This could change how you view the season so far.
The Defending in Numbers podcast has highlighted a very interesting statistic that could alter your view of the Premier League season so far. Nick English, Adam Boultwood and host Rob Armstrong discussed a range of topics on this week’s show, including the points average gained by Manchester United and runaway Premier League leaders Manchester City.
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It appears that the title-race is effectively over, unless City suffer an incredible collapse, as there are 15 points between first and second in the league. Some pundits and football fans have been critical of the Red Devils and their manager for their failure to keep pace with their Manchester rivals, but it could be argued that such criticism is somewhat harsh.
As the Defending in Numbers podcast highlighted, Jose Mourinho is averaging roughly the same number of points per game as he has in past seasons. This is a points total that might have been enough to win his fourth Premier League title in other seasons, but City have just obliterated all competition.
“Mourinho is averaging 2.14 points per game,” English said.
“Which is about on par with his career average of 2.2, so we’re about in Mourinho zone. He peaked at about 2.5 in the 2004/2005 season with Chelsea, so we’re about par, it’s just that City are so ridiculous this year that he’s looking average.”
The statistics very much support this view. After 22 games of the current season, City have averaged a stunning 2.81 points per game. They have 62 points, have only dropped four points and are yet to lose in the league. If they continue to gain that points average per game, they’ll end up with 107 points when the season ends in May. The current crop of teams in the Premier League can’t compete with such a record, and no side from Premier League history could keep pace with this points haul.
Last season, Chelsea averaged 2.44 points per game as they amassed 93 points and won 30 of their 38 league matches. In the 2004/05 season, when Mourinho’s Chelsea won the league with a record of 95 points, they averaged 2.5 points per game. The next season, they averaged 2.39 points per game on the way to reclaiming the title. In United’s best points haul – the 1999/2000 season, when they won the Premier League with 91 points – Sir Alex Ferguson’s team averaged 2.39 points per season.
It appears City’s success this season is very much down to their own excellent displays, and they really are just having a “freak season”, the likes of which we have never seen before and may never see again.
