We’ve looked at who wins the most points from losing positions, so it stands to reason we’d follow that up by having a gander at who spaffs points away from winning ones. The answer is mainly Leicester, who have already managed to lose four games after going in front. Oh, Brendan.
At the other end of the scale one team remains flawless, winning every single time they take the lead. It’s not them. Or them. Everyone else is somewhere in between, as is customary with any ranking system.
That other Spursy ranking is here…
20. Leicester – 14pts dropped
8 leads, 3 wins, 1 draw, 4 defeats
Christ that’s ugly. Especially when you remember Leicester are also one of only two sides yet to register a single point after falling behind. Basically, if Leicester go behind they lose and if Leicester go ahead they still generally lose. Brendan, mate, come on. Sort it out. You should not and cannot go around Our League with only a 50-50 chance of avoiding defeat in games where you go in front. You absolutely cannot be going in front in games and then losing 5-2 and 6-2, as the not-so-crafty Foxes have already contrived to do this season at Brighton and Spurs. Leicester having led precisely the same number of Premier League games this season as Newcastle feels like a madness.
19. Nottingham Forest – 10pts
6 leads, 2 wins, 2 draws, 2 defeats
Back-to-back 3-2 home defeats to your fellow promoted clubs after taking the lead must be considered an unorthodox and in-all-likelihood unsuccessful approach to trying to remain in the Premier League. Going 1-0 up against Liverpool and staying 1-0 up was a much better plan, albeit one swiftly abandoned in their next game at Arsenal.
18. Crystal Palace – 10pts
8 leads, 4 wins, 2 draws, 2 defeats
The moral of this story is not to switch off Crystal Palace games after the first goal assuming that all is now known. Only Spurs have won more points from losing positions, but Palace have been profligate when getting their noses in front. Nine points won from losing positions and 10 points lost from winning positions seems somehow fitting for a Palace team that seems to be very nearly very good but just isn’t quite. Fun, though.
17. Wolves – 8pts
5 leads, 2 wins, 1 draw, 2 defeats
Given the awful struggle Wolves have in actually scoring any goals to take a lead, you’d think they’d be a bit more careful when they do manage to get one. No great surprise that the two games a team with only six goals to its name has managed to lose from winning positions have both finished 2-1, against Leeds on the opening day and Palace more recently. It would mark a bold shift in strategy, but you do wonder if Wolves will give any consideration at any point this season to scoring more than once in a game of Premier League football. Might help.
16. Southampton – 8pts
6 leads, 3 wins, 1 draw, 2 defeats
Traditional powerhouses in this particular field, this must be considered no more than a middling start from Ralph Hasenhuttl’s irredeemable point-spaffers. Made a glorious start to the season by managing to lose 4-1 at Spurs after going in front, and the speed with which a 1-0 lead became a 2-1 defeat to Everton was pretty spectacular even by the Saints’ lofty standards.
15. Leeds – 8pts
6 leads, 3 wins, 1 draw, 2 defeats
Be honest, we all thought there were going to be three more points on this tally after Rodrigo, seemingly foolishly, put them 1-0 up at Anfield.
14. Fulham – 8pts
8 leads, 5 wins, 1 draw, 2 defeats
Heading towards the realm of not too bad now, and there’s a neatness to Fulham’s point winning and dropping. Having scrambled seven points from seven games in which they’ve fallen behind, they’ve given back eight points in the eight games they’ve led. They’re doing basically fine, aren’t they?
13. Bournemouth – 7pts
6 leads, 3 wins, 2 draws, 1 defeat
Can draw some comfort from the fact they were neither the first nor (it immediately turned out) last team to fall for Antonio Conte’s Spurs and their rope-a-dope chicanery.
12. Everton – 7pts
6 leads, 3 wins, 2 draws, 1 defeat
Alex Iwobi made the classic error of scoring too early against Manchester United, who duly hit back to beat Frank Lampard’s Everton 2-1, while Brentford and Leeds pegged the Toffees back in the space of four days in August. Everton have now adopted a simple approach to avoid ever winning from a losing position or losing from a winning one by either keeping a clean sheet or failing to score (or both) in all of their last five matches.
11. Chelsea – 7pts
9 leads, 6 wins, 2 draws, 1 defeat
Taking the lead after 23 minutes against Southampton and still being behind at half-time is daft behaviour and meant Champions League winner Thomas Tuchel frankly deserved to get sacked. The Manchester United draw was obviously annoying, but the Tottenham one in a game Chelsea thoroughly dominated was utterly absurd.
10. Newcastle – 5pts
8 leads, 6 wins, 1 draw, 1 defeat
Failing to hold a 3-1 lead against Manchester City is irritating, but Newcastle are not the first and won’t be the last to suffer that particular annoyance. Pretty unlucky to get turned over by Liverpool at Anfield as well in what remains their only Premier League defeat this season.
9. Manchester City – 4pts
11 leads, 9 wins, 2 draws
Only getting a point at Steven Gerrard’s Aston Villa seems an unduly negligent piece of Manchester City behaviour, and it’s easy to forget that the comeback from 3-1 down at Newcastle actually came in a game they’d led 1-0 early doors.
8. Aston Villa – 3pts
4 leads, 3 wins, 1 defeat
Can’t lose many leads if you don’t take many leads. Canny stuff from the Midlands battlers.
7. West Ham – 3pts
5 leads, 4 wins, 1 defeat
Entitled to feel mighty aggrieved about the nature of the blot on their record at Chelsea. And they certainly did feel mighty aggrieved.
6. Brentford – 2pts
4 leads, 3 wins, 1 draw
One of only seven sides yet to lose a game having taken the lead, which is good. But have led in only four games, which is bad.
5. Liverpool – 2pts
5 leads, 4 wins, 1 draw
It is a fine record of holding leads for sure, but it is also a pitiful number of leads for a club of Liverpool’s standing. How are you only taking the lead in five of 12 games, lads? And how is one of them against Manchester City, you dafties?
4. Brighton – 2pts
6 leads, 5 wins, 1 draw
Legitimately very good stuff, no notes.
3. Tottenham – 2pts
9 leads, 8 wins, 1 draw
Spurs winning a bunch of points from losing positions feels very on brand, but this very much doesn’t. We’ve mentioned it before, but whenever people start chatting ‘interesting stats’ we like to wheel out our favourite Premier League stat: that in the history of Our League Spurs have both won most points from losing positions and lost most points from winning positions. People generally like it. Has a nice Spursy ring to it. Thing is, we’ve got absolutely no idea if it’s true. But it feels right, doesn’t it? It absolutely feels right. We have no interest in checking because we don’t want to find out we’re wrong. This season is rubbish, though, with the 1-1 draw at West Ham representing the one and only time Spurs have taken less than three points in the surprisingly large number of games they’ve led.
2. Arsenal – 2pts
11 leads, 10 wins, 1 draw
When you’ve only dropped five points all in, it’s reasonable to assume you won’t have dropped too many from winning positions. And until a 1-1 draw at Southampton that understandably irritated Mikel Arteta, Arsenal were flawless in this regard.
1. Manchester United – 0pts
7 leads, 7 wins
Slowly but surely, Manchester United are ceasing to be a punchline. They’re far from perfect, but Erik Ten Hag is definitely getting somewhere. Winning every time you take the lead is definitely a good policy and one United should stick with.
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