Southampton Top Alternative Form Table

Nine matches into the Premier League season and the table is starting to take shape, but it is not always a fair representation of team performance.

As an alternative, we have used ‘shots on target’ as a proxy for performance and calculated scorelines based on which team had the most shots on target.

Alternative League Table

The column to focus on is the last one; the difference between actual points and our ‘shots on target’ points calculation.

Those with a positive number have got more points than their performances merited and a negative number means they have been unlucky not to have more. 

Southampton
Mauricio Pochettino’s team have been the surprise package of the season but based on ‘shots on target’ they should be even higher – we have them as league leaders after nine games!

Southampton’s strength is their strong defence; they concede just 9.8 shots per game, bettered only by Tottenham and Man City. But even when the opposition manage to get a shot on target they are often thwarted by Artur Boruc. 

Hull
Hull might be sitting comfortably in tenth place but they look like an accident waiting to happen. According to our analysis they’ve not done enough to win a game this season and have 8 more points than they should.

A combination of a toothless strike force (at 9.8 shots per game, only Fulham have had fewer shots) but a defence that allows shots (15.2 per game, the third worst in the league) means that eventually Hull are going to stop picking up points.

If that wasn’t bad enough the Tigers rarely see the ball, at 40.7% possession per game they are bottom of the league. With plenty of matches to come Hull are still relegation candidates at 12/5 (Bet365).