The defining week
Three games, three wins, and a first place in the table. Panathinaikos have 12 points from four rounds, a goal difference of +9, and the only blemish of the season so far is that 2–2 home draw with PAOK back on May 17, which now reads as a relic of a different team. The last four results are the argument: 0–2 at Levadiakos on Aug 31, 3–1 at home to PAOK on Sep 6, 3–1 against Kifisia on Sep 10, 3–0 against Panetolikos on Sep 13. Eleven goals scored, two conceded.
The margins are being closed
The 3–1 against PAOK was the one that mattered most. It was not just another win over a smaller side. It was a rival, a direct competitor for the title, and Panathinaikos beat them by two goals without ever looking stretched. The Kifisia and Panetolikos games were the professional kind: 3–1 and 3–0, no drama, no late rescue, no goal conceded in the last twenty minutes of either. When a team sharpens from a spring draw into four straight wins, the difference is control.
The trip to Nikaia
The club is treating the next fixture as a serious one. Yiannis Alafouzos leads the delegation for the away match at Kalamata, and roughly 100 supporters are travelling with the squad all the way to the Neapoli ground (1) (2). That is not standard practice for a fifth-round away game. Whoever wears the armband, the message from the top of the club reaches the dressing room anyway: the title race has started early, and there is no room for a slip on a Sunday afternoon in Nikaia.
What to watch
Kalamata away is the first test of whether this run holds in a hostile setting, and Alafouzos heading the delegation with 100 fans escorting the bus tells you the club knows exactly why (1) (2). Watch the opening half, not the final scoreline: the last four wins were all built on controlling the first forty-five minutes. Then the schedule tightens in October, and the real question is whether a squad this thin can keep scoring three a game. Jacob Neestrup has earned the right to answer it gradually.
