Premier League: Liverpool are ahead of Chelsea at present

Now that alt-3 is back up and running for the 2020–21 season, let’s take a quick look at the current Premier League table.

In general, there’s not much to talk about in the way of schedule imbalance, at present in the Premier League. But one thing does stand out: Liverpool are currently ahead of Chelsea, once proper account is taken of schedule-strength differences.

The top of the table as it stands today:

With 31 matches played by each of the two clubs, Chelsea have 2 more points than Liverpool. But in terms of their effective matches played, Liverpool have effectively 2 games in hand over Chelsea at present (the difference between ePld values of 30.2 and 32.0 for the two clubs is 1.8, i.e. roughly 2). In essence, to date Chelsea have played an appreciably easier set of fixtures than have Liverpool.

The impact of this is that — in the alt-3 standings which (during the season) give a fairer indication than the official league table — Liverpool occupy 5th place, with Chelsea below them in 6th.

As ever: to see any team’s full schedule-strength chart, showing the extent to which their fixture list to date has been relatively easy or hard, just click on the team’s name in the alt-3 Premier League table.