Power Rankings: Liverpool go top; mid-table Man Utd
They might only be fourth in the table after being unable to get past Jose Mourinho’s parked bus last night, but Liverpool are top of our Power Rankings.
Had it not been for two fabulous saves from David de Gea, Liverpool would have gone clear at the summit by two or three points, but the point they gained was still enough to seem them rise to the top. United’s efforts, despite having only 35% of the ball, were enough to see them climb a place to 10th – three places worse off than their real position.
Theo Walcott scored twice, but he should have hit four against Bob Bradley’s Swansea on Saturday. Another couple of goals would have seen the Gunners sitting pretty at the top of the pile.
Bournemouth took Hull apart with a 6-1 win to top score this weekend and move up five places into seventh spot – four places above their real Premier League position.
In Power Rankings, we award points from 0.5 to 7, decided by an algorithm based on bookmaker odds and winning margins.
It rewards teams scoring lots of goals and also those defying expectations but sees odds-on favourites penalised for sneaking past inferior opponents by the odd goal.
Week 8
Bournemouth – 6pts: Destroyed Hull, who looked like relegation fodder.
Watford – 4pts: Clinical away-day performance.
Chelsea – 4pts: Too strong for the champions, who were defensively shambolic.
West Ham – 4pts: Turned the corner; Slaven Bilic hopes so.
Stoke – 3pts: Off the mark after beating the whipping boys.
Southampton – 2.5pts: Brushed Burnley aside.
Arsenal – 1.5pts: Theo Walcott could have registered more points for Arsenal.
Everton – 1.5pts: Almost the perfect smash and grab.
West Brom – 1.5pts: Dogged and resilient.
Man Utd – 1.5pts: Dug in for a point with a flat-back six.
Liverpool – 1pt: Dominated possession but failed to impose themselves on United.
Man City – 0.5pt: Held at home, struggling to find their early-season form.
Tottenham – 0.5pt: Dominated possession but bailed out by Dele Alli late on.
Power Rankings
Team | Power Rankings Points | Official Points |
1. Liverpool | 20 | 16 |
2. Man City | 19 | 19 |
= Tottenham | 19 | 18 |
4. Arsenal | 18 | 19 |
5. Everton | 16.5 | 15 |
= Watford | 16.5 | 11 |
7. Bournemouth | 16 | 11 |
8. C Palace | 15 | 11 |
9. Chelsea | 14.5 | 16 |
10. Manchester Utd | 13.25 | 10 |
11. West Brom | 13 | 13 |
12. Southampton | 11.5 | 12 |
13. Hull | 10 | 7 |
14. West Ham | 8 | 7 |
15. Leicester | 7.5 | 8 |
16. Stoke | 7 | 6 |
17. Middlesbrough | 6 | 6 |
= Burnley | 6 | 7 |
19. Swansea | 5.5 | 4 |
20. Sunderland | 2.5 | 2 |