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One team that has fallen behind this season is Al-Ahli. Similar to the case with the three teams mentioned, they are also funded by the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund. And they have some big names in their squad (Roger Ibañez, Roberto Firmino, Édouard Mendy, Franck Kessié.etc). At the moment, they are trailing at the 8th position in points table, with teams like Al-Taawoun and Al-Qadsiah ahead of them. Anyway, the season just got started. We still have plenty of matches remaining.
I don't think they are behind, they are a team with a lot of money, but that doesn't represent their position in the standings. Therefore, this season we should only focus on Al-Hilal, Al-Ittihad & Al-Nassr. These are the only three teams that have shown their intentions in the Saudi Professional League title race.
The meaning of the word lagging behind above is that Al Ahli is currently experiencing a decline and their position in the standings is in the middle of the table, unlike last season where Al Ahli was involved in the competition with Al Nassr and Al Hilal, and yes, now we can forget about Al Ahli, they might have difficulty catching up because the distance between their points and the top three is currently quite far.