Another weekend of Premier League action and there isn’t much of a change at the top of the table. Arsenal recorded a 2-0 win against Fulham at home to retain their position atop the table even as Manchester City and Chelsea kept up the pressure on the Gunners with easy home wins. The latter notched an impressive 3-1 win against Manchester United at Stamford Bridge further deepening David Moyes’ woes. While Manchester City have, rightly, earned plaudits for their superb home form this season, Chelsea too have been mighty impressive at home this season. Barring the fortuitous draw against West Brom earlier in the season, they haven’t dropped a point at home, in the process preserving Jose Mourinho’s extraordinary home record.
Arsenal’s 2-0 win over Fulham gave them the Insurance at the topIn our Corresponding Fixtures Table, for the first time this season Arsenal moved into positive “Corresponding Points Difference” after their win in the London derby against Fulham. Arsenal’s performance in this game was further testament to their increasing maturity as they held out a resilient Fulham side and kept another clean sheet. Gunners fans will recall with dread last season’s 3-3 draw against Fulham- a game littered with defensive errors- which also saw Mikel Arteta miss a penalty with the final kick of the game. The fact that Arsenal have cut out most of these defensive mistakes is the sign of a maturing team intent on giving Chelsea and Manchester City a good run for their money.
Let us first look at the “Corresponding Home Fixtures Table” to see how teams are performing on their own turf vis-a-vis the last season. As has already been mentioned in this series of articles, for the purpose of uniformity we are comparing Hull City’s fixtures to Reading; Crystal Palace’s fixtures to QPR; and Cardiff City’s fixtures to Wigan.
|
Position |
Team | Corresponding Home Points Difference | Premier League Home Points | Number of games played |
|
1 |
Manchester City |
12 |
33 |
11 |
|
2 |
Chelsea |
12 |
31 |
11 |
|
3 |
Liverpool |
7 |
28 |
11 |
|
4 |
Hull City |
6 |
18 |
11 |
|
5 |
Crystal Palace |
4 |
14 |
11 |
|
6 |
Southampton |
3 |
18 |
11 |
|
7 |
Cardiff City |
3 |
11 |
12 |
|
8 |
Arsenal |
2 |
26 |
11 |
|
9 |
Stoke City |
2 |
17 |
11 |
|
10 |
Everton |
0 |
24 |
11 |
|
11 |
Newcastle United |
0 |
18 |
10 |
|
12 |
Sunderland |
0 |
8 |
11 |
|
13 |
Norwich City |
-2 |
15 |
11 |
|
14 |
Aston Villa |
-2 |
8 |
11 |
|
15 |
Fulham |
-3 |
10 |
11 |
|
16 |
Tottenham Hotspur |
-4 |
18 |
11 |
|
17 |
Swansea City |
-4 |
10 |
11 |
|
18 |
Manchester United |
-10 |
17 |
11 |
|
19 |
West Bromwich Albion |
-10 |
13 |
11 |
|
20 |
West Ham United |
-10 |
9 |
11 |
As we can see, of the top 3 sides both Manchester City and Chelsea have taken 12 points more from their corresponding home fixtures this season compared to last season. Arsenal are far behind but they too have improved their home record and have so far taken 2 points more from the same set of fixtures this season. Also notice the teams with the worst corresponding home points; West Ham United and West Brom are involved in a relegation battle while Manchester United continue to stumble from one defeat to another.
Interestingly, all the top 3 sides have taken less points in the Corresponding Away games this season when compared to last season as we can see from the Corresponding Away Fixtures table.
|
Position |
Team | Corresponding Away Points Difference | Premier League Away Points | Number of games played |
|
1 |
Newcastle United |
8 |
18 |
12 |
|
2 |
Southampton |
8 |
13 |
11 |
|
3 |
Tottenham Hotspur |
5 |
25 |
11 |
|
4 |
Everton |
4 |
18 |
11 |
|
5 |
Liverpool |
3 |
15 |
11 |
|
6 |
Fulham |
3 |
9 |
11 |
|
7 |
Hull City |
1 |
5 |
11 |
|
8 |
Aston Villa |
0 |
16 |
11 |
|
9 |
Swansea City |
0 |
11 |
11 |
|
10 |
West Ham United |
0 |
9 |
11 |
|
11 |
Norwich City |
0 |
8 |
11 |
|
12 |
Arsenal |
-1 |
25 |
11 |
|
13 |
Manchester City |
-2 |
17 |
11 |
|
14 |
Sunderland |
-2 |
10 |
11 |
|
15 |
West Bromwich Albion |
-2 |
9 |
11 |
|
16 |
Cardiff City |
-2 |
7 |
10 |
|
17 |
Crystal Palace |
-2 |
6 |
11 |
|
18 |
Stoke City |
-2 |
5 |
11 |
|
19 |
Manchester United |
-6 |
20 |
11 |
|
20 |
Chelsea |
-7 |
18 |
11 |
Chelsea are bottom of this table having taken 7 points less on their travels this season compared to the last season. Despite this, they are the 4th best away side in the league (18 points from 11 games). Arsenal and Manchester City too are in the negative with a difference of -1 and -2 respectively. However, Arsenal are the best away side in the league with 25 points from 11 games while Manchester City’s away form has seen an upswing after a wretched run of results earlier in the season.
Manchester United may be the 3rd best away side in the league(20 points from 11 games) but they are second from bottom when it comes to points difference. They also continue to prop up the table in terms of Corresponding Points difference with a difference of -16.
|
Teams |
Games Played |
Corresponding Points difference |
Premier League Points |
Premier League Positon |
Goal Difference |
|
Southampton |
22 |
11 |
31 |
9 |
4 |
|
Manchester City |
22 |
10 |
50 |
2 |
38 |
|
Liverpool |
22 |
10 |
43 |
4 |
25 |
|
Newcastle United |
22 |
8 |
36 |
8 |
4 |
|
Hull City |
22 |
7 |
23 |
11 |
-6 |
|
Chelsea |
22 |
5 |
49 |
3 |
23 |
|
Everton |
22 |
4 |
42 |
6 |
15 |
|
Crystal Palace |
22 |
2 |
20 |
16 |
-17 |
|
Arsenal |
22 |
1 |
51 |
1 |
24 |
|
Tottenham Hotspur |
22 |
1 |
43 |
5 |
3 |
|
Cardiff City |
22 |
1 |
18 |
20 |
-21 |
|
Stoke City |
22 |
0 |
22 |
14 |
-14 |
|
Fulham |
22 |
0 |
19 |
17 |
-26 |
|
Aston Villa |
22 |
-2 |
24 |
10 |
-7 |
|
Norwich City |
22 |
-2 |
23 |
12 |
-17 |
|
Sunderland |
22 |
-2 |
18 |
19 |
-15 |
|
Swansea City |
22 |
-4 |
21 |
15 |
-6 |
|
West Ham United |
22 |
-10 |
18 |
18 |
-11 |
|
West Bromwich Albion |
22 |
-12 |
22 |
13 |
-5 |
|
Manchester United |
22 |
-16 |
37 |
7 |
9 |
Goals Scored and Conceded in the Corresponding Fixtures
Now that we have looked at difference in points, let us look at some numbers to see if they can justify the narratives that each team have been imbued with so far this season. For instance, Arsenal have a defensive stability they have lacked for the past few seasons; Chelsea under Mourinho are less gung-ho and more robust defensively and Manchester City are an attacking tour de force .
Here we are looking at goals from the corresponding fixtures
| Team | Goals Scored (2012-13)(Home+Away) | Goals Scored (2013-14) (Home+Away) | Goals Conceded (2012-13) (Home+Away) | Goals Conceded (2013-14) (Home+Away) |
| Arsenal | (31+19) 50 | 43(20+23) | (14+5) 19 | 19(6+13) |
| Manchester City | (22+12) 34 | 63(42+21) | (11+8)19 | 25(8+17) |
| Chelsea | (24+23) 47 | 43(25+18) | (11+15) 26 | 20(9+11) |
These numbers make for interesting reading. While Arsenal’s defence has been hailed for its resolute performances, we can see that from the same set of fixtures last season Arsenal conceded the same number of goals(19) as this season. Also, they have scored less number of goals this season(43) when compared to last season(50). One aspect where they have improved tremendously is the number of goals conceded at home. Last season, from the same set of 11 games, Arsenal conceded 14 goals; this time around they have conceded only 6 goals. It must be said that their numbers are a bit skewed because of the freak 6-3 defeat at the Etihad this season and the 6-1, 5-2 wins against Southampton and Tottenham last season. Overall, Arsenal are producing more or less the same kind of numbers as last season.
Manchester City, clearly, have become a more free-scoring team as is evident from the fact that they have nearly doubled their goals tally from last season(34 to 63). They have so far scored 42 goals from 11 home games this season, an exponential jump from the 22 goals scored last season. While scoring 10 goals more in away fixtures this season, they have also conceded 9 goals more on their travels when compared to the last season.
As expected, Chelsea’s numbers show the defensive improvements they have made under Mourinho although they too are producing similar numbers to last season.
Stats are compiled by Chaitanya Gööner with the help from footballwebpages.co.uk