Season 17 … Division 1 … shaping up to be a manic every three points is a prisoner type season. The margins between the clubs at the top, in the middle, and in the dog fight down near the cellar are as close as they have been in the history of Top 100

And sometimes … sometimes … the inner stat’s nerd in me lashes out and punches me in the face! Dust off that big brain of yours and do some frikkin’ stats … you NERD. So here we are …

Stats Break #1 | Minutes Leading / Drawing / Losing

Let’s have a look at how long, over the first 900 minutes, each club has been leading matches, drawing … and losing …

Some obvious takeaways from this chart … the top four rarely trail in matches, the bottom several teams are struggling to put it together. Heath Brown at Arsenal must be causing his dentist bigger headaches than the molars he is grinding to a pulp. Leading a lot of matches, yet prospecting around the lower mid table.

Still early days, and a lot can change, but some food for thought.

Stats Break #2 | Shots / On Target / GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL

Over to the stat-i-caster to look at how each club has performed attacking the goal this season … Herman … what have you got for us …

Unsurprisingly the top end of the table taking a lot of shots, more accurately but only a little more successful at converting them into goals. This could bode well for rest of the season … being closer than we have seen in previous seasons.

Benfica, Manchester City and Arsenal looking at their coaching staff who are handling shooting and the attacking third responsibilities asking a Whisky Tango Foxtrot …. how much do we pay you! Real Madrid immediately securing an additional two year contracts for same said staff to discourage an Espana raid originating from Manchester airport in the next few days …

Stats Break #3 | When do we score our GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL’s

Who are the fair weather sailors, the fast starters … who are the dogged consistent scorers throughout the full 90 mins … and who are the last chance Charlies, thriving on late tension and pressure and putting the ball in the back of the net nearer the final whistle than kickoff

Interesting chart this one ….. Arsenal, Hertha, Real Madrid and Barca seem to do a lot of damage early in matches, but not so much in the second half. Juventus appear to be more interested immediately after half time spotting the pretty girls in the crowd, as are my SC Internacional.

Some interesting things in here … if you know what I mean gentlemen …

Stats Break #4 | When do we score our GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL’s in percentage brackets

My head hurts sometimes from looking at numbers … and the chart in #3 is good on an absolute basis … but showing the goals brackets in a percentage form … easier on the eyes

Converting to percentages really highlights the disparity across the clubs so far this season. You can see those asleep at the wheel in the first half, and those who eat too many pies at half time and trot around like kegs on legs for the next 15-30 mins … and those who fade out and burn away … and those primped and preened strikers that are looking for the camera’s donking in goals in the last 15 mins …

Heath Brown’s Arsenal suffering from stage fright in the second half … Glen Mullan’s RCD Espanyol slow to warm up and get into the match, but the fear of being locked under the grandstand stairs for not scoring enough has his players bring it all in the last 15 mins.

And ominously … Chelsea … even steven … bringing it consistently through the 90 mins …

Well it’s good night from me, and it’s good night from him, good night

Another update due after MD19 … mid season. Will work on a few more different data cuts for the next one … a focus on the much maligned GK methinks as well …

Until next time, Herman and Pointdexter the stat’s nerds over and out