Another exciting weekend of Premier League action which saw all the top 7 sides win, resulted in no change at the top of the league. The top position changed hands on every match day this weekend with Chelsea’s win at home on Saturday taking them to the top before Manchester City’s win (somewhat controversial) at Sports Direct Arena saw them go top. Arsenal duly restored their position on Monday night with a 2-1 win at Villa Park. It’s incredibly tight at the top with Arsenal, Manchester City and Chelsea separated by a point each.
It’s equally fascinating at the bottom of the pile as teams try to escape the dreaded relegation zone. This weekend saw some fascinating relegation 6-pointers the results of which could yet prove pivotal come the business end of the season. In fact, the Premier League table looks like two different tables with 9th placed Southampton-on 30 points- and 10th Placed Hull City (on 23 points) separated by 7 points who in turn are just 5 points off the relegation zone. As of now, 11 teams seem to be in the relegation scrap.
Let us now look at our Corresponding Fixtures Table and see how teams are faring with respect to last season. We will focus on relegation-threatened teams specifically. 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.
|
Teams |
Games Played |
Corresponding Points difference |
Premier League Points |
Premier League Positon |
Goal Difference |
|
Southampton |
21 |
11 |
30 |
9 |
4 |
|
Manchester City |
21 |
10 |
47 |
2 |
36 |
|
Liverpool |
21 |
10 |
42 |
4 |
25 |
|
Hull City |
21 |
7 |
23 |
10 |
-5 |
|
Newcastle United |
21 |
6 |
33 |
8 |
2 |
|
Everton |
21 |
3 |
41 |
5 |
15 |
|
Stoke City |
21 |
3 |
22 |
12 |
-13 |
|
Chelsea |
21 |
2 |
46 |
3 |
21 |
|
Tottenham Hotspur |
21 |
1 |
40 |
6 |
1 |
|
Fulham |
21 |
1 |
19 |
16 |
-24 |
|
Cardiff City |
21 |
1 |
18 |
18 |
-19 |
|
Aston Villa |
21 |
0 |
23 |
11 |
-7 |
|
Arsenal |
21 |
-1 |
48 |
1 |
22 |
|
Crystal Palace |
21 |
-1 |
17 |
20 |
-18 |
|
Norwich City |
21 |
-2 |
20 |
15 |
-18 |
|
Sunderland |
21 |
-2 |
17 |
19 |
-15 |
|
Swansea City |
21 |
-4 |
21 |
13 |
-4 |
|
West Ham United |
21 |
-9 |
18 |
17 |
-9 |
|
West Bromwich Albion |
21 |
-10 |
21 |
14 |
-5 |
|
Manchester United |
21 |
-13 |
37 |
7 |
11 |
Southampton have returned to the top of the table after the latest round of games. Their win at home against WestBrom means that they have taken the maximum possible points (6) against the Baggies this season. Last season, Southampton lost both their home and away games against them. WestBrom, as we can see from the table, are in deep trouble. Their Corresponding Points difference of -10 is the second lowest in the league and it remains to be seen if they can turnaround their form under new head coach Pepe Mel. Having won only 1 game of their last 6 they need to effect a quick turnaround if they are to stay away from the relegation dogfight.
Most of their problems stem from their poor home form this season. While they have the 12th best home record in the Premier League- which seems about par-a look at the Corresponding Home Fixtures difference paints a more sombre picture. Compared to last season, WestBrom have taken 8 points less(12 from 10 home games) this season from the same set of fixtures. On the road, they have taken only 2 points less(9 from 11 away games). It goes without saying that they need to improve their home record. Here’s the Corresponding Home Fixtures Table and the Corresponding Away Fixtures Table respectively.
Corresponding Home Fixtures Table
|
Position |
Team | Corresponding Home Points Difference | Premier League Home Points | Number of games played |
|
1 |
Manchester City |
12 |
30 |
10 |
|
2 |
Chelsea |
9 |
28 |
10 |
|
3 |
Liverpool |
7 |
27 |
10 |
|
4 |
Hull City |
6 |
18 |
11 |
|
5 |
Southampton |
3 |
18 |
11 |
|
6 |
Cardiff City |
3 |
11 |
12 |
|
7 |
Stoke City |
2 |
17 |
11 |
|
8 |
Crystal Palace |
1 |
11 |
10 |
|
9 |
Everton |
0 |
24 |
11 |
|
10 |
Arsenal |
0 |
23 |
10 |
|
11 |
Newcastle United |
0 |
18 |
10 |
|
12 |
Sunderland |
0 |
7 |
10 |
|
13 |
Norwich City |
-2 |
12 |
10 |
|
14 |
Aston Villa |
-2 |
8 |
11 |
|
15 |
Fulham |
-3 |
10 |
11 |
|
16 |
Tottenham Hotspur |
-4 |
18 |
11 |
|
17 |
Swansea City |
-4 |
10 |
10 |
|
18 |
West Bromwich Albion |
-8 |
12 |
10 |
|
19 |
West Ham United |
-9 |
9 |
10 |
|
20 |
Manchester United |
-10 |
17 |
11 |
Corresponding Away Fixtures Table
|
Position |
Team |
Corresponding Away Points Difference |
Premier League Away Points |
Number of games played |
|
1 |
Southampton |
8 |
12 |
10 |
|
2 |
Newcastle United |
6 |
15 |
11 |
|
3 |
Tottenham Hotspur |
5 |
22 |
10 |
|
4 |
Fulham |
4 |
9 |
10 |
|
5 |
Everton |
3 |
17 |
10 |
|
6 |
Liverpool |
3 |
15 |
11 |
|
7 |
Aston Villa |
2 |
15 |
10 |
|
8 |
Stoke City |
1 |
5 |
10 |
|
9 |
Hull City |
1 |
5 |
10 |
|
10 |
Swansea City |
0 |
11 |
11 |
|
11 |
West Ham United |
0 |
9 |
11 |
|
12 |
Norwich City |
0 |
8 |
11 |
|
13 |
Arsenal |
-1 |
25 |
11 |
|
14 |
Manchester City |
-2 |
17 |
11 |
|
15 |
Sunderland |
-2 |
10 |
11 |
|
16 |
West Bromwich Albion |
-2 |
9 |
11 |
|
17 |
Cardiff City |
-2 |
7 |
9 |
|
18 |
Crystal Palace |
-2 |
6 |
11 |
|
19 |
Manchester United |
-3 |
20 |
10 |
|
20 |
Chelsea |
-7 |
18 |
11 |
Another team which notched up a vital win this weekend was West Ham United. Having suffered a humiliating 6-0 loss to Manchester City in the League Cup semi-final at the Etihad, the Hammers needed to respond to salvage a sagging Premier League campaign. And respond they did by winning 2-0 at Cardiff where even the big teams have struggled. It was a perfect away performance from West Ham, who, like West Brom, have a much better away record in terms of points gained/last compared to last season.
As we can see from the Corresponding Fixtures Away Table, WestHam have taken 9 points from 11 away games this season-the same tally as last season when you compare the same set of fixtures. On the other hand, their home form is quite pathetic: 9 points from 10 home games is 9 points less than what they accrued from the same set of home fixtures last season. The Corresponding Home Points Difference of -9 also makes them the second worst team in the league in terms of our table. If they can improve their performance at home it will go a long way in helping them stave off relegation.
Fulham’s leaky defence could be their undoing
Another relegation 6-pointer took place at Craven Cottage as bottom side Sunderland took on Fulham. It turned out to be quite a game with Sunderland walking away with a mighty impressive 4-1 win courtesy an Adam Johnson hat-trick. He completed his hat-trick after a needless hack in the box by Fulham defender Phillipe Senderos on Jozy Altidore, If ever one needed an illustration of what has been ailing Fulham this season (their porousness at the back) that moment perfectly encapsulated it.
Fulham have the leakiest defence in the league having conceded a whopping 46 goals from 21 games. To put things in perspective, Stoke have the second-worst defence conceding 11 goals less i.e. 35 goals. It’s a remarkably high number of goals to concede and Rene Mulensteen has an awful lot of work to do with the defence.
Amazingly, in our Corresponding Fixtures Table difference, they have a positive difference of +1. Given the number of goals they have conceded it’s quite a surprise that they are not rooted to the bottom of the table. Like West Ham, their Corresponding Away record is much better. As we can see from our Corresponding Away Fixtures table, they have gained 4 points more on the road this season, from the same set of fixtures, compared to the last season. Their home record is an area of concern: they have a difference of -3 in the Corresponding Home Fixtures Table.
Dig deeper into their defensive record and you will find that they have conceded the most number of goals at home (22) and on the road (24 alongside Norwich) too. From the same set of fixtures last season (substituting Hull City for Reading, Crystal Palace for QPR and Cardiff City for Wigan), they conceded 30 goals-14 at home and 16 away. This weekend they visit the Emirates and they still have to visit Old Trafford and the Etihad. By all means and standards, their defensive deterioration is quite worrying.
stats are compiled by Chaitanya Gööner with the help from footballwebpages.co.uk