Stats and Facts

Will three teams really beast Chelsea?

For anyone unsure of how the stats work please read the following:

I look at the likely players in the 4 key positions, GK, DEF,MID,ATT. I try to match it to the normal formation where possible. The average is calculated in each position. The TOP18 is the lowest player in the top 18 who isn’t a keeper. On rare occasions there is human input if the 18^th player is much lower than the rest and unlikely to play. This is then this is fed into a magic formula to give the ETOT which calculate the rankings. Simples!

Dortmund sit a little above Hellas this year, although they have a weaker keeper and attack than their rivals. Hellas also have much better depth than Dortmund and I think they will bide their time to some extent.  Porto are a match for Dortmund in most areas except defence and even less depth. Chelsea have the best keeper and many options in attack or midfield but will falter if they get a lot of injuries.

Juventus are the best of the rest but are 1.7 points shy of Chelsea which is a huge margin.  Bayern , Atletico and of course Barcelona could still challenge for the title.  Sao Paulo look the best placed of the promoted teams.

Any team in the 222 range will struggle to make any progress in such a tough league.  Espanyol look like cannon fodder early on , although with good depth they may not suffer as much as Villa who lack strength and depth at the moment.  Fenerbache perhaps the surprise promotes are a tad stronger than Villa with a bit more strength through the squad.

This leaves an open space where almost any team from Benfica down could fall into. Leverkeusen could be good for a cup run .

Overall D1 is around 0.1 points per team weaker than last season but this is marginal.