Another cracking weekend of Premier League action, and its very, very tight at the top of the table. With Manchester City trouncing Arsenal 6-3 at home, the Gunners’ lead at the top of the table has been cut to two points. Meanwhile, Liverpool moved to 2nd position on the back of a brilliant 5-0 win at White Hart Lane against Tottenham, which proved to be the final straw that broke the camel’s back as Tottenham decided to dispense with Andre Villas Boas’ services. This is AVB’s second sacking in English football and it would be better for him to gain some managerial experience in Portugal before he dips his fingers into the managerial waters of Europe’s top leagues.
Also sacked this weekend was West Brom’s head coach, Steve Clark, following a 1-0 defeat at Cardiff. While West Brom’s form has been very poor- they have taken 2 points from their last 6 games, the lowest in the league- the dismissal would still be hard to take for Clark, whose work last season guided WBA to 8th place.
Let us now look at our Corresponding Fixtures Table after Week 16. As has already been mentioned in this series of articles, for the sake of uniformity we are comparing Hull City’s fixtures to Reading; Crystal Palace’s fixtures to QPR; and Cardiff City’s fixtures to Wigan. And this is how our corresponding fixtures table looks like 16 weeks into the Premier League season.
|
Teams |
Games Played |
Corresponding Points difference |
Premier League Points |
Premier League Positon |
Goal Difference |
|
Liverpool |
16 |
9 |
33 |
2 |
21 |
|
Southampton |
16 |
9 |
24 |
9 |
5 |
|
Aston Villa |
16 |
9 |
19 |
11 |
-5 |
|
Newcastle United |
16 |
7 |
27 |
6 |
-1 |
|
Manchester City |
16 |
6 |
32 |
4 |
29 |
|
Hull City |
16 |
5 |
19 |
12 |
-6 |
|
Everton |
16 |
4 |
31 |
5 |
12 |
|
Stoke City |
16 |
4 |
18 |
13 |
-5 |
|
Cardiff City |
16 |
4 |
17 |
15 |
-10 |
|
Norwich City |
16 |
3 |
18 |
14 |
-14 |
|
Chelsea |
16 |
0 |
33 |
3 |
14 |
|
Fulham |
16 |
0 |
13 |
19 |
-15 |
|
Tottenham Hotspur |
16 |
-1 |
27 |
7 |
-6 |
|
Sunderland |
16 |
-3 |
9 |
20 |
-18 |
|
Arsenal |
16 |
-4 |
35 |
1 |
16 |
|
Swansea City |
16 |
-4 |
20 |
10 |
1 |
|
Crystal Palace |
16 |
-4 |
13 |
18 |
-13 |
|
West Bromwich Albion |
16 |
-8 |
15 |
16 |
-5 |
|
West Ham United |
16 |
-10 |
14 |
17 |
-6 |
|
Manchester United |
16 |
-16 |
25 |
8 |
6 |
Liverpool on top
Liverpool have moved to the top of the table on the back of their fantastic 5-0 away win at White Hart Lane. Luis Suarez was, once again, the star of the show as he bagged a brace and tortured the Tottenham defence with his off-the-ball movement. In hindsight, Liverpool’s decision to stick to their guns and not sell Suarez looks like the best transfer decision of the season.
In fact, Liverpool’s improvement over the past 12 months- especially as an attacking force- has been tremendous and Rodgers must be credited with instilling an attacking philosophy at the club. The numbers bear testament to this: In the calendar year 2013, Liverpool have scored the most number of goals- 79- followed by the free scoring Manchester City who have scored 75. While some of the signings haven’t paid off, Coutinho and Sturridge have added a lot of incision to the attack and a top four finish- if not a sustained title run- is a definite possibility.
Their home form too has improved tremendously, as we can see in our Corresponding Home Fixtures table.
|
Position |
Team | Corresponding Home Points | Premier League Home Points | Number of games played |
|
1 |
Manchester City |
10 |
24 |
8 |
|
2 |
Chelsea |
7 |
22 |
8 |
|
3 |
Liverpool |
7 |
21 |
8 |
|
4 |
Cardiff City |
6 |
10 |
8 |
|
5 |
Hull City |
5 |
15 |
8 |
|
6 |
Aston Villa |
4 |
7 |
8 |
|
7 |
Southampton |
3 |
15 |
8 |
|
8 |
Stoke City |
2 |
13 |
8 |
|
9 |
Norwich City |
2 |
12 |
8 |
|
10 |
Everton |
1 |
18 |
8 |
|
11 |
Crystal Palace |
1 |
10 |
8 |
|
12 |
Newcastle United |
0 |
15 |
8 |
|
13 |
Sunderland |
0 |
6 |
8 |
|
14 |
Arsenal |
-1 |
19 |
8 |
|
15 |
Swansea City |
-3 |
10 |
8 |
|
16 |
Fulham |
-3 |
7 |
8 |
|
17 |
Tottenham Hotspur |
-6 |
11 |
8 |
|
18 |
West Ham United |
-7 |
8 |
8 |
|
19 |
West Bromwich Albion |
-8 |
8 |
8 |
|
20 |
Manchester United |
-10 |
11 |
8 |
AVB and Clarke pay for their home form?
While Rodgers has overseen an improvement in both home and away performances, it is fair to say that both the managers sacked this week-AVB and Steve Clark- paid for their teams’ performances at home.
The table above illustrates the point.
Steve Clark who guided West Brom to their highest ever finish of 8th last season found the going tough this time-especially at The Hawthorns. From the 8 Premier League games played at home, WBA have taken 8 points; from the corresponding games last season they took 16 points.
Tottenham too have been distinctly average at home this season. They have taken 11 points from 8 home games this season; from the same set of fixtures last season they took 17 points. Ironically, Tottenham are the second best away team in the league with 16 points from 8 games. North London rivals Arsenal are above them only on goal difference. In terms of home performances, they languish in 13th place– unacceptable for a team with Top 4 ambitions. In fact, from the last 6 games at home, they have taken only 5 points, scoring 4 goals and conceding 12 in the process. That tally of 5 points and a goal difference of -8 makes them the worst home side in terms of current form.
Corresponding Away Fixtures Table
|
Position |
Team | Corresponding Away Points | Premier League Away Points | Number of games played |
|
1 |
Newcastle United |
7 |
12 |
8 |
|
2 |
Southampton |
6 |
9 |
8 |
|
3 |
Tottenham Hotspur |
5 |
16 |
8 |
|
4 |
Aston Villa |
5 |
12 |
8 |
|
5 |
Everton |
3 |
13 |
8 |
|
6 |
Fulham |
3 |
6 |
8 |
|
7 |
Liverpool |
2 |
12 |
8 |
|
8 |
Stoke City |
2 |
5 |
8 |
|
9 |
Norwich City |
1 |
6 |
8 |
|
10 |
West Bromwich Albion |
0 |
7 |
8 |
|
11 |
Hull City |
0 |
4 |
8 |
|
12 |
Swansea City |
-1 |
10 |
8 |
|
13 |
Cardiff City |
-2 |
7 |
8 |
|
14 |
Arsenal |
-3 |
16 |
8 |
|
15 |
West Ham United |
-3 |
6 |
8 |
|
16 |
Sunderland |
-3 |
3 |
8 |
|
17 |
Manchester City |
-4 |
8 |
8 |
|
18 |
Crystal Palace |
-5 |
3 |
8 |
|
19 |
Manchester United |
-6 |
14 |
8 |
|
20 |
Chelsea |
-7 |
11 |
8 |
All the stats are compiled by Chaitanya Gööner with the help from footballwebpages.co.uk