Something Great

Arsene Wenger cobbled together starting lineups with spit and duct tape and Denilson and somehow the team dragged its ass over the finish line in third or fourth.

Sunday, March 2, 2008

What Do You Think?

An interesting thought experiment:

The Premiership for all intensive purposes is up for grabs - but if you don't know the name, who do you think will win? Below I'm gonna give you the remaining schedule for ManU and Arsenal and judge for yourself.

To be sure, Chester and Arsenal are two very different sides for many reasons. But I think both squads this year have proven they are capable of letdown, comeback, confusion and blowout all at the same time. Here are the next ten games with opponent ranking next to them (out of 20): And yes if you really try you can decode my flawless encryption of Team A/Team B ... ... ...tool.


Now go post what you think before you keep reading.



At first glance, Team A has the easier schedule. Team A's SOS is 11.1 and Team B's is 9.5. It may not seem like much but out of 20 teams, Team B's schedule is almost 10% more difficult strength of schedule wise (with right-now rankings of course).

Team A = Arsenal and Team B = Manchester United

Some more things to keep in mind:

10 games remaining = 30 points left. Winners of the EPL the last 4 years won with 89, 91, 95 and 90 points (avg 91.25). They were ManU, Chelsea, Chelsea, and Arsenal respectively in case you were wondering. Arsenal has 65 points currently and ManU 64. If you just shuddered it's because you realize going 9-1-0 gets you 27 points and puts you at the average. 8 wins, no losses and 2 ties also puts you at the average. Anything less has the girl laughing while exclaiming, "you're just a bit short that's all."

The beauty of this is that both Arsenal and ManU do not have 30 points remaining. They play each other so one TBD team has 30, the other 27, or if they draw, both have 28 points at most.


Both squads have Chelsea and Liverpool outside of each other. This of course doesn't matter at all unless the other 7 games are W's. So to paraphrase Jerry Seinfeld - if the horses knew that breaking their leg would get them shot, there would be some careful stepping horses out there. Enjoy the race.

5 comments:

Jake said...

So just to comment on the table, 1 i think you messed up home and away, you have both team A and team B going to Anfield, but i certainly remember cesc's late equalizer in october at liverpool, it was glorious, just based on pure schedule strength (or weakeness rather) it looks as though team A has the advantage coming down the stretch, but as is most likely the case, the match between the two sides should decide things

Jake said...

As far as the high point totals lets keep in mind that the 95 and 91 by the chelsea teams are the highest and second highest totals in a 20 team premiership season, and that the "invincibles" only had 90 points for the season, i realized before the draws against birmingham and villa that if arsenal went 11-1-0 or 10-0-2 or better they would have had the most successful campaign in the history of the league still if the gunners win out it would be 95 points. this week the saving grace of bendtner's late goal combined with a big duke comback made my late saturday night of taped sporting events, didn't watch any other games this weekend, but saw that Inter lost (more emboldened vs liverpool?? another week will show) clarence seedorf is unlikely for Super Teusday, Madrid re-opened a 5 point lead over barca, and man u was again able to demorilize a team with a "weakened" (only by their standards) side, for me just as disturbing as the gap closing from 5 points to 1 is the GD going from even to +7 for Man U. how quickly things can change...

JuanFucile said...

I changed the table

i was actually wrong on 9 out of 10 games for both teams. the only one i got right was when they played eachother

it was comical

sorry i ruined the thought experiment for you hahahahah

Ben said...

I also assumed Team A had the easier schedule, but then again, it ain't all the premiership. Which team will go deeper in Champions League? Will Man U's FA cup quest drag them down? All these make the deepest squad the team to beat. With that said, I think Man U has the advantage in that arena, but if they go deep in Champs league and the FA Cup, look for Arsenal to stay on top.

Surprise, Surprise, the same 4 at the top of the tables.

Ben said...
This comment has been removed by the author.