It’s been three weeks since we looked at our Corresponding Fixtures Table and not much has changed since then. In fact, due to cup commitments there are many teams who have a backlog of fixtures in the Premier League.
Manchester City, crowned league cup champions a couple of Sundays ago and knocked out of the league cup this Sunday, have 3 games in hand over Chelsea, who have established a 7 point lead at the top of the table- courtesy a 4-0 win against Tottenham at Stamford Bridge. Arsenal too have a game in hand even as they moved into the semi finals of the FA Cup with an impressive 4-1 win against Everton. Liverpool did not see any action this weekend having been knocked out of the FA Cup in the Round of 16. They too have a game in hand over Chelsea.
What this means is that the Corresponding Fixtures table does not have as uniform a look as the previous weeks. Some teams have played 29 games; some 28, some 27; Manchester City and Sunderland have played only 26 games. Here is the current “Corresponding Fixtures Table” after Gameweek 29.
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.
Liverpool continue to lead the table by an extremely impressive margin. Their 3-0 win at Southampton means they have now achieved 20 points more this season from the same set of corresponding fixtures. The win at St.Mary’s once again showcased Liverpool’s strength in attack. And as if to reinforce Liverpool’s mental strength and tactical flexibility of Brendan Rodgers, it was not as easy a win as the scoreline suggests.
Despite taking a lead early in the first half, Liverpool were under the severe pressure for most of the first 45 minutes as Southampton laid siege to their goal. But Liverpool weathered the storm and produced a much more balanced performance in the second half as the introduction of Raheem Sterling meant they were a potent threat on the counter attack. A win at Southampton is not the easiest of tasks as Manchester City and Arsenal have found out this season. Last season, the Merseysiders lost here and they lost to them at Anfield earlier in the season.
It is time to take Liverpool as genuine title contenders although a Champions League place was their primary aim at the start of the season. They look well-placed to achieve that and probably more The improvement in Liverpool’s attack this season is quite staggering. The table below shows the number of goals scored this season and the previous season in the corresponding fixtures for Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester City.
|
Teams(Week 29) |
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(28) |
55(33+22) |
52(30+22) |
21(15+6) |
28(7+21) |
|
Manchester City(26) |
41(27+14) |
69(43+26) |
21(11+10) |
27(9+18) |
|
Chelsea |
59(32+27) |
56(33+23) |
33(14+19) |
22(9+13) |
|
Liverpool(28) |
44(33+11) |
73(42+31) |
34(12+22) |
35(12+23) |
The numbers in the bracket indicate the number of games played.
As we can see, Liverpool have scored 73 goals this season from the same set of fixtures as compared to the 44 they scored last season. That is a staggering improvement by any standard and also emphasizes how lethal Suarez and Sturridge have been as a strike partnership. They have also surpassed Manchester City as the highest scoring team in the league with 73 goals from 28 games; City have 69 from 26 games and have not been scoring as freely as they did for most of the first half of the season.
Especially impressive from Liverpool’s point of view is the number of goals they have scored away from home. In 14 away games they have played this season, they have scored 31 goals-making them the most prolific away side in terms of goal scoring; from the same set of fixtures last season they scored only 11. The only cause of concern is the number of goals they’ve conceded so far. Of all the current top 4 sides, they have conceded the highest number of goals. But with such an attacking force at his disposal, Brendan Rodgers would be slightly less worried about his defence.
Stats are compiled by Chaitanya Gööner with the help from footballwebpages.co.uk