We say goodbye to Gameweek 13 with Chelsea sitting atop the Premier League, despite Carlo Ancelotti’s stuttering side scoring just one goal and picking up three points from their last three games. Over the same time period, fourth-placed Man City have scored just two goals, whereas the bottom three (Birmingham, Wolves and West Ham) have managed eleven between them.
No wonder Arsene Wenger is talking up this season as the toughest yet. The Gunners sit second, just two points off the top, but Wenger has recently admitted:
“This season is by far the most open I have experienced. If you look at some teams who are in the middle of the table, the quality of the teams they have, it is quite frightening. The level has gone up and I think the physical resistance of the teams who are a bit less good technically has become stronger. All the teams in the Premier League can remain disciplined for 90 minutes.”
With only 6 points separating fifth-top from third-bottom, it’s becoming apparent that any team in the division is capable of pulling off a result, as the lines between dead-certs and no-hopers become blurred. This is a season where Man United sit three points off the top, despite winning just one game out of seven on the road. Where Arsenal sit second despite home defeats by two promoted sides already. Where Sunderland get battered 5-1 at Newcastle then sweep aside Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, and where Blackpool winning at Anfield was no longer a coupon buster.
We’ve decided to analyse the OPTA stats in order to ascertain what teams are misfiring in front of goal and what teams are perhaps overachieving. With the usual Fantasy favourites becoming less dependable as the season goes on, we try to find any patterns that may offer a certain stability when it comes to team selection:
