Liverpool now clear 4th; and Huddersfield pulling clear of the relegation scrap?
As I mentioned in the blog a few weeks ago, for the alt-3 league table this time of year is almost certain to be relatively uninteresting! We are only just past the halfway point of the Premier League season — i.e., the point at which most teams have played all others once — and so schedule-strength imbalance is inevitably quite weak at this point.
Still there are one or two features worth noting — instances where accounting properly for schedule-strength differences does make a bit of a difference to the current league table.
Liverpool
In the official Premier League table, recent match results have seen Liverpool move 3 points clear of Spurs, who are currently their nearest rivals for 4th place in the league.
The current alt-3 table emphasises that gap.
Because Liverpool have played a slightly harder than average fixture list up to now (with their schedule strength currently measured at +0.4 points), and Spurs have had a slightly easier than average set of fixtures to date (schedule strength −0.6), the effective points gap is actually 4 rather than 3.
So it is really quite a bit clearer now which teams are the Premier League’s current top 4 than it has been in recent weeks.
Huddersfield Town, and the relegation mega-zone
The lower half of the official Premier League table currently has ten clubs all very close, within 8 points of one another.
The current alt-3 table, which takes proper account of schedule-strength differences, has the bottom 9 clubs all within 6.2 points of one another!
Above those 9 clubs, Huddersfield Town in 11th place have now opened up a bit of a gap. In the alt-3 table, Huddersfield currently sit 2.2 points ahead of Brighton.
Clearly Huddersfield are not out of danger just yet. But if their form so far this season continues, the Terriers should finish comfortably clear of the relegation places. (That’s definitely not a prediction, though!)
To see any club’s current alt-3 schedule-strength chart, just click on the club name in the alt-3 league table.