93.9, and a promoted side already in trouble
Frank Lampard won the Championship by 11 points over Ipswich. His reward is the nastiest opening run in the division: five fixtures averaging 93.9 on Opta’s Power Rankings, softened only fractionally by the fact that two of them are away at last season’s top two.
Coventry start at the Emirates on Friday. Arsenal sit first in the world on 100.0. Opta’s scale rates more than 10,000 clubs from 0 to 100, and Hull City prop up English football on 88.4, 47th globally.
All 20 clubs play the same opponents across 38 games. The order they arrive in is another matter entirely.
Try it for $0.99.
The history says August damage rarely gets repaired
Only one eventual champion has lost more than once in their opening five: Manchester United in 1992-93, the inaugural season, when the division carried 22 clubs and four extra fixtures to fix things.
The reverse holds too. Of the 103 teams that have won their first two Premier League games, just three went down: Wolves in 2011-12, Hull in 2016-17 and West Brom in 2017-18. Tottenham nearly made it four last season and survived on the final day.
Bournemouth are stuck in the same bracket as Coventry. Marco Rose opens at the Etihad, then hosts his predecessor Andoni Iraola on 20 September. Sunderland complete the ugly top three on 93.7. Seventh last season, they are in Europe for the first time in 53 years, which means at least eight extra matches and the Thursday-to-Sunday grind, with Arsenal and Manchester City waiting in rounds four and five.
Liverpool got the softest landing in the league
Iraola’s Liverpool draw the lowest number of the lot at 91.2. Newcastle away, Forest at home, Ipswich away, Fulham at home, then Bournemouth. St James’ Park is never a gift, though the Magpies have lost Eddie Howe from the dugout along with Bruno Guimaraes, Anthony Gordon and Sandro Tonali.
Both Manchester clubs did well out of it. United open away for the first time since 2016-17, against the lowest-ranked side in the league, then host Ipswich before travelling to Everton. The derby lands in round four. File this one away: United have taken 39 points since Michael Carrick took charge in January, more than any other English club in that window, Arsenal included.
Arsenal, meanwhile, are defending a title for the first time in 22 years. Coventry at home is a fair start. Aston Villa away and Chelsea at home follow soon enough.
Discover the rest of the FOOT news on our mathodds website and app!
in your pocket.
Real-time notifications & alerts
Leave a Reply