How would the Premier League look if you took away all the goals from each team’s top league goal scorer? Who would suffer and who would benefit? Are there any teams that are over reliant on their most prolific marksman and who is best at sharing the goals amongst the whole squad?

Well I got my calculator out, fired up Excel, crunched the numbers and hurt my head. With just ten games left this alternative league table certainly came up with a few surprising results.

*Editor’s note – please excuse the formatting, it was the best I could do!*

*Note: Everton, Liverpool and Wigan all had equal top scorers. To limit it to one scorer I selected the one I deemed most important to the team. So Liverpool – Luis Suarez, Everton = Leighton Baines and Wigan = Jordi Gomez.

The team that stands out most is Arsenal. Without the goals of Robin Van Persie, they would be 11th in this table. A massive 15 points off the Champions League places, 16 points away from their North London rivals Spurs and far away from having any pride. 11th with 10 games left, Arsene Wenger would be looking over his shoulder. There is no other team so reliant on their top scorer in this alternative table, and with no other Arsenal players reaching double figures in the league Gunners fans must be happy that he hasn’t suffered one of the injuries that have blighted his career.

In the title race nothing much has changed. United still lead City by just a point, but both teams have just a couple of points less. Tottenham are still third and closely followed by a London club, Chelsea who are fourth by five points. Maybe the recently departed Mr. Villas-Boas was right that Chelsea could cope without Frank Lampard because, despite his 10 league goals, the club would be in a somewhat better position in this table.

Liverpool may well have hoped that football’s anti-hero Luis Suarez had been banned for longer, as without his goals The Reds would be two places and four points better off and with a decent shot of making the Champions League.

At the wrong end of the table the bottom five stay the same but Wigan benefit from their top scorer only having three goals in the league. Because of how un-reliant they are on a predatory front man and the way the goals are shared between the team they would rise a little bit, making the few fans that bother turning up a bit happier.

Blackburn on the other hand would fall right into it. Despite having a team that is so often poor, they do have Yakubu who has scored an astonishing (considering his team’s form) 13 league goals. With him they would be far better off, and while not out of a relegation battle, they’d certainly be in a more favourable position.

QPR would also be better off in this version of the league table, finding themselves five points clear of the chasing pack.

Of course this isn’t an exact science, and with many of the teams the rest of the team would go some way to making up the difference that the top scorer has left behind but it does show which teams are over reliant on that one man up front and which can do without should the worst happen.

Articles like this:

Movers and Shakers Football Shorts #2 – It’s Good to Score The Week: Cup Tied