[Albion] The difficulty of each Premier League team's first ten games

[Mustafa II]

 

[schmunk]

So Sheffield are going to win the league?

 

[BRIGHT ON Q]

West ham have had city, Newcastle, us, Liverpool and Chelsea (yes I know) so they seem a bit low really

 

[Questions]

I quite enjoy fish.

 

[Acker79]

[Albion] - Premier League 16-18/9/23

Last night, I saw little invention in the Newcastle Brentford game. The same with this match. Joyous reading https://www.theshedend.com/topic/36246-bournemouth-v-chelsea-pl-sun-17th-sep-2023-1400-gmt/page/23/#comments Chilwell's taking a pasting on there, and Avram Grant is being touted as...

www.northstandchat.com

EDIT: Though skimming through that thread, it doesn't seem as if people had much to say about it.

 

[Uh_huh_him]

Weird - I thought Palace's opening games had been relatively easy.

Arsenal and United the obviously tricky ones.
Villa too of course
but Sheff Utd/Forest/Brentford/Fulham/Wolves pretty run of the mill, no?

We've had Villa/United/Newcastle/Liverpool on the tricky side
Luton/Wolves/Bournemouth/West Ham our easier games.

Would say our fixtures were marginally harder.

 

[The Colonel]

Burnley have lost 5 out of 5 at home but they have been against Man City, Spurs, Villa, Man United and Chelsea. They've also had Newcastle away. How does it get much harder than that? Yet they're nearer the easier end in this. Makes no sense surely.

 

[Giraffe]

Burnley have lost 5 out of 5 at home but they have been against Man City, Spurs, Villa, Man United and Chelsea. They've also had Newcastle away. How does it get much harder than that? Yet they're nearer the easier end in this. Makes no sense surely.

I was about to call this out too. I do the tracker and Burnley have definitely had the hardest start. Bizarre how wrong this is.

 

[Joey Jo Jo Jr. Shabadoo]

I was about to call this out too. I do the tracker and Burnley have definitely had the hardest start. Bizarre how wrong this is.

I don’t think it’s explained very well but the table seems to have been complied against remaining fixtures in an attempt to show how hard or easy the first 10 games have been (despite the fact that only 8 games have been played).

So teams with easier starts appear at the harder end of the table because that’s what their remaining fixtures show. It’s all arse about face.

Surely it would have been easier to just rank everything based on everyone’s opening 10 games?

In other words it’s about as clear as mud what the table is actually trying to show and about as useful.

 

[Live by the sea]

Results are not always as expected so whilst it’s a guide , I wouldn’t take it as read

 

[jamie-oh]

This is unfair, as Spurs never get to face Tottenham, and everyone else does twice.

 

[Baldseagull]

I don’t think it’s explained very well but the table seems to have been complied against remaining fixtures in an attempt to show how hard or easy the first 10 games have been (despite the fact that only 8 games have been played).

So teams with easier starts appear at the harder end of the table because that’s what their remaining fixtures show. It’s all arse about face.

Surely it would have been easier to just rank everything based on everyone’s opening 10 games?

In other words it’s about as clear as mud what the table is actually trying to show and about as useful.

No, teams with harder starts are at the top of the table, marked HARDER. The confusion seems to be that they are ranking the difficulty of the opening 10 games, and we are reading it after having played only 8.
Ranking everyone on last 28 fixtures, or first 10, in order to determine difficulty of games played in the opening 10 should produce the same result, I assume they do it this way so that through the season it is consistent, and when we reach the run in, it is the remaining fixtures that will be of most interest, in terms of reckoning who might be able to avoid relegation/qualify for CL/ win the league.

It is badly worded perhaps, but it is just looking at the first 10 fixtures and how easy/hard they are, on paper according to OPTA team rankings. It may be true that Burnley have had a tougher start than Sheffield United so far (after 8 games, not 10) but Sheffield United have Man Utd and Arsenal up next, whilst Burnley face Brentford and Bournemouth.

 

[studio150]

Given the OP provided no insight into the table used, it must be very difficult to understand and to know exactly what the table is trying to say.

I will reserve judgement until an expert can decipher the table.

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

It's missing context of previous teams records against that team as well, also last year teams that got promoted were tricky games - Fulham/Notts Forest picked up big wins at home, I would imagine they would be classed as easy.

I'm not sure you can judge how easy or difficult a start is.

 

[Baldseagull]

Given the OP provided no insight into the table used, it must be very difficult to understand and to know exactly what the table is trying to say.

I will reserve judgement until an expert can decipher the table.

It uses OPTA power rankings to rate the teams as hard or easy, here are the power rankings.

The Best Football Teams in the World: Opta Power Rankings

Who are the best teams in world football? A question that’s often asked, but one that isn’t always easy to answer – not for any longer.

theanalyst.com

and here are the tables and explanations for first 5 and 10 games before the season started, once the season starts, teams will move around a bit in their rankings, hence the differences.
https://theanalyst.com/eu/2023/08/premier-league-fixture-difficulty-easy-hard/

 

[Baldseagull]

It's missing context of previous teams records against that team as well, also last year teams that got promoted were tricky games - Fulham/Notts Forest picked up big wins at home, I would imagine they would be classed as easy.

I'm not sure you can judge how easy or difficult a start is.

It tries to make the rankings current, but it is at the end of the day, a refined version of Giraffes tracker, and many factors won't get taken into account that might affect the difficulty of certain opposition for a particular team.

 

[um bongo molongo]

It tries to make the rankings current, but it is at the end of the day, a refined version of Giraffes tracker, and many factors won't get taken into account that might affect the difficulty of certain opposition for a particular team.

I take issue with that. It is not a refined version Giraffe tracker. It’s a much worse version. I think it’s time Giraffe introduced the tracker to the world, way more accurate and informative than this nonsense.

 

[Brok]

So maybe it's the next ten games, but badly worded?

 

[medwayseagull reborn]

This is unfair, as Spurs never get to face Tottenham, and everyone else does twice.

That is because they cannot find a referee to help both sides.