“PLDs and PL positions at the halfway stage.”

The FA Premier League (PL) 2022-23 season began on the weekend of 13/14 August and paused last weekend 12/13 November 2022. It will resume on 26 December 2022 – incidentally with 3 Premier London Derbies (PLDs) matches – one week after the FIFA World Cup Final. This unnatural ‘halfway’ point is a chance to review our 7 London Clubs’ performances in both PLDs and PL matches, as shown in this rather complex Table, where they are listed alphabetically.

Club.                                      PLDs matches                                     Premier League (PL)

Arsenal                                   W5, D0, L0                               W12, D1, L1                   37 pts./1^st

Brentford                               W0, D2, L2                               W4, D7, L4                     19 pts./10^th

Chelsea                                   W2, D2, L1                               W6, D3, L5                     21 pts./8^th

Crystal Palace                        W1, D1, L2                               W5, D4, L5                     19 pts./11^th

Fulham                                    W1, D0, L3                               W5, D4, L6                     19 pts./9^th

Tottenham Hotspur              W1, D2, L1                               W9, D2, L4                     29 pts./4^th

West Ham United                  W1, D2, L1                               W4, D2, L9                     14 pts./15^th

Alphabetical or not Arsenal come out on top of both the PLDs and PL piles with their stellar performances in both to date! Unbeaten in PLDs fixtures they have almost twice the points of second placed Chelsea (15 v 8), in the PLDs mini-league . These two are the only ones with a positive goal difference (+9 v +1) and it will take a complete change of form and fortune for the Gunners to be overhauled, when all have played their 12 PLDs matches.

Arsenal also top the PL with 12 Wins, 1 Draw, and 1 Loss from their 14 PL matches, giving 37 points. That is a remarkable 2.64 points per game! This is well in excess of Pep Guardiola’s all-time PL average of 2.36 and 2.29 this season with Manchester City who are second. The PL Champions should be one of these with perhaps Newcastle United in there.

Next highest placed PLDs Club in the PL are Tottenham Hotspur whose form has stuttered lately, but are 4^th with 29 points, just short of 2 per game.  They have lost 4 matches already and have no realistic chance of being PL Champions and neither have Chelsea, languishing in 8^th, following 5 defeats. A strong revival in form, and more money spent, may see The Blues getting a Champions League place at The Lilywhites‘ expense.

Fulham (9^th), Brentford (10^th), and Crystal Palace (11^th) are all mid-table in the PL and have 1.25 or more points per game. The Bees are the draw specialists of the PL with 7, and all 3 Clubs should be safe come May 2023. The same may not be true for West Ham United, who are 15^th and only one point above the relegation zone, having had 9 defeats, the same as the bottom two Clubs. At 0.93 points per game they have a projected 35 points and may not be safe. They need to turn their very good UEFA Conference League form into PL wins in 2023.

Until December, “Keep Safe”, and enjoy your football World Cup or not, Andrew at PLDs.