16 Conclusions on the F365 tables: Liverpool difference, Arsenal flaw, peak Spursiness
We had a lovely Bank Holiday afternoon poring over the F365 tables now 2024-25 is in the bag. Don’t pretend you were having more fun with your family and friends…
After all, we’ve got 21 different tables, and within those, plenty of nifty filtering options and all sorts of other user-friendly features. You just don’t get that in the pub or out in the fresh air.
So here are 16 Conclusions drawn from those very tables…
1) Let’s start with the one that really matters: the actual league table. In short: Liverpool are the best team in the country; Arsenal are Arsenal; Nottingham Forest caught us all out; Manchester United and Tottenham are each a genuine disgrace; and the gap between the Premier League and the Championship, evidently, is getting bigger. Need we go on? Well, yes, apparently we do…
2) Why are Liverpool the best team in the country? The ridiculousness of Mo Salah has something to do with it, and the Egyptian will be a largely responsible for their collective creative genius. The Reds have scored 66 of their 86 goals from open play, 16 more than third-placed Arsenal in that metric. Liverpool have topped the big chances created table for the last five years now, but not like this. Having created 112 big chances, they are 19 clear of second-placed Chelsea, who might have felt like telling their critics to ‘eff off’ but perhaps their passage into the Champions League might have been more serene had they not been so wasteful.
3) Nottingham Forest, in sharp contrast, have been razor sharp in front of goal. Only West Ham and the three relegated teams created fewer big chances than Forest (58). They outperformed their xG by five goals (4.85 actually, but…) which is creditable. But, sustainable?
4) Forest faded, but Manchester United and Tottenham unashamedly downed tools in the Premier League once they realised their best chance of rescuing a wretched season lay in Europe. The form table leaves Spurs second-bottom over the last six games. The only reason they aren’t bottom is because they scored one goal more than Ipswich in that time. If we go back even further, over a 10-game period, they’re still second-bottom.
Still, Ange Postecoglou’s gamble paid off and Spurs fans right now aren’t likely to give a shiny sh*te while they bask in Europa League glory. Especially while they can reasonably claim to have had a better season than Arsenal despite being hilariously crap for the last quarter of it.
5) Spurs and United weren’t rubbish for a lack of the ball. In terms of possession, they are fifth and sixth respectively. So what the f*** were they doing with it? In United’s case, nothing much. Only Everton and three relegated sides scored fewer from open play, while 11 teams created more big chances. Further proving that possession means nothing, Forest are Europe-bound despite having had the ball less than anyone bar Everton and Ipswich.
6) If Ruben Amorim wants an easy way of improving United, he might simply tell his players they kick off an hour before they actually do. Because if matches ended at half-time, they would have been relegated.
7) Similarly, thanks to the table that allows us to break matches into 15-minute intervals, it is possible to pinpoint the particular period where Spurs go full Spurs. They start well. Only Forest are better through the opening quarter of an hour. And from 16-30 minutes, they’re seventh. Then they remember they are Tottenham and plummet to 18th between the half-hour and 45-minute mark.
8) Fulham have been unfathomably fun. No team is more reliable for your both teams to score acca, and the Cottagers have pissed on the chips of their top-half opponents to such an extent that only Liverpool have taken more than the 30 points amassed by Marco Silva’s side. What makes them such a head f***, though, is the fact that only the relegated sides have a worse record against bottom-half sides.
9) Everton are also proper weird. Away from home against top-half opposition, they won 17 points and in that respect there isn’t a better team in the Premier League. But on the road against bottom-half teams, only Southampton have taken fewer than the Toffees’ seven points.
🚨 2024/25 Premier League Winners: Liverpool, Salah, Newcastle, Forest, Chelsea, Moyes and more
10) If Mikel Arteta is looking for reasons why Arsenal were Arsenal, the most obvious one is they drew too many games – 14. Only once in the Premier League era have they drawn more matches and that was in a 42-game season. They suffered the same number of defeats as runaway champions Liverpool, but too often failed to turn one point into three, resulting in a 10-point deficit, even after Liverpool swapped boots for flip-flops upon sealing the title a month ago. Fair play to the Reds for highlighting their dominance by chucking in the last month, during which time only Wolves, Ipswich, Southampton and – obviously – Spurs have taken fewer points.
11) Back to Arsenal: for a team with title ambitions, their home form has been sketchy (fifth-best in the league) but on the road against top-half opposition, they’ve won only once and taken the same number of points as Man Utd. Which, as we know, is the polar opposite of title-winning form.
12) Changing managers doesn’t always have the desired effect. Just ask Man Utd. But sometimes it definitely does. Everton dismissed Sean Dyche in January while languishing in 16th. In the table since David Moyes returned, the Toffees are eighth.
Similarly, Wolves were second-bottom with nine points – 0.6 ppg – when Gary O’Neil was given the elbow in mid-December. Since Vitor Pereira came in, that table has them 12th with 1.5 ppg.
🚨 2024/25 Premier League Losers: United, City, Arsenal, relegation farce and more
13) Don’t turn your backs on Bournemouth when the clock ticks over to 90. The Cherries have scored 10 goals in added time during their record-breaking season, including a couple at Everton in August to turn a deficit on 90 to a victory at full-time.
THE greatest comeback in @premierleague history 🍿 pic.twitter.com/emI7nZ0y1x
— AFC Bournemouth 🍒 (@afcbournemouth) August 31, 2024
14) No one needs telling that trailing to Tottenham usually means nothing. But don’t go ahead against Brighton and think it’s job done – those Seagulls will still nick your chips and unload on you as they go.
15) Pep Guardiola, much like Sir Alex Ferguson, likes his teams to put their foot down come January. But Manchester City coughed and spluttered so much through the first half of the season, the Premier League’s best record in 2025 was unable to save their season.
