Power Rankings: Final placings in our alternative table

West Ham: Won 2-0 at Arsenal in August

West Ham: Won 2-0 at Arsenal in August

West Ham claimed the title by 3.5 points in our inaugural Power Rankings, while Chelsea could be relegated if Bournemouth earn a draw at Manchester United.

The Hammers may have slumped to a final-day defeat at Stoke, but that wasn’t enough to stop Slaven Bilic’s men finishing top after they chalked up away-day wins at Arsenal, Liverpool and Man City to set a blistering early season pace. And despite Leicester’s fantastic season they could not overhaul the east Londoners and had to settle for second.

Last year’s champions Chelsea have had a season to forget, but in our system they could be playing Championship football with Bournemouth able to relegate them if they can get a draw at Man United on Tuesday night. United are currently 13th, but they could improve that significantly with a big win over the Cherries and may even be able to overhaul Arsenal and Liverpool who finished joint eighth.

Newcastle, who in real terms were relegated by Sunderland last week, performed admirably in our system and their brilliant final-day mauling of Tottenham, who were third, sent them into the dizzy heights of 11th.

In Power Rankings, we award points from 0.5 to 10, 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.

West Ham continue to lead the way, helped in no small part by their early-season wins at Arsenal and Manchester City, which earned them 20 points alone. Chelsea on the other hand remain second from bottom as they continue to pay the price for their under-achievement, while the rest of last season’s top four battle it out in the top half having also failed to hit their targets.

Week 38 – Final game

Newcastle – 7: A final flourish from Rafa’s boys and they topped the scores to finish in a very respectable 11th place. Doing the double over third-place Spurs has heavily skewered their position.

Arsenal – 5: A routine 4-0 demolition job on basement boys Villa saw the Gunners move up two places to finish joint eighth.

Everton – 4: An Everton side side without Roberto Martinez won their first game for 11 Premier League matches to move up a place to finish 14th – three places worse than the real table.

Stoke – 4: Stoke finished with a fine 2-1 win over West Ham to clinch a Champions League spot in our rankings with an 80-point haul. In reality the Potters finished ninth for the third successive season – that’s consistency.

Southampton -4: Ronald Koeman is wanted here there and everywhere after guiding the Saints into Europe with a fifth-placed finish. The Dutchman’s team didn’t fare quite as well in our rankings finishing sixth, although theie final-day 4-1 thumping of Crystal Palace lifted them a place.

Swansea – 3.5: A 1-1 draw with Man City on the final day saw Swansea finish our rankings in 10th spot and a slightly better showing than their 12th-placed finish in the real table.

Sunderland – 2.5: Sunderland finished their season with a 2-2 draw at Watford to make it six games unbeaten and a joint 11th-placed finish with their neighbours Newcastle. It was a far better showing than their performance in real terms, but the Black Cats will not be too worried after avoiding the drop and relegating Newcastle.

West Brom 1.5: Salomon Rondon’s second goal in two games earned the Baggies a 1-1 draw v Liverpool and a seventh-placed finish in our table. Tony Pulis will take that all day long and might well be asking the Premier League to switch to our system!

Liverpool – 1: Liverpool finished eighth in our rankings and also in the real table after Jurgen Klopp made 11 changes as they drew with West Brom. All eyes were on Wednesday’s Europa League final as Liverpool have finished outside the top five for the sixth time in seven seasons.

Chelsea – 1: Their season is still not done in our rankings because Bournemouth still have the chance to relegate the fallen champions is they get a draw against Man Utd in Tuesday’s rearranged final fixture. Chelsea’s final-day 1-1 draw with Leicester lifted them out of the bottom three in our table, but they could still finish in the bottom three. In real terms they finished 10th and not many people saw that coming in August.

Leicester – 1: The surprise champions finished with a draw at the fallen champions but it still wasn’t enough to overhaul a West Ham side, who won at Arsenal, Liverpool and Man City early on to streak ahead and hold on to win our rankings.

Man City -0.5: A solid 1-1 draw at Swansea secured their place in the Champions League for next season, but they were pipped into fourth by Stoke in our table.

* Man Utd v Bournemouth abandoned (both one game to play)

 

Power Rankings

Team Power Rankings Points Official Points
1. West Ham 106 62
2. Leicester City 102.5 81
3. Tottenham 82.5 70
4. Stoke City 80 66
5. Man City 78.5 51
6. Southampton 77 43
7. West Brom 76.5 63
8. Liverpool 71 60
= Arsenal 71 63
10. Swansea 69.5 39
11. Newcastle 69 71
= Sunderland 69 47
13. Man Utd (37 games) 66.5 42
14. Everton 64.5 39
15. C Palace 63.5 47
16. Watford 61 45
17. Chelsea 55 42
18. Bournemouth (37 games) 54.5 50
19. Norwich City 50.5 34
20. Aston Villa 29.5 17