Season 27 Division 2 Stats and Facts

Arsenal to win the league, human and A.I. agree but could they be an outlier?

Not as close at the top as D1, Arsenal has a clear division 1 squad and should get promoted with ease.  Stoke in addition there is solid agreement that the well-balanced team with loads of depths should finish second well ahead of their nearest rivals.  This is where things get tricky. Only 1pt separates the next 6 teams rather like the top of D1, so a small deviation from form could place the 3^rd place team out of the play off spots.  Flamengo if they score enough should finish 3^rd but are they over reliant on their attack when they have a weak keeper.  The A.I. sees them finishing 7^th and maybe lower.  My 4^th place team Internacional are the A.I.s choice for 3^rd, seeing them as more balanced even if depth is slightly less.  Benfica also a balanced team with a good attack should be 5^th or 6^th, before we reach another big difference in Cologne. I see them as coming 6^th, the A.I. says 12^th, even more so though Anderlecht who I see as a playoff team but the A.I. sees struggling to avoid relegation. If you assume 224 is needed to survive D1 all the teams except Arsenal and Stoke have plenty to do if promoted.

Liege is the A.I.s big winner finishing in 4^th rather than 8^th and it also see’s West Ham finishing as high as 5^th.

There is general agreement that current top team Augsburg will struggle finishing last or 2^nd to last with Boca Juniors.  They should be joined by Dinamo Zagreb. I see Espanyol as relegation territory but the A.I. does not agree, with Real Madrid being unfavoured by the robotic calculator. Interestingly only Augsburg are below last seasons cut off point of 219.8 for relegation.

The four biggest uncertainties are around Arsenal if hit by injuries or a poor rotational policy could drop them to 4 – 6^th spot. Flamengo could lack consistency and the A.I. says in a worse circumstance they could drop to 10 – 12^th.  Cologne has a big depth gap so with bad luck could finish 15 – 17^th.  Zagreb has a small depth gap and that could count in their favour with a finish between 13^th – 15^th although that may only be evident after the mid-season.

	GK	DEF	MID	ATT	Top18	Ave	ETOT	Pre	A.I
Arsenal	91.0	90.5	91.2	91.0	85.0	89.7	225.63	1	1
Stoke City	90.0	90.5	90.4	90.0	87.0	89.6	224.46	2	2
CR Flamengo	88.0	89.3	89.4	92.0	86.0	88.9	223.60	3	7
SC Internacional	91.0	89.0	90.0	91.0	85.0	89.2	223.47	4	3
SL Benfica	90.0	89.0	89.8	91.0	85.0	89.0	223.19	5	6
Cologne	90.0	89.3	88.6	92.0	84.0	88.8	222.96	6	12
RSC Anderlecht	89.0	88.8	89.0	92.0	85.0	88.8	222.88	7	16
Standard Liège	93.0	88.8	89.4	90.0	87.0	89.6	222.62	8	4
Málaga CF	88.0	89.0	89.2	90.0	87.0	88.6	222.06	9	10
Atlético Madrid	90.0	89.3	89.0	90.0	83.0	88.3	221.86	10	15
Real Madrid	89.0	89.0	88.6	90.0	87.0	88.7	221.70	11	17
Udinese Calcio	89.0	89.5	88.8	89.0	87.0	88.7	221.61	12	8
West Ham United	89.0	89.3	89.8	88.0	87.0	88.6	221.56	13	5
Wolfsburg	88.0	89.3	89.2	89.0	86.0	88.3	221.49	14	11
Everton	88.0	89.0	89.2	89.0	87.0	88.4	221.41	15	13
Manchester United	88.0	89.3	89.0	89.0	86.0	88.3	221.33	16	14
RCD Espanyol	90.0	89.5	89.0	88.0	86.0	88.5	221.12	17	9
Dinamo Zagreb	90.0	88.5	89.0	89.0	87.0	88.7	221.09	18	18
Boca Juniors	89.0	86.5	87.0	95.0	82.0	87.9	221.07	19	20
Augsburg	89.0	87.3	88.0	90.0	85.0	87.9	219.58	20	19