there have been increasing question marks over Galatasaray. Despite spending huge sums of money in the summer, their squad depth is extremely limited, and they feel very stretched at the moment.
Fans have been unhappy with the fact that the team feels very much like Osimhen or bust, and that was made clear on the weekend.
It was a pretty toothless display that was devoid of ideas and creativity, and after Gaziantep took the lead in the second half, it looked like Galatasaray were set to suffer just their second defeat of the season.
However, Baris Alper Yilmaz thumped home at the back post from a long throw with minutes to go of normal time, ensuring that they left with a point. A disappointing result, and it won't do much to ease the fears and frustrations of the fans.
Galatasaray are looking to bolster their squad this January to plug some of the holes, and are reportedly close to signing Napoli winger Noa Lang, as well as being in talks with Atletico Madrid for midfielder Thiago Almada.
So Fenerbahce had the opportunity to trim the lead to Galatasaray down to just a single point, and they did just that, claiming a hard-fought 3-2 victory at Alanyaspor.
Fenerbahce produced a really poor first half, going into the interval 2-1 down and, in truth, lucky not to be more goals behind.
But new signing Musaba made it 2-2 just after half time, and with around 10 minutes to go, Anderson Talisca bagged his second of the game to give Fenerbahce the win they needed.
Talisca has often been used as a number nine under Domenico Tedesco, and he has done the job magnificently. With 11 Super Lig goals this season, only Istanbul Basaksehir forward Eldor Shomurodov has more (13).
In his last five starts, he has nine goals and an assist, and seems to be forging a really strong partnership with Marco Asensio.
The team feels in a really good place, and the vibes are very positive. They remain active in the transfer market and are in talks with Al Ittihad to sign French midfielder N'Golo Kante.
They are doing absolutely everything they can to win the league for the first time in 12 years, and they will be feeling confident at the moment.
Late drama
Trabzonspor are unlikely to win the Super Lig despite the strong season they are enjoying, but they ensured that they remained just about in the title race as the in-form Ernest Muci scored a stoppage-time winner to down Kocaelispor 2-1.
The Albanian number 10 has netted in six consecutive Super Lig games, hitting the back of the net eight times in the process.
Meanwhile, while Besiktas remain a mixed bag, their form has gradually improved over the last couple of months. A 95th-minute winner from El Bilal Toure saw them win 1-0 against Kayserispor, meaning they are nine games unbeaten in all competitions now.
During that run, they impressively beat Fenerbahce in the Turkish Cup and were on course to beat Trabzonspor away in the league, had Toure not been unfortunately sent off, with the game ending in a draw instead.
They remain on the outskirts of the European spots, three points behind fourth-place Goztepe.
Team of the Week
Besiktas's Orkun Kokcu is the Flashscore Player of the Week, according to our very own internal ratings system, after a superb midfield performance from the Turk.
Orkun ran the show for the hosts, having a game-high number of touches (130), accurate passes (90), accurate passes in the final third (48), and total shots (8).
He is joined by teammates Emirhan Topcu, Gokhan Sazdagi and Toure, while Galatasaray's Baris and Fenerbahce's Talisca also make the starting XI.