EPL weekend chat thread, Sat/Sun.
Nov 9, 2018 13:25:52 GMT
MrFurious, nutsberryfarm 🏜, and 3 more like this
Post by staggerstag on Nov 9, 2018 13:25:52 GMT
Yeah, nay preview from me this week. Knackered, brah. Too much football.
Instead let's have a peruse at what Stuart James is saying about the gap between top and bottom in the Premier League. He makes some good points, but nothing we don't already know. He says,
Premier League the most competitive in the world? You must be joking.
The top five clubs have played the bottom five 19 times this season and won every one. There is nothing to celebrate in the top flight’s great divide.
Amid all the gloom enveloping those at the wrong end of the Premier League table, where Fulham, Cardiff, Huddersfield, Newcastle and Southampton have conceded 108 goals between them, suffered 36 defeats and registered only one victory each, there is a ray of hope. On the basis of the results so far, only 22 points will be needed to stay up this season.
Although 11 fixtures is not much of a sample size from which to calculate a points-per-game ratio, the numbers do not lie and there is no getting away from just how poor the standard is in the lower reaches of the Premier League this season. The fact that this is the first time in 27 Premier League seasons that five clubs have seven or fewer points from their opening 11 matches says it all.
Newcastle, who won last Saturday for the first time this season, are somehow out of the relegation zone despite picking up only six points from 11 games. The survival bar could hardly be set any lower and it all feels so predictable. Cast the net a little further to include Burnley, who are lying in 15th place, and a strong case could be made to say that the bottom six now will be the bottom six come May, with only their order to be decided.
A glance towards the other end of the table shows how the other half live. Manchester City, the leaders, have as many points as Fulham, Cardiff, Huddersfield, Newcastle and Southampton – a quarter of the clubs – put together. By way of comparison, the bottom five had 10 points more than the league leaders at the same juncture last season – and Pep Guardiola’s team, who were also top then, were two points better off than they are now.
The numbers say much about what the Premier League has become this season, with one set of results in particular highlighting the growing divide that makes a mockery of the idea that English football’s top flight should be celebrated for its competitiveness.
This is the first time in the Premier League era that three clubs – Manchester City, Chelsea and Liverpool – are still unbeaten after 11 games. Never before have five Premier League clubs had 23 points or more at this stage.
Reeling off all the facts and figures is one thing; trying to make sense of them is quite another. The obvious conclusion to draw initially is that the top clubs are getting better and the bottom five, collectively, are as bad as we have ever seen. That, however, seems a little simplistic and is almost certainly not true.
For a start, are Manchester City, Chelsea, Liverpool, Spurs and Arsenal really that brilliant? The Champions League this season suggests otherwise. Lyon, fourth in Ligue 1, beat Manchester City. Red Star Belgrade, who are hardly a European powerhouse, and Napoli, third in Serie A, defeated Liverpool, while Spurs’ hopes of reaching the knockout stage are hanging by a thread.
This is unlike any other Premier League season and there is not much to celebrate about that.
Feel ye, fam.
The full depressing read.
Instead let's have a peruse at what Stuart James is saying about the gap between top and bottom in the Premier League. He makes some good points, but nothing we don't already know. He says,
Premier League the most competitive in the world? You must be joking.
The top five clubs have played the bottom five 19 times this season and won every one. There is nothing to celebrate in the top flight’s great divide.
Amid all the gloom enveloping those at the wrong end of the Premier League table, where Fulham, Cardiff, Huddersfield, Newcastle and Southampton have conceded 108 goals between them, suffered 36 defeats and registered only one victory each, there is a ray of hope. On the basis of the results so far, only 22 points will be needed to stay up this season.
Although 11 fixtures is not much of a sample size from which to calculate a points-per-game ratio, the numbers do not lie and there is no getting away from just how poor the standard is in the lower reaches of the Premier League this season. The fact that this is the first time in 27 Premier League seasons that five clubs have seven or fewer points from their opening 11 matches says it all.
Newcastle, who won last Saturday for the first time this season, are somehow out of the relegation zone despite picking up only six points from 11 games. The survival bar could hardly be set any lower and it all feels so predictable. Cast the net a little further to include Burnley, who are lying in 15th place, and a strong case could be made to say that the bottom six now will be the bottom six come May, with only their order to be decided.
A glance towards the other end of the table shows how the other half live. Manchester City, the leaders, have as many points as Fulham, Cardiff, Huddersfield, Newcastle and Southampton – a quarter of the clubs – put together. By way of comparison, the bottom five had 10 points more than the league leaders at the same juncture last season – and Pep Guardiola’s team, who were also top then, were two points better off than they are now.
The numbers say much about what the Premier League has become this season, with one set of results in particular highlighting the growing divide that makes a mockery of the idea that English football’s top flight should be celebrated for its competitiveness.
This is the first time in the Premier League era that three clubs – Manchester City, Chelsea and Liverpool – are still unbeaten after 11 games. Never before have five Premier League clubs had 23 points or more at this stage.
Reeling off all the facts and figures is one thing; trying to make sense of them is quite another. The obvious conclusion to draw initially is that the top clubs are getting better and the bottom five, collectively, are as bad as we have ever seen. That, however, seems a little simplistic and is almost certainly not true.
For a start, are Manchester City, Chelsea, Liverpool, Spurs and Arsenal really that brilliant? The Champions League this season suggests otherwise. Lyon, fourth in Ligue 1, beat Manchester City. Red Star Belgrade, who are hardly a European powerhouse, and Napoli, third in Serie A, defeated Liverpool, while Spurs’ hopes of reaching the knockout stage are hanging by a thread.
This is unlike any other Premier League season and there is not much to celebrate about that.
Feel ye, fam.
The full depressing read.
"Oh, they wish it was a sh*tfest every da-a-a-y, when the sh*t sides play eachother and it's a fair pla-a-a-y"