EPL 2012-13 : Gameweek 1-5 : Analysis on Teams currently ranked 16 to 20

In my three previous articles, we saw how the top 15 teams in the English Premier League have played, their form, their strengths & weakness, key players and the way forward this season at the end of 5th gameweek. In this article we will analyze the same for the bottom five teams.

#16 Southampton (Games Played:5, Points Scored:3):

For a club which just got promoted to play Manchester City, Manchester United and Arsenal within the first 5 games is the toughest task. Though the team put up a good competition against City and United, Arsenal shattered them. Still, they do have their strengths. They won Aston Villa by a very good margin (4-1). They are the highest scoring club in the bottom 9 teams. But, they are the highest conceding team too with 15 goals conceded with an average of 3 goals per game. Apart from Spurs, they don't have any big teams in the next 5 games. Hence, their results in the other 4 games will reveal whether they will fight out to stay in EPL or not.

Gameweek	Opponent	Home/Away	Result	Goals	Current Rank
1	Man City	Away	Loss	3-2	7
2	Wigan	Home	Loss	0-2	15
3	Man Utd	Home	Loss	2-3	2
4	Arsenal	Away	Loss	6-1	5
5	Aston Villa	Home	Win	4-1	14

#17 Norwich (Games Played:5, Points Scored:3):

Norwich are the lowest goal scorers in the league right now scoring just 2 goals so far. They were relatively better among the bottom 7 teams in defense, that too with conceding 5 goals in a single match. The biggest problem to them right now is the next three fixtures. They are against Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal. Getting a points against all these three matches will be next to impossible. With such tough fixtures, Norwich will probably go still down in the rankings at the end of gameweek 10.

Gameweek	Opponent	Home/Away	Result	Goals	Current Rank
1	Fulham	Away	Loss	5-0	6
2	QPR	Home	Draw	1-1	19
3	Tottenham	Away	Draw	1-1	8
4	West Ham	Home	Draw	0-0	9
5	Newcastle	Away	Loss	1-0	10

#18 Liverpool (Games Played:5, Points Scored:2):

The surprise package this season is to see Liverpool at this spot after 5 games. Liverpool met Arsenal, Man Utd and Man City in their home and just got one point. Home advantage is very significant in the league and big teams coming to home and going back easily with points signal that the club is no longer a tough team. Loss against West Brom by 3-0 is another sad tale. It's time for the new manager to knit the team. Their first win of the season came against West Brom is the only relief for them right now. Next 5 games too aren't doable for Liverpool. If they couldn't turn things around even by the end of gameweek 10, it will be too late then.

Gameweek	Opponent	Home/Away	Result	Goals	Current Rank
1	West Brom	Away	Loss	3-0	4
2	Man City	Home	Draw	2-2	7
3	Arsenal	Home	Loss	0-2	5
4	Sunderland	Away	Draw	1-1	12
5	Man Utd	Home	Loss	1-2	2

#19 QPR (Games Played:5, Points Scored:2):

To be frank, I never expected QPR to be at this position. With Ji-Sung Park, Cisse, Granero, Bosingwa, Zamora and Julio Cesar, they weren't able to perform better. They either aren't gelling together or they aren't managed well. They did had tough matches against Man City, Chelsea and Tottenham, but a loss of 0-5 at home to Swansea suggests there needs to be a change in the club. In the next 5 matches, they need to start winning against West Brom, West Ham and Reading.

Gameweek	Opponent	Home/Away	Result	Goals	Current Rank
1	Swansea	Home	Loss	0-5	11
2	Norwich	Away	Draw	1-1	17
3	Man City	Away	Loss	3-1	7
4	Chelsea	Home	Draw	1-1	1
5	Tottenham	Away	Loss	2-1	8

 #20 Reading (Games Played:4, Points Scored:1):

Reading started the season with a draw. They put up a fight against Chelsea and Tottenham but it didn't bear them any fruit. This is not how teams which usually stay in their promoted league perform. In the next five games, apart from the Liverpool match, their will to compete and stay will become clear enough.

Gameweek	Opponent	Home/Away	Result	Goals	Current Rank
1	Stoke	Home	Draw	1-1	13
2	Chelsea	Away	Loss	4-2	1
3	Tottenham	Home	Loss	1-3	8
4	West Brom	Away	Loss	1-0	4

Among these 5 teams, most probably 3 teams will remain in the bottom five spots at the end of 10th gameweek. Let’s wait to see the positions then.

Related articles

• EPL 2012-13 : Gameweek 1-5 : Analysis on Teams currently ranked 11 to 15 (arunsankar.wordpress.com)


• English Premier League: 5 Sleeper Teams to Watch in the EPL This Year (bleacherreport.com)


• Predictions for English Premier League Gameweek 6 (bleacherreport.com)

EPL 2012-13 : Gameweek 1-5 : Analysis on Teams currently ranked 11 to 15

In my two previous articles, we saw how the top 10 teams in the English Premier League have played, their form, their strengths & weakness, key players and the way forward this season at the end of 5th gameweek. In this article we will analyze the same for the next five teams.

#11 Swansea City (Games Played:5, Points Scored:7):

Swansea started the season with a bang maintaining No. 2 rank for the first 3 games. But with two back-to-back losses to Aston Villa and Everton, they have dropped to 11th rank. In the first 3 matches they scored 10 goals and in the next 2 matches they didn't score any. In the first two games they didn't concede at all, but they conceded 7 goals in the next 3 games. The team is capable enough to do well against the teams in the bottom-half and mid-table. If they are successful in exploiting that, there is a possibility that they might be in the mid-table at the end. In the next 5 games, apart from the matches against Chelsea and Man City, other matches are not tough for them. Scoring the same 7 points or more in the next 5 games will put them in the mid-table for sure.

Gameweek	Opponent	Home/Away	Result	Goals	Current Rank
1	QPR	Away	Win	0-5	19
2	West Ham	Home	Win	3-0	9
3	Sunderland	Home	Draw	2-2	12
4	Aston Villa	Away	Loss	2-0	14
5	Everton	Home	Loss	0-3	3

#12 Sunderland (Games Played:4, Points Scored:4):

Out of the four teams with 4 points each, Sunderland has played one game lesser. They have so far drew all the matches. In the three matches with goals scored, Sunderland has lost the lead in all the three. In West Ham's match they lost in the extra time. This is an area of concern for Sunderland. They have to either bring in their winning mentality and kill off the game by scoring more goals or be solid in the back and defend the lead to win. All the goals conceded have come from the center of the Penalty area which suggests there is some gap in their existing play. In the attack, all the four goals came from Steven Fletcher, which is not good for the team (increased reliance on a single player). In the next 5 matches, they play against Man City which will be very tough. Against the 4 other teams, Sunderland should try to get as many points as possible. If Sunderland wants to enter the top half of the table, they need to get at least 10 points from the next 5 matches.

Gameweek	Opponent	Home/Away	Result	Goals	Current Rank
1	Arsenal	Away	Draw	0-0	5
2	Swansea	Away	Draw	2-2	11
3	Liverpool	Home	Draw	1-1	18
4	West Ham	Away	Draw	1-1	9

#13 Stoke City (Games Played:5, Points Scored:4):

Playing Arsenal, Man City and Chelsea within the first five games will be the toughest for any mid-table team. Unfortunately, two of these teams played at Stoke's stronghold home stadium (Britannia Stadium). Stoke should have won at least one of the draws against 15th placed Wigan and 20th placed Reading to prove their worth in mid-table contention. Stoke should try to reverse this by scoring at least 7 points in the matches against Swansea, Sunderland and Norwich in the upcoming 5 games. The other two matches against the Reds and the Red Devils are very tough.

Gameweek	Opponent	Home/Away	Result	Goals	Current Rank
1	Reading	Away	Draw	1-1	20
2	Arsenal	Home	Draw	0-0	5
3	Wigan	Away	Draw	2-2	15
4	Man City	Home	Draw	1-1	7
5	Chelsea	Away	Loss	1-0	1

#14 Aston Villa (Games Played:5, Points Scored:4):

Aston Villa has not been the same after the departure of Martin O'Neil. They had a poor start to the season. Though they have a good squad, they are struggling a lot. Aston Villa's performance in 2-4 win against Manchester City in Capital One League Cup is the only best show put up by them. With Given, Bent, N'Zogbia, Agbonlahor and Petrov, Villa should kick-start and catch up with other clubs soon. Sadly they haven't done that in the first 5 games. And if they are continuing the same form, then it is very difficult for them to even touch the mid-table. In the next 5 games, other than Spurs all the matches are winnable. Hence an improvement in the rank at the end of the gameweek 10 only will tell whether they are in the path of recovery or not.

Gameweek	Opponent	Home/Away	Result	Goals	Current Rank
1	West Ham	Away	Loss	1-0	9
2	Everton	Home	Loss	1-3	3
3	Newcastle	Away	Draw	1-1	10
4	Swansea	Home	Win	2-0	11
5	Southampton	Away	Loss	4-1	16

#15 Wigan Athletic (Games Played:5, Points Scored:4):

Wigan played three teams from the top 10 and lost in all the three. They played two teams from the bottom 10 and got four points. Not a bad result. But they should have been better against Fulham. Transfers of Rodallega and Moses were a big loss for Wigan. But Di Santo and new signing Kone tried to compensate for their absence in the attacking front both scoring 2 goals each. Only 4 teams conceded equal to or more than 10 goals. Wigan is one among them. Defensive strategy change is necessary. Another interesting thing is that Wigan has conceded and scored only in 0' to 10', 40' to 60' and 80'+ timings. This suggests that the team is nervously energetic around the beginning, the break and the end of the match. Once the match flows they are solidly maintaining 0-0 till the end comes. In the next 5 games, they don't play any heavyweights. So they have to start gathering more points before they have to play the heavyweights again.

Gameweek	Opponent	Home/Away	Result	Goals	Current Rank
1	Chelsea	Home	Loss	0-2	1
2	Southampton	Away	Win	0-2	16
3	Stoke	Home	Draw	2-2	13
4	Man Utd	Away	Loss	4-0	2
5	Fulham	Home	Loss	1-2	6

Among these 5 teams, at the least 1 team will move into the top half table spot at the end of 10th gameweek. Let’s wait to see the positions then.

Related articles

• EPL 2012-13 : Gameweek 1-5 : Analysis on Teams currently ranked 6 to 10 (arunsankar.wordpress.com)


• Fantasy Football Gameweek 5 (thebatamonblog.wordpress.com)


• EPL 2012-13 : Gameweek 1-5 : Analysis on Teams currently ranked 1 to 5 (arunsankar.wordpress.com)