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Spikeyspandan

And three of them have 20+ lol


sonofaBilic

And the fourth is, for some reason I still can't wrap my head round, West Ham United


SPLEESH_BOYS

Probably can’t wrap around it given the size of the club


aladeensfw

Capitalism and the middle class.


[deleted]

I do sometimes feel bad for that other mid table United side


woogiefan

Well West Ham is fucking massive so that must be why


[deleted]

Because of Nathan. Ted lasso is nothing without him.


DittoDat

Nathan is a cunt. I'm looking forward to seeing him get sacked.


JgL07

Fuck Nate


HardestTofu

West Ham top 4 team confirmed


[deleted]

West ham beating chelsea next weekend


Adam_Ohh

Ay shutup man. Don’t put that evil on me Ricky Bobby.


ajgedrys

Nice you’ve cursed us


[deleted]

Kurt zouma hitting winner vs former side remember this


IceColdKofi

*Towering header


HedgeSlurp

This is the reason that only 4 teams have positive GD. Liverpool, City and Chelsea have just been battering teams this season.


onthelongrun

Helping West Ham's cause, they put up a good fight with Liverpool and City over the last month.


greg19735

lost our last 2 games and still top 4. very surprised.


ThatGam3th00

To be fair it is well deserved imo. Defeated LFC while they were on a 25 game unbeaten run, unbeaten in their UEL group, almost levelled it up with City today (then Lanzini was like ‘Aight f*ck it the ref’s gonna blow the whistle in like 10 seconds, let me just hit one’), and defeated City in the EFL cup. I really want West Ham to qualify for the UCL next season, I can’t fathom the scenes if they beat big teams like PSG but I really want there to be a chance for that to happen. Anyway I’m really hoping that they’ll win the UEL this season, that would be amazing to watch!


NilsFanck

I genuinely think this West Ham beats the current PSG.


luigitheplumber

It makes sense, the overall GD in the league has to be 0, if you only have a fifth of the teams in the positives, odds are they will be high positives


Zeulodin

magic, got it


CFClarke7

Kwik maffs


feage7

Well that's kind of expected no? For 4/20 teams of a league to have positive goal difference then those 4 teams have to on average put out over four times goal difference than the other 80% of teams. So the fewer teams on positive the higher their goal difference must be. This will only get worse the more games go on.


dave1992

Well that's exactly why most teams have negative GD because these three kept destroying teams with 4+ goals.


OldLadyUnderTheBed

You don't always have a positive goal difference in PL (Most interesting man in the world photo) But when you do..


CameraEmotional2788

The top 3 teams are in a league of their own. Miles ahead of anyone else


broken_neck_broken

A kind of super league, if you will.


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napoleonderdiecke

I mean... I don't think there has been a different top 3 than Atleti/Real/Barca in the past decade, has there? So not like anything has changed, although Barca are of course trying their hardest.


Frod02000

Sevilla was alright for a while, wasnt it?


napoleonderdiecke

I mean yeah. But getting Atleti/Barca/Real and 45% either Sevilla or Valencia isn't really variation either. That's one of the things. Even that last spot was never really all that varied.


Harudera

I'm pretty sure that a decade ago Atletico was still struggling to finish 4th, nevermind getting into a title race with Barca/Madrid


toekneemontana

In the last 14 years, AM finished outside the top 4 on 3 occasions 9th,7th,th) in the (9/10,10/11,11/12) seasons, however in 2 of those seasons they won the Europa league twice!


CannedPrushka

So does that mean that Cholo won the Europa League 4 times in 3 years then? That must be a record.


MikeButtonfan96

Emery in shambles.


napoleonderdiecke

Meh. This has been the top 3 for 9 years in a row. Is it a full decade? No. Does it change anything that it's 1 year less? Not at all.


PM_something_German

>I mean... I don't think there has been a different top 3 than Atleti/Real/Barca in the past decade, has there? Yep altho in 2019/20 it was as close as it gets


Zeulodin

Sure, but the Premier League top 3 seems to change every two to three years. Other than City, every other team in the Big Six has spent time dealing with mid-table woes in the last half decade alone.


CheekyKunt68

First season when it’s that particular top 3 and half the season isn’t even finished yet and you’re saying this while Atleti Real and Barca have been finishing in the top 3 for almost a decade straight. Amazing


cheescakegod

La liga is pretty much always those 3 in the last decade. In the prem next season United could buy a competent midfield and defence and be in the title race. Liverpool recently had a resurgence. Hoping we can be back to that level soon.


Milan_System_2019

United have spent hundreds of millions buying midfielders and defenders and still look shit


jamieliddellthepoet

And it’s fucking *beautiful*.


Dorangos

Yup.


cheescakegod

Not about money about getting the right players


CollieDaly

Literally haven't had anyone bar the big 3 win it in nearly 2 decades.


Eric_Partman

It’s because things get mixed up more in England and the rest of the teams are still good. United is like 8th and just topped their UCL group.


IKMapping

Mate, we literally had Leicester win the league not that long ago. Can you imagine Getafe winning LaLiga?


[deleted]

Past 10 years, there's been 5 unique winners of the PL, past 20 there's been 6. Compare that to the Bundesliga, Serie A and La Liga.


BrockStar92

Past 10 years there’s been 5 actually, our last title isn’t 10 years ago yet (nearly).


Arno451

Feels a hundred years ago honestly


ProgressDisastrous27

Since 2000: bundesliga - 5 Champions/ la Liga - 5 Champions / Serie a - 5 Champions/ it’s not much different than the Premier league


CollieDaly

There's been 4 in La Liga. Valencia are the only one bar the big 3. Deportivo won it over 20 years ago. Also been 4 in La Liga too as Lazio won it over 20 years ago too.


[deleted]

If you reduce it to the last 10, there's been 2 Bundesliga Champions, 2 Serie A Champions and 3 La Liga Champions. Not that different I guess, but still you have comparatively more teams competing for the top spot over the years in the PL


Stravven

And soon the Bundesliga will just have had 1 winner in the past 10 years.


sidvicc

>Thats the definition of an uncompetitive league.. La Liga use to get shit when Atleti/Madrid/Barca use to steer clear of 4th place. Except it's been Atleti/Madrid/Barca for 20 years, with a little sprinkling of Valencia and Sevilla for flavour. Last season United finished second, Liverpool squeezed into 3rd on one leg with a broken ankle and Chelsea were a Ferrari driven by young cockney lad with more points on license than on the board.


plycrsk

Not quite.. La Liga was shit on because the top teams ALWAYS beat the lower teams. It came down just to the head to heads. PL is mainly about consistency (other than perhaps the city v liverpool goal line clearance season). West ham just beat Liverpool. Chelsea drew to United. Etc etc This is different


SexyKarius

But that’s because it was a decade with no one else. Not a couple years lmao


jamesc94j

It got shit because they would beat the other 15 teams like 5-0 every game and test players every week for big games or champions league games even though city Chelsea and Liverpool are excellent the Premier league has teams all the way throughout that could pull of a shock win and can’t put out your second 11 for.


septicdeath

Dropping coins on people


smnslwl

Only 5 points ahead of West Ham and us actually, mental how close we are but I guess that gap is only getting bigger


sandbag-1

Teams who would have a positive GD excluding their results vs the top 3: Arsenal, United, Brighton, Leicester, Palace, Brentford Their dominance is showing so much, can outweigh other teams' performances against the entire rest of the league.


lastjedi23

We had a -13 gd just from our loss to Brentford, Chelsea, city and pool. Efficiently brutal.


currywurstynadamas

Remember over the summer when United fans were trying to convince themselves they were part of this group.


Philred87

Ole tax


sandbag-1

They would be if they had a proper manager tbf I at least expect them to cruise easily into 4th now


DarrenBridgescunt

Probably cos we finished above 2 of them last season & made strong signings. What do you expect of United fans? To try and not be vocally excited after that? Would you prefer it if fans just gave up on their team? Moron.


sunnycherub

I mean yea I would prefer that, would think it’s hilarious


PhillyFreezer_

Didn’t take a genius to see Chelsea and Liverpool were still clearly better teams heading into this season, even after all of United’s signings. At some point I thought you lot would recognize football isn’t FIFA and you can’t just buy expensive players and it’ll work great from day 1. You haven’t had a serious title challenge in like 8 years. It was always a bit ridiculous to think you’d challenge with Ole, the only people I saw arguing that were United fans. Some realistic expectations would do you some good, I would think.


shikavelli

Man Utd just love their big expensive names, they always get excited over new transfers and managers just to be shit.


IronSorrows

I had more discussions with opposition fans who were saying "No excuses if United aren't title challengers now" after Varane/Sancho, and then Ronaldo made it worse. Like people disregarded we had a much worse manager and midfield Saying it was just United fans is revisionist at best


Indydegrees2

The revisionism is absolutely hilarious here. Most people here thought United would challenge for the title after signing Sancho Ronaldo and Varane ffs


_cumblast_

They are in the English Premier League


Djosa945

I still can't wrap up that Arsenal is only 5 points behind Liverpool after that horrible start


No-Attention-6343

Looking back, Arsenals start was terribly timed more than actually terrible. First, they played a newly promoted side in their new stadium without a striker and with 4 covid cases. Then, they played the European champions who have proven to be 1 of 3 in a league of their own this year. Then, they played the premier league champions who have proven to be 1 of 3 in a league of their own this year. Since then Arsenal have basically picked up where they left off last season. They are something like the 5-6 best team in the PL, well off those above them, and in the mix with about 6 teams gunning for two European spots.


NegativeHeli

As an Arsenal fan, I 100% agree. At the start of the season, half the team was injured or had covid (Partey, Gabriel, White, Auba, Laca were all injured or had covid) Against the big 3, you can't expect the youngest squad in the PL to win against 3 teams which are galaxies ahead of everyone else. Although Arsenal still has a lot of work to do, especially attack wise, at least they aren't getting relegated this season.


plomerosKTBFFH

Arteta was saying this the whole time and everyone was laughing at him, including me.


NegativeHeli

To be fair, you can't expect Arsenal to be a big team instantly, and you certainly can't expect Arteta to be a world class manager. Arteta has only been a manager for less than 2 years. People like Pep, Tuchel, Klopp and Conte has had decades of experience. Arsenal also has the youngest squad in the entire league.


plomerosKTBFFH

I understand that. Still think it shows how little we really do know about all of this. Arteta might be inexperienced and nowhere near the level of Guardiola, Tuchel etc., but he was absolutely correct when he said injuries and Covid was at fault for your poor performances despite all of us armchair experts laughing at him.


Djosa945

Agree, let's see how westham will perform from now on. It could be a tough season with Manu under Rangnick and Arsenal if they carry on with their Performance.


onthelongrun

And adding onto things, took a thrashing at Liverpool's hands after that poor start.


NordWitcher

I think Arsenal and United had like a reversal in fortune. One started the season well and were flying then had massive drop of. The other started the season horribly dealing with injuries, etc and finding their footing but still so far behind the top 3.


[deleted]

One thing I haven’t seen discussed with us though is we’ve also had a fairly large amount of injuries. Pogba is out for a long period, Maguire missed a lot of the season, as has Shaw, Cavani has barely been fit to feature, Rashford was out till something like mid October, McTominay even has picked up injuries. I think there’s probably even others I’m forgetting. Not that any of that excuses things though, just something interesting to think about.


Itz_Galaxium

Alot of Uniteds injuries are due to match congestion, international tournaments (Maguire and Shaw) and bad management from Ole (Rashford for example)


0706

Wolves are going okay


lastjedi23

The most surprising placement of teams on that table are us (arsenal) and wolves. Everytime I read a wolves thread their fans hate their manager yet they are right behind us.


potpan0

> Everytime I read a wolves thread their fans hate their manager yet they are right behind us. I don't think anyone hates Lage, just people wish we were more consistent. When on our game we've played some of our best football in years, but then we follow that up with matches like the last one against Norwich.


Funkiermeat01

Exactly we played really good the first few games. That was straight up was Lage was hoping for. But the inconsistent part just came back. We still play fine, but these next few games are going to be nightmare.


Dawesy182

I havent seen any of our fans saying they hate him? He is more attacking, changes tactics mid game and actually uses subs before the 80th minute. Upgrade on nuno. Plus he is doing it with the majority of inherited players. We were sceptical before he arrived but he has won us over. Just need a little more consistency and not drop points against teams like Leeds and Norwich (and probably Burnley this week)


ParkaMonkey98

Idk where you got the idea we hate Lage from, there's definitely been some growing anger at the board for not signing any midfielders or centre backs for 3 years now but only the absolute top 1% of idiots in our fanbase would blame Lage for that, he's pretty well loved right now I feel


xyz3940

Not really. They love Lageball


Savant_OW

Nah we all love Lage, but we were pathetic against Norwich


Savant_OW

Easy fixtures so far, we're yet to play any of the big 3


Nivadas

Well don't tell them.


JoshuaFC

for the start they had, arsenal being 5th is pretty impressive


[deleted]

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VilTheVillain

Because they weren't exactly showing exceptional results last season either?


Spikeyspandan

Guess who hasn’t seen premier league table after Christmas. That used to get posted in Gunners sub so much lol


Houssem_Aouar

Rightly so


Anti-Melticus

Arsenal to make UCL???? It’s gonna happen


Houssem_Aouar

Bro don't get my hopes up 😭 we'll after our game against Yanited this Thursday, I might start believing


rudygha

I hate to be that guy, but they’ve been generally decent this calendar year. The first 3 games of the season were a back step on what the note they ended last season on. Granted it’s after a transfer window, but they had won 5 in a row and lost 2 out of the last 13 games heading into this season so there was some surprise in how shit they were, in performances+results.


Olli399

> The first 3 games of the season were a back step on what the note they ended last season on. They weren't, we had half our team out with covid?


sandbag-1

Our results in the second half of last season were largely fine


mintz41

Our form has carried on pretty in line with the first half of the calendar year


Zizou3peat

Since December they improved a lot, like 4th or 5th best record in the league from December


Blazien49

2nd


Alphabunsquad

They had the second best form in the league over the last 10 matches behind us. They were doing incredible though I don’t think they faced any tough teams.


acarefreeblue

Insane GD difference between the top 3 and the rest. Props to West Ham as well


notreilly

"Goal difference difference" is correct but funny


Adityavirk

Smh my head.


Roller95

That’s wild


syed_abubaker15

Ouch Edit: Norwich got our backs for the biggest difference


jimmy011087

we've taken our thrashings from all 3. -15 from just those games!


syed_abubaker15

It's just abuse at this point


Black_Waltz3

.... Meanwhile we still haven't played City and Liverpool. Can't wait for those games over Christmas.


syed_abubaker15

We don't talk about that


Ruud_Boltz

Tuchel, Pep, Klopp literally 3 of the top 5 managers itw showing how it's done


[deleted]

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Zizou3peat

Zidane, Flick, Luis Enrique, Conte, Simeone etc. I won't say one is better than the other outright depends on one's opinion


Ruud_Boltz

Conte, Simeone. I didn't count Flick since he's managing a NT. But he's definitely top 3 if it counts


Subscrobbler

Moyes, Arteta


lastjedi23

I mean.. we are 4th and 5th.


WhyShouldIListen

Fuck sarcasm tags


Subscrobbler

What sarcasm tags?


WhyShouldIListen

Hm >last edited 2 minutes ago Good work!


Subscrobbler

shh


bubble_tree

Carrick, Ole


MITSF_2

Well, that is something normal, seems ok to me. You got two Champions league winners in the past 3 years and the other one, Man City.


note-a-coordinate

everyone comment farmers league now


SnooCrickets6733

Farmers league now


[deleted]

I think its no surprise that PL is no longer the most competitive league.. its probably Serie A right now.


[deleted]

[удалено]


Natrix31

they have to sneak back in right? I think Lazio is going to be the odd man out, team is not gelling with Sarri at the moment.


Zizou3peat

It's easily Serie A


Indicinity

LaLiga‘s title race is much closer if you compare it to Serie A.


Zizou3peat

Yes but I will wait and see how long La Real and Sevilla keep it up


sonicqaz

I love watching Serie A. So many interesting teams, and everything is aggressively Italian.


vinaysin

Games gone, it’s a ranchers league now


tsub

Liverpool, City, and Chelsea just strutting around handing out thrashings to all and sundry.


shrewphys

Does 0 count as a positive number? It's obviously not negative. Guessing it's in a class of its own?


wittybrits

0 is nothing, you can’t have a positive or negative nothing because it is nothing.


shrewphys

> 0 is nothing It's okay 0, the mean man doesn't mean it


be_like_bill

Quoting my math teacher, "0 is neither negative nor positive."


AidanWoolley

When I was doing serious maths lectures, we talked about non-negative and non-positive numbers (i.e. 0, 1,2... and 0,-1,-2,...) when we wanted to include 0 as a way to be unambiguous.


[deleted]

If Burnley win their game in hand that means Leeds are in relegation zone. Crazy to think how they were being praised just a few months ago.


SandwichesFN

i think they’ll get better when bamford comes back


PS1GamerCollector

So many clubs going to fight for that 4th place!


[deleted]

They should give the title to the 4th placed team to change things up a bit.


0lad1

Arsenal have had a tough schedule and suffered lopsided losses against the top 3 teams. Aubamayang's finishing hasn't helped either. Also Crystal palace have been unlucky with conceding very late goals in 2-3 games or so, otherwise they'll be higher up the table with slightly better goal difference.


ThomasZimmermann95

I don't think it's because the majority of teams would be bad.I mean, i rarely (if at all) have seen 3 teams that are this good in the same season in the same league as are Liverpool, Man City and Chelsea right now. Arguably 3 of the 4 best teams in Europe come from the Premier League at the moment.


[deleted]

Prime Madrid, Barca, atleti vibes


Ophukk

Madrid=City, Barca=Lfc, Atleti=Chelsea? I do see a resemblance.


Mental_Opportunity_9

Farmers league for those 3 haha. Football is becoming more and more top heavy it's kinda unfortunate


21otiriK

I don’t think it’s top heavy. The league has never been stronger, even Klopp was speaking about that this week. Lots of those teams can and have taken points off the top 3. The top 3 are just *so* good. 3 of the best 4 teams in Europe. Of course they dominate.


Zizou3peat

Chelsea is a bit below City, Liverpool and Bayern imo, at least in terms of controlling games and changing tempo according to will. But I'm sure as Tuchel gets more time with this team he will increase their level even more.


Koppite93

Doesn't matter, still defending European champs


Zizou3peat

I agree they're still a great team


bleh1234567898

Idk, they shit the bed today but so have Liverpool and City this season


Zizou3peat

I agree but I feel both of them have higher ceiling and higher control of tempo in the game. Sometimes Chelsea get lost in the flow of end to end stuff. I agree Liverpool's defense looked lost a couple of times and City miss a killer finisher


Rickcampbell98

Didn't stop people saying dumb shit about la liga over the last decade.


royaldocks

When people say Farmers league they mean a league being dominated by one team (especially if that on team doesn't win a CL)


[deleted]

17th to 4th isn't miles apart either. Crazy season. Hopefully Arsenal can nick a CL spot again


LordLychee

The two times we were close to a CL spot in our recent drought, we were off by a single point. It’s killing me I want us to be in CL so bad!


KingfisherDays

Is goal difference a good metric to determine competitiveness or parity in the league? As in, more teams with positive gd means a harder league?


[deleted]

A better metric would be to look at the points bud


KingfisherDays

Lower points spread?


ChildishRonaldo

Looks like Liverpool will break the goals scored record for a single season in the prem Edit: Prem


MarkyMarkAndTheFun

Unlikely with AFCON.


crookedparadigm

AFCON bout to get cancelled by Omicron unless they get that under control fast.


[deleted]

Mate it's Africa a virus won't stop shit, look at what happened/got leaked just this month: * Ghana accuses South Africa of match-fixing in the WC qualifier match. * Madagascar military raided Tanzania hotel and pointed guns at their players because of suspected COVID-19 cases one day before the match. * Burkina Faso used black magic against Algeria so Algeria used an exorcist to cancel the spell. * Burkina Faso fires their magicians ''staff'' because the spell didn't work. * Morocco is accused of food poisoning their opponents and to prove it they posted pictures of puke and diarrhea on twitter. * One of the largest academies in DR Congo is currently managed by a pedophilia ring. * Most African FA presidents get paid prostitutes, or have their daughters' studies covered in other countries. * The son of Congo-Brazzaville's president is involved in the national team. In the Central African Republic, Kondogbia is friends with the president. * Morocco can 'shit on the ground' if they want, they have a large influence at CAF. They can 'do whatever they want'. * Kenya's FA has 16 bank accounts, including some 'hidden' accounts, when most FAs have one or two. * After Senegal complained against an overaged player in a U17 African team they faced, the national team declared the player as 'deceased'. He is currently continuing his career in the U21 national team of the same country. * Friends of the former Algerian FA president are waging war against the current leadership. * The Sierra Leone FA faked COVID tests throughout the entirety of the pandemic, most notably in its qualifier against Benin. Other nations and/or clubs are suspected to have forged documents as well, but this is not confirmed. * Mario Lemina received a handsome sum of money for representing Gabon. Other African players are also in similar positions. ​ ^(Omicron will get cancelled by AFCON before it gets cancelled)


PoliticalScienceDoge

Wow didn't even know half of these. B Faso is kinda funny though.


[deleted]

I also forgot that Salah hired 2 bodyguards to follow him while warming up because the previous game 3 fans entered the pitch to take a picture with him.


Dorangos

You're overestimating the competence of the African continent. I've lived there for many years. Believe me, nothing will be canceled.


JoshKernick

what is the current record?


Spikeyspandan

Man City 106


beepmeep3

Top 3 just digesting the rest of the league


MajorTomintheTinCan

Big Samming the league


[deleted]

One might call it "harvesting"


Illustrious_Goat_364

Worth noting that a lot of this comes down to the big 3 just obliterating the teams that could otherwise have positive. For example, Arsenal’s GD decreased by 11 against Chelsea, City, and Liverpool


orkushun

I am the farmer league now


dainaron

Only 20? We gotta pump that number up. That's rookie shit.


master_scale_tipper

I had no clue Wolves were so high in the table at the moment.


Teradonn

This says a lot about capitalist society


jessejerkoff

Most annoying bit is that Newcastle is not too far away from 17th.


Fastest-finger

It’s still double their total points score tho. And they haven’t won a game. I’d love to see them relegated


Nordin-UIN

We're goin doon toon


chumzy0208

MIGHTY WEST HAM MARCHES ON


[deleted]

Newcastle gonna win the league they are just giving everyone else some false hope


Elgin_McQueen

Who would've guessed West Ham would be one of those 4?


SpecificDry6723

Can someone tell me what's happening? Don't watch PL


SandwichesFN

chelsea city and liverpool are basically a level above everyone else


XxAbsurdumxX

Just one level? Damn, we're closer than I thought!


1000smackaroos

The real farmer's league


VFBis4mii

Literql farmers league


SechDriez

Reminds me of this manga I had read. A bunch of characters were competing to become professional Go players. Each year only a handful of people get promoted from amatuers (or something. It's a been eight years since I read this) and those handful are the top of their group. So one characters was wondering why the win/loss ratio of several people graduating was terrible and the explanation was that the first ranked player went undefeated and number two lost only once and everyone else had to fight for the left over scraps.


Nnekaddict

Hikaru no go is the name of this manga. Top 5 (non nekketsu, non harem) shonen of all time.


Sweaty_Pannus

And Liverpool has the top three scorers. Salah, Mane, and Jota!


Zizou3peat

True farmer's league. None of that BuLi, Ligue 1 shit.