During a good part of the season, newly promoted Chaves was the one of the hottest spots of the entire league. Having returned to top flight almost two decades after their last appearance amongst the best teams of the country, Chaves was expected to struggle during the season but, from early on, Flavienses showed to have much more in them than just a relegation contender. Jorge Simão’s very well craft defensive tactics and attacking effectiveness led Chaves to hold a very respectful 7th position by the 13th round. That was when Braga hired Simão, and forced Chaves to look for another man. Ricardo Soares assumed the position, and the team continued their good scores. In fact, there was a slight improvement, even, with Chaves reaching the European spots around January. Former coach Jorge Simão took three players to Braga (full-back Paulinho and midfielders Battaglia and Assis), while Freire moved to Asia in the winter transfer window, but Chaves managed to replace them quite well with the arrivals of Pedro Tiba and Bressan to the midfield, and Nuno André Coelho and Massaia to defence. It was only after the 22nd round that the team started to give in, when basically relegation was practically formally avoided, and some injury problems exposed the lack of depth in the squad, especially in the midfield.
Cape-Verdian Carlos Ponck was successfully adapted to the centre of defence after some severe injuries of Felipe Lopes and his habitual replacement Fábio Santos, and was arguably one of the spotlights of the season for Transmontanos. Experienced Bruno Braga and winger/forward Perdigão were important attacking men, but the most influential member of the squad has to be Fábio Martins. The winger on loan from Braga had an exceptional season and was Chaves’ main source of creative moments in the last third, unblocking opponent’s defences.
