Man United sack Ten Hag, promptly drop first points from winning position all season
The yin to our favourite stat’s yang. Or the other way round, we don’t know.
We all love seeing who’s got the most points from losing positions, but it’s quite literally impossible to look at those numbers without having to also see which silly sods have spaffed away the most points when leading.
It was a relatively slow start, but we’re in full lead-spaffing swing now, with Liverpool and Newcastle the only teams left not to have bungled a lead in any way and over half the league having now lost at least one game in which they’ve led.
20) Brentford – 14pts dropped
9 leads, 4 wins, 1 draw, 4 defeats
Deserved home winners against Palace and Southampton either side of a predictably comfy defeat from a trip to Anfield, one in which they didn’t do anything so silly as take the lead. A plan they immediately and bafflingly abandoned at the Etihad, of all places. Did you learn nothing from Ipswich, guys? Come on.
Have now apparently committed themselves to committing the cardinal sin of point spaffers everywhere: taking a first-minute lead. We are working on a theory that teams who take a first-minute lead never ever actually go on to win. Brentford certainly didn’t against Spurs or West Ham, anyway. And a lead taken on the stroke of half-time at Old Trafford soon went the same way.
Then managed to lose at Fulham despite leading after 91 minutes thanks to Harry Wilson’s super-sub antics.
They’ve frequently looked a pretty decent side this season, have Brentford, and nobody has led more games. But there’s no escaping the fact that is an alarming number of points spaffed at this early stage, with more very nearly fumbled against Ipswich as well. And the concern is that this is becoming a trend, with Brentford 20th by this metric in 23/24 and have now dropped 44 points from winning positions since the start of last season. That’s just too many, isn’t it?
19) Ipswich – 12pts
5 leads, 3 draws, 2 defeats
It’s a lot of points dropped at this very early stage but the flipside is that taking the lead in five games is also quite encouraging when you consider the odds Ipswich are up against. Could really, really, really do with holding one of these leads, mind. Interesting game coming up for them this weekend at Spurs, who keep going behind at home but still winning but are also of course entirely capable of getting a team without the win off the mark…
18) Wolves – 11pts
4 leads, 1 draw, 3 defeats
Starting to look like it could be a long old season for Wolves as they became the latest side to be left scratching their heads and wondering how after a defeat to Newcastle, while they were very good for a long time at Villa before once again coming away with nothing despite holding a 1-0 lead for a good long while. Produced an admirable 95-minute effort against Man City in which they scored a lovely early goal and were seconds away from a fantastic second point of the season before John Stones broke their hearts.
But the bald numbers are now stark. Eleven points dropped from winning positions and just a single point to show for four leads from a team who did very well by this metric last season. They have already lost more games from ahead this season than last.
17) Fulham – 10pts
8 leads, 4 wins, 2 draws, 2 defeats
Saw off Leicester safely enough but were pegged back in the dying moments by West Ham. A previously unbeaten Newcastle were dealt with pretty impressively, mind, while Nottingham Forest’s own unbeaten record also fell to the Cottagers, who then lost for the first time after leading, at Manchester City, and promptly did it again at home to Aston Villa. Couldn’t hold on at Everton, either.
Did hold on against Brentford, in part due to cannily not taking the lead at all until the 97th minute.
16) Brighton – 10pts
8 leads, 4 wins, 2 draws, 2 defeats
Gave Everton what is now starting to look like a fairly standard Everton beating before just about emerging without any dropped points against Manchester United. Didn’t lead at the Emirates but did draw, and that is a very decent outcome for anyone there these days. Goalless draw with Ipswich a first real blip, before trailing and leading before eventually drawing 2-2 with Forest.
The early lead taken at Chelsea was swept away in dizzyingly quick-fire style by Cole Palmer, while they turned the tables when silly Spurs rocked up at the Amex at their daft best. Failing to hold their own 2-0 lead in the closing minutes against Wolves was also daft, while seeing a 1-0 lead turn into a 2-1 defeat against Liverpool is more easily explained away.
15) Southampton – 8pts
4 leads, 1 win, 1 draw, 2 defeats
Finally went in front at the fifth time of asking, and immediately discovered how painful it can be as Ipswich found a 95th-minute equaliser to kick them squarely in the pods. Foolishly took the lead at Arsenal, who reacted very well to win 3-1, and even more foolishly went 2-0 up against Leicester before unravelling to lose 3-2 in the second half. Finally made a lead stick against Everton.
14) Everton – 8pts
5 leads, 2 wins, 1 draw, 2 defeats
Oh mates. To lose one Premier League game 3-2 after leading 2-0 might be considered unlucky, to lose two consecutive Premier League games 3-2 after leading 2-0 is etc. and so forth. We remain in gobsmacked, bewildered awe that Everton managed to start the season by losing 3-0 to Brighton and 4-0 to Spurs yet still contrived to have things get much, much worse from there. A point at Leicester was something, but even that involved spaffing two more.
Hurrah, then, for the Palace game. A lead defended and a deficit overturned. What a time.
13) Nottingham Forest – 8pts
9 leads, 5 wins, 4 draws
They spaffed loads of points last season too but while concerns may still exist you’d imagine Forest won’t be too glum at this stage given the points they’ve kept. A lot of the theoretically spaffed points feel like earned ones, but it’s nevertheless mad to think they sit third in the Premier League and can still legitimately engage in some what-iffery.
12) Aston Villa – 7pts
8 leads, 5 wins, 2 draws, 1 defeat
Were absolutely brilliant by this metric last season – a vital factor in securing fourth place, in fact – so leaking a couple of points from 2-1 up at newly promoted Ipswich and late on at home to Bournemouth was already a bit grating before spaffing all three at Spurs. With two draws and a defeat, they’ve now already matched their total dropped points from last season’s 23 leads.
11) Arsenal – 6pts
8 leads, 5 wins, 3 draws
Declan Rice’s red card set Arsenal down a path to their first dropped points of the season in a damaging draw with Brighton. Never looked in any real danger of being pegged back by Spurs in the NLD after scoring the most predictable goal in the history of all goals, while the Etihad madness neatly incorporated both daft red cards and predictable goals in its madcap recipe.
Came alarmingly close to what would have been a couple of the dafter dropped points you could find against Leicester but pulled themselves back from that particular brink in the end, but were pegged back twice by Liverpool in a slightly frustrating 2-2 draw. Couldn’t get in front at all in defeats to Bournemouth and Newcastle that have dealt their title hopes such a hefty early blow.
10) Tottenham – 5pts
7 leads, 5 wins, 1 draw, 1 defeat
Never looked likely to take anything but all three points against Everton and should really have been out of sight at Leicester before Jamie Vardy rustled them so. Successive defeats to Newcastle and Arsenal left them teetering on the crisis club precipice, but they extricated themselves from some early unpleasantness against Brentford adroitly enough. Romped to victory in hilarious fashion at Old Trafford, collapsed to defeat from 2-0 up in even funnier style at Brighton, overcame early deficits to thrash West Ham and Aston Villa either side of going down tamely at Palace. They remain forever compellingly, irredeemably Spurs. Feels very on-brand that they have led in seven games and trailed in seven games this season.
9) Manchester City – 4pts
9 leads, 7 wins, 2 draws
Pegged back in successive games by Arsenal and Newcastle to lend an air of heady danger to the title race. Defeat at Bournemouth not only saw the last unbeaten record of the Premier League season come to an end but also saw off their status as the only team to have led in every game this season.
8) Crystal Palace – 3pts
3 leads, 1 win, 1 draw, 1 defeat
Finally took the lead at the sixth time of asking and immediately showed why they hadn’t previously bothered by conspiring to lose to Everton of all teams. Held a lead against Spurs because of course they did, then led and trailed in the 2-2 draw at Wolves.
7) West Ham – 3pts
4 leads, 3 wins, 1 defeat
Finally took the lead in a home game and ended up winning 4-1. The 2-0 win at Crystal Palace was another impressive gem, the less said about what happened after going 1-0 up at Spurs the better, while the victory over Manchester United via that late penalty was certainly… something.
6) Leicester – 2pts
3 leads, 2 wins, 1 draw
Might well come to rue failing to close out a 2-0 lead at Crystal Palace, a lead that was cut to 2-1 almost immediately after their second goal before a cruelly late equaliser. Turned the tables on Southampton in truly dramatic style in one of the season’s finest six-pointers so far.
5) Manchester United – 2pts
4 leads, 3 wins, 1 draw
Sack Erik Ten Hag, immediately drop points from a winning position for the first time all season. Maybe he wasn’t so bad, hmm?
4) Bournemouth – 2pts
5 leads, 4 wins, 1 draw
Pegged back by Newcastle and denied a dramatic late winner by VAR at its most irritatingly, buzz-killingly fussy, but took care to avoid any such disappointment against Everton by very shrewdly only taking the lead in the 96th minute. Also clever to not take the lead against Arsenal until after one of their players had done something stupid to take them down to 10 men. Again. And going 2-0 up against City was definitely a shrewd move too. Solid record, this, you have to say, given the calibre of the teams beaten and how unlucky the two points they have dropped were.
3) Chelsea – 2pts
6 leads, 5 wins, 1 draw
Gave Wolves a kicking in the end despite conceding not one but two equalisers along the way but couldn’t find a similar response when pegged back by Palace. Didn’t give Bournemouth much time to get back at them, which Everton will confirm was a sensible move, and overwhelmed West Ham and Brighton too. Good win over Newcastle was followed by a hard-fought draw at Man United.
2) Newcastle – 0pts
4 leads, 4 wins
Wins against Southampton and Spurs at St James’ Park to go with the come-from behind success against Wolves and a 1-0 home win over Arsenal. It’s a very decent record when leading, with the only issue the fact they haven’t led more often.
1) Liverpool – 0pts
8 leads, 8 wins
Ipswich were ground down, Brentford airily dismissed and Man United torn to pieces. And then Forest happened, to the astonishment of all. A routine win over Bournemouth returned the world to its rightful axis. Wolves proved a tougher nut to crack than might have been expected, but job done in the end there, and Crystal Palace were disposed of with alarming ease. Chelsea pegged Liverpool back briefly, but only briefly, while a 1-0 deficit against Brighton was overturned with alacrity. Arne Slot’s team are doing an awful lot right.