What do the stats tell us about the top 4 chances of the big six?
What do the stats tell us about the top 4 chances of the big six?
With the 2018/19 Premier League season heading towards the finish line, the top half of the table shows few surprises. The rankings of Wolves and Watford may be somewhat unexpected, but the contenders for a Champions League ticket are the usual bunch.
Tottenham is well placed, and among the fans there is little doubt that Pochettino’s men will play on the highest European level next year. More excitement is raised by the question: who will join them in the race for European glory: Manchester United, Chelsea or Arsenal? And of course: who will win the title? Will it be Man. City for the second year in a row, or will it be Liverpool for the first time in 28 years?
The remaining eight match days will be decisive, and when the Premier League runs into it final stages, interesting things happen. Teams that have something to fight for usually perform better, and there are also clubs, like Leicester and Crystal Palace, that tend to win more points towards the end of the season. Tottenham’s results usually remain stable over the whole season, as the stats from the last 10 years show.
As for the question “Manchester City or Liverpool”: of the teams in 1st place with 10 match days to go, 9 went on to win the title.
And more important from Tottenham’s perspective: of the 30 teams in 2nd, 3rd or 4th position with 10 games remaining 27 ended in the top 4. One of the three that dropped out however was Tottenham, who finished 5th in the 2009/10 season.
1 comment
If we continue as we have done in the last four games we could struggle. I believe we were unlucky in the first three but not dominant enough to win in spite of some of the strange decisions that went against us. Usually we're at a level above that and continue to win in spite of that.
Southampton was a poor showing for me. I love to win at a canter - but when we don't even win, a canter is inappropriate. More passion was definitely called for but sadly lacking. We still need to work on the mentality.
Not all doom and gloom by any means. Progress isn't always about getting everything right all the time. To see it's there you sometimes have to step back and think about it.
I suspect we'll manage but we are likely to have to do it the hard way now. I'd like to think the players will care enough about finishing second or third that they'll leave everything on the pitch at every single game…