- Commissioner’s statement on Ventura, Marte
- Ronnie O’Sullivan: Masters champion ‘felt so vulnerable’ in final
- Arron Fletcher Wins 2017 WSOP International Circuit Marrakech Main Event ($140,224)
- Smith challenges Warner to go big in India
- Moncada No. 1 on MLB Pipeline’s Top 10 2B Prospects list
- Braves land 2 on MLB Pipeline’s Top 10 2B Prospects list
- Kingery makes MLB Pipeline’s Top 10 2B Prospects list
- New Zealand wrap up 2-0 after Bangladesh implosion
- Mathews, Pradeep, Gunathilaka to return to Sri Lanka
- Elliott hopes for rain for Poli
Liverpool’s Current Standing at Christmas Compared to Recent Good Seasons
- Updated: December 29, 2016
Liverpool sit second in the Premier League table in the post-Christmas period, a position that most supporters would have taken had it been offered before the start of the campaign. Their 40-point haul represents one of their best festive totals of the Premier League era.
Jurgen Klopp’s men are six places and 13 points better off than 12 months ago, and they’re eight places and 15 points better than the 2014/15 season, Brendan Rodgers’ last full season in charge.
The improvement speaks for itself. So how good is the start? Are Klopp’s team on course for a title push?
Forty points after 18 games, extrapolated over the 38-game season would equal 84.44 points—let’s round that down to 84 points.
That total points would only have been enough to win the league in two of the last 10 years (2015/16 and 2010/11). However, it would be more than enough to secure a top-four finish in each of those seasons.
Liverpool’s two highest points totals in the Premier League era arrived in 2013/14—when Rodgers’ side amassed 84 points and finished two behind Manchester City—and 2008/09—when Rafael Benitez’s team finished the season on 86 points, four behind Manchester United.
That total under Benitez would typically be enough to win the title.
So how does Liverpool’s position compare to those two campaigns in which the Reds finished second?
2013/14
Rodgers’ side in 2013/14 sat top of the table at Christmas despite having one fewer point than Klopp’s team did on Christmas Day (36)—although they did drop to fourth on Boxing Day following a 2-1 loss to Manchester City.
They’d won the same amount of games (11), but Klopp’s side has lost two fewer this year.
In truth, Liverpool only started to excel during the second half of that campaign, as Steven …
