How Many Losses Before You Are Out of the Race?

By: Rob | October 5th, 2009

So, the big game this weekend finished with Chelsea coming out on top, a much needed tonic after their defeat against Wigan last week. The loss means Liverpool have already lost thrice this season, although Rafa Benitez is still confident that Liverpool are still in the title race.

Which got me wondering how many losses is it before you are totally out of the running? Well after the jump are examples from previous seasons, and it makes for interesting reading indeed.

2008/9 - Man United won the league having only lost 4 games. Interestingly, Liverpool only lost 2 and finished second.
2007/8 - Man United won the league having lost 5 games. Arsenal and Chelsea only lost 3, and finished 2nd and 3rd.
2006/7 - Man United won the league losing 5 games. Chelsea lost 3 and came second.
2005/6 – Chelsea won the league losing 5 matches, Man United second with 5 losses.
2004/5 - Chelsea won the league losing only once. Arsenal second with 5 losses.
2003/4 - Arsenal won the league undefeated.

It seems, on recent form that 5 is the limit. No-one’s won the league of late by losing more than 5 games. So considering that Liverpool have already lost 3, and its only the start of October, they aren’t in a very good position – but it isn’t yet terminal.

The really interesting thing perhaps though, is that Liverpool need not worry about how the other sides are doing – the league can be won even if you don’t have the least amount of losses, as they showed against Man United last season.

Though no team has won the league after losing three of its first 8 since Man United 42 years ago. So yeah, Liverpool have some work to do. But its not over yet.

	EPL Match Schedule			Discount Travel to England
	EPL Scores			English Stadium information & hotels

Category: Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester United

Tags: 2-0, Arsenal, Chelsea, Invincibles, Liverpool, losses, Man United, Manchester United, Rafa Benitez, title race

« The Liverpool/Chelsea Rivalry | Home | Which Big Names Couldn’t Cut It in the Prem? »

Subscribe   The Offside RSS Feeds

Print

Share

Comments   |  Add your comment

• Laurie |  October 5th, 2009 at 9:08 am

  
  
  

  Wow. As a fan of parity-based MLS, I find this stat kind of amazing. Although the top MLS team is currently sitting on five losses, with three games to go, so I guess it’s not that much different. (Aside from the little detail of 30 games vs. 38.)

  Posted from United States

  

• Ed |  October 5th, 2009 at 11:24 am

  
  
  

  Can’t say that Rafa is ever not confident about Liverpool’s title challenge, or shy about telling the media so, but let’s hope he’s right.

  Posted from United States

  

• Andrew |  October 5th, 2009 at 11:29 am

  
  
  

  Just a quick correction, the Chelsea loss to Wigan was 3 – 1, not 2 – 0.

  Posted from United States

  

• Daryl |  October 5th, 2009 at 2:16 pm

  
  
  

  Thinking about Liverpool last season, you could say number of draws is almost as important as number of defeats.

  Actually… am I right in saying it’s 66% as important?

  Posted from United States

  

• Mike de Vries |  October 5th, 2009 at 8:26 pm

  
  
  

  I think across the board the top sides are weaker this year.

  You’re right Daryl, its lost points no matter how you look at it. Liverpool have a couple top players but are a half dozen players away from being consistent title challengers.

  Posted from Canada

  

• Daryl Kennedy |  October 6th, 2009 at 4:59 am

  
  
  

  I believe Liverpool have already shown this season that they do not have the squad to compete with Manchester United and Chelsea. Chelsea certainly look like the team to beat at the moment, but it should be remembered that United are notoriously slow starters and are only two points behind at present.

  Posted from Ireland

  

• Ian Morrison |  October 6th, 2009 at 5:15 am

  
  
  

  Good point Daryl. i believe too that Chelsea are the team to beat. I believe that City could be dark horses

  Posted from Ireland

  

• Premiership Shirts |  October 6th, 2009 at 5:17 am

  
  
  

  All the top teams will drop points this season so I think you could see a high number of losses for some of the op teams. The league looks to be more exciting than ever at the moment with Spurs and Man City keeping early pace with the top four. If they can keep up, more likely for City than Spurs I think, we could see the top four changed with Liverpool favourites to drop out at the moment.

  Posted from United States

  

• Mike de Vries |  October 6th, 2009 at 10:46 pm

  
  
  

  I think the conclusion we all come to though is that Liverpool are out of the title race. They aren’t good enough and below is an article that describes it more:

  http://goodsportblog.wordpress.com/2009/10/06/why-liverpool-wont-challenge/

  Posted from Canada

  

• SoccerFanatic |  October 7th, 2009 at 11:28 am

  
  
  

  Coming out on top after already losing 3 times is a long shot, but would be exciting to say the least…it’s time for a new top-dog in the premiership.

  Posted from United States

  

• Gooner |  October 9th, 2009 at 8:32 pm

  
  
  

  Man U have won the title 3 seasons running simply by beating the bottom teams.

  They don’t mind losing if they play badly, but when they play well they invariably win.
  A win and a loss gets you more points than two draws.

  Posted from Australia

  

• nick |  October 13th, 2009 at 3:17 pm

  
  
  

  http://freefootballstream.blogspot.com/

  Posted from United Kingdom

  

Leave a Reply