Premiership Tables Revised – The Matchday Version

Written by Dan on March 19, 2010

One of the great things about tournaments such as the European Championships, World Cup or even the Champions and Europa Leagues is the fact that the fixture list generally doesn’t get messed around with and all the teams play their games sequentially so we can always see at a glance the true standings in the tables. There’s never any “game in hand” nonsense to be concerned with.

With 20 teams competing over 380 Premiership matches during a 10 month span, dodging 2 domestic and 2 European cup competitions, international breaks and the English climate along the way, that’s never going to happen in the league and there will always be times, like now, where we find ourselves thinking ‘we’re 2 points behind Liverpool, but have two games in hand, so we could be four points in front eventually’. Eventually. But, you have to win those games and frequently it’s not until the final throes of the season that these games are caught up.

We’ll catch one of those games up tomorrow against Wolves, but by 3.30 Sunday afternoon, after Liverpool have played Man Utd, we’ll be two games in arrears again. Although I think we’d all like to think that we’ll no longer be two points behind, but a point in front instead!

Relativity

Don’t worry, we’re not about to start with Einstein’s special theory, but it is a theme I’ve been exploring a little of late and I’ll continue it here briefly with a quick illustration of what I’m driving at:-

If you finished the 2002/03 Premiership season with 60 points, congratulations, your name is Liverpool, you finished 4th and you got to compete in the Champions League the following season. Actually, ‘compete’ is doing them a disservice; they went all the way to win the bloody thing!

However, if you finished the 2008/09 Premiership season with 62 points, congratulations, your name is Aston Villa, you finished 6th and you got to, er, well, there’s that Europa League thingy. Well done, now run along and play nicely, there’s a good boy.

The difference between our two records from those season is that Liverpool won 16 & drew 12, while we won 17 & drew 11. We both lost 10. The history books will record Liverpool’s 2002/03 record as superior to our 2008/09 record based on the finishing position, but the detail shows that we were better.

Measuring Improvement Over Seasons, Not Games

Big picture stuff, you know by now that it’s very much my thing to look at how we’re doing over the course of several seasons, not just lumber from one knee-jerk reaction to the next. However, just looking at our own performance, while that’s the only thing that is in our own hands, is still a little isolationist and I’d like to see where we were relative to everyone else.

There are sites that allow you to view previous Premiership tables at certain dates, but because of the scheduling difficulties I opened with, it’s impossible to compare the table right now with the table at the same point last season, or the season before. You can get an approximation, but it’s a little too woolly for my liking.

So, I came up with the Matchday Version of the Premiership table.

The idea is to bring all the teams’ records back to the point of the team with the least number of games played. Right now, Villa and Man City have played 28 whilst everyone else have played either 29 or 30 games, so I’ve rebuilt the Premiership table with just the first 28 games’ results for all 20 teams.

I have enough data to do the same thing for the 2005/06, 2006/07, 2007/08 & 2008/09 seasons too, so for the first time I can compare not just our own performance at this stage over the last few years, but also place it relative to everyone else at the same point.

The one addition I’ve made to these tables to a column on the right which expresses each team’s points total as a percentage of the leader. I’m not completely sure of the value of this, but it seems relevant to me that although, chronologically speaking, we’re currently 3 points behind where we were at this same point last season, because the top of the table appears to be more competitive this time, we’re just as close in percentage terms as we were last time. In fact, a third of a percentile closer if that matters at all.

Anyway, that’s enough from me, I’ll now just turn over the tables for the current and preceding four seasons and let you decipher the information for yourselves. I’d be interested to hear what, if anything, you find striking about slightly rejigging the information in this way.

Premiership Table 2009/10 – Matchday 28


 Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts
1 Chelsea 28 19 4 5 65 26 39 61 100.00%
2 Man United 28 19 3 6 66 24 42 60 98.36%
3 Arsenal 28 18 4 6 66 31 35 58 95.08%
4 Man City 28 13 11 4 53 36 17 50 81.97%
5 Tottenham 28 14 7 7 50 27 23 49 80.33%
6 Aston Villa 28 13 10 5 39 22 17 49 80.33%
7 Liverpool 28 14 6 8 45 28 17 48 78.69%
8 Birmingham 28 12 7 9 28 29 -1 43 70.49%
9 Everton 28 11 8 9 44 40 4 41 67.21%
10 Fulham 28 10 8 10 32 29 3 38 62.30%
11 Stoke 28 8 11 9 28 33 -5 35 57.38%
12 Blackburn 28 9 7 12 30 45 -15 34 55.74%
13 Sunderland 28 7 9 12 36 44 -8 30 49.18%
14 Bolton 28 7 8 13 32 50 -18 29 47.54%
15 Wigan 28 7 7 14 27 53 -26 28 45.90%
16 West Ham 28 6 9 13 36 45 -9 27 44.26%
17 Wolves 28 6 6 16 21 46 -25 24 39.34%
18 Hull 28 5 9 14 26 59 -33 24 39.34%
19 Burnley 28 6 5 17 29 60 -31 23 37.70%
20 Portsmouth 28 5 4 19 24 47 -23 19 31.15%

Premiership Table 2008/09 – Matchday 28


 Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts
1 Man United 28 20 5 3 49 16 33 65 100.00%
2 Chelsea 28 17 7 4 48 16 32 58 89.23%
3 Liverpool 28 16 10 2 45 20 25 58 89.23%
4 Aston Villa 28 15 7 6 42 29 13 52 80.00%
5 Arsenal 28 13 10 5 41 26 15 49 75.38%
6 Everton 28 12 9 7 36 28 8 45 69.23%
7 West Ham 28 11 6 11 34 34 0 39 60.00%
8 Man City 28 10 5 13 45 36 9 35 53.85%
9 Wigan 28 9 8 11 27 27 0 35 53.85%
10 Fulham 28 8 10 10 25 25 0 34 52.31%
11 Bolton 28 10 3 15 30 40 -10 33 50.77%
12 Tottenham 28 8 8 12 33 33 0 32 49.23%
13 Sunderland 28 8 8 12 28 36 -8 32 49.23%
14 Hull 28 8 8 12 34 50 -16 32 49.23%
15 Blackburn 28 7 9 12 32 44 -12 30 46.15%
16 Portsmouth 28 7 8 13 30 45 -15 29 44.62%
17 Stoke 28 7 8 13 27 44 -17 29 44.62%
18 Newcastle 28 6 10 12 34 45 -11 28 43.08%
19 Middlesbrough 28 6 8 14 20 40 -20 26 40.00%
20 West Brom 28 6 4 18 25 54 -29 22 33.85%

Premiership Table 2007/08 – Matchday 28


 Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts
1 Arsenal 28 19 8 1 57 21 36 65 100.00%
2 Man United 28 20 4 4 58 15 43 64 98.46%
3 Chelsea 28 18 7 3 48 18 30 61 93.85%
4 Liverpool 28 14 11 3 50 20 30 53 81.54%
5 Everton 28 16 5 7 46 24 22 53 81.54%
6 Aston Villa 28 13 9 6 51 36 15 48 73.85%
7 Blackburn 28 12 9 7 37 34 3 45 69.23%
8 Man City 28 12 9 7 34 31 3 45 69.23%
9 Portsmouth 28 12 8 8 38 29 9 44 67.69%
10 West Ham 28 11 7 10 31 31 0 40 61.54%
11 Tottenham 28 9 8 11 53 45 8 35 53.85%
12 Middlesbrough 28 7 8 13 25 42 -17 29 44.62%
13 Newcastle 28 7 7 14 30 53 -23 28 43.08%
14 Wigan 28 7 6 15 26 42 -16 27 41.54%
15 Sunderland 28 7 6 15 26 46 -20 27 41.54%
16 Birmingham 28 6 8 14 31 41 -10 26 40.00%
17 Bolton 28 6 7 15 28 42 -14 25 38.46%
18 Reading 28 7 4 17 32 55 -23 25 38.46%
19 Fulham 28 3 10 15 25 48 -23 19 29.23%
20 Derby 28 1 7 20 13 57 -44 10 15.38%

Premiership Table 2006/07 – Matchday 28


 Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts
1 Man United 28 22 3 3 65 19 46 69 100.00%
2 Chelsea 28 19 6 3 50 19 31 63 91.30%
3 Arsenal 28 16 7 5 51 23 28 55 79.71%
4 Liverpool 28 16 5 7 44 19 25 53 76.81%
5 Bolton 28 14 5 9 33 32 1 47 68.12%
6 Reading 28 13 4 11 42 36 6 43 62.32%
7 Everton 28 11 9 8 36 25 11 42 60.87%
8 Portsmouth 28 11 8 9 36 29 7 41 59.42%
9 Tottenham 28 11 6 11 36 40 -4 39 56.52%
10 Blackburn 28 11 4 13 33 38 -5 37 53.62%
11 Newcastle 28 10 6 12 34 37 -3 36 52.17%
12 Middlesbrough 28 9 8 11 32 34 -2 35 50.72%
13 Aston Villa 28 7 12 9 29 34 -5 33 47.83%
14 Fulham 28 7 11 10 30 43 -13 32 46.38%
15 Man City 28 8 6 14 20 34 -14 30 43.48%
16 Sheffield United 28 8 6 14 24 40 -16 30 43.48%
17 Wigan 28 8 5 15 29 44 -15 29 42.03%
18 Charlton 28 6 5 17 24 47 -23 23 33.33%
19 West Ham 28 5 5 18 18 46 -28 20 28.99%
20 Watford 28 3 10 15 16 41 -25 19 27.54%

Premiership Table 2005/06 – Matchday 28


 Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts
1 Chelsea 28 23 3 2 56 17 39 72 100.00%
2 Man United 28 18 6 4 56 28 28 60 83.33%
3 Liverpool 28 16 7 5 33 17 16 55 76.39%
4 Tottenham 28 13 10 5 40 26 14 49 68.06%
5 Bolton 28 13 9 6 39 28 11 48 66.67%
6 Arsenal 28 13 5 10 43 22 21 44 61.11%
7 Blackburn 28 13 4 11 36 34 2 43 59.72%
8 West Ham 28 12 6 10 42 40 2 42 58.33%
9 Man City 28 12 4 12 38 32 6 40 55.56%
10 Wigan 28 12 4 12 33 36 -3 40 55.56%
11 Newcastle 28 11 6 11 29 30 -1 39 54.17%
12 Everton 28 11 4 13 21 36 -15 37 51.39%
13 Charlton 28 10 6 12 32 37 -5 36 50.00%
14 Aston Villa 28 8 10 10 33 35 -2 34 47.22%
15 Middlesbrough 28 9 7 12 37 46 -9 34 47.22%
16 Fulham 28 9 5 14 37 43 -6 32 44.44%
17 West Brom 28 7 5 16 25 42 -17 26 36.11%
18 Birmingham 28 6 6 16 23 39 -16 24 33.33%
19 Portsmouth 28 4 6 18 18 48 -30 18 25.00%
20 Sunderland 28 2 4 22 19 51 -32 10 13.89%

One thing that strikes me about the current season’s table is Liverpool in 7th have close to 79% of Chelsea’s point total. Compare that with the previous seasons and, at this stage at least, it’s starting to look like we’re genuinely talking about 7 teams competing for the top four places. Could it be?

The number of losses at the top of the current table is also hugely significant. No team has ever won the Premier League since it was reduced to 20 teams with more than 6 losses. Chelsea may be able to afford a slip up, but according to the statistics, if Utd or Arsenal lose another game then their title hopes will evaporate. No pressure!! 😉