Chelsea’s chances of winning the Premier League title have collapsed to just two per cent after their draw at home to Liverpool, analysts have calculated.
The enthralling encounter at Stamford Bridge, which finished 2-2 on Sunday, has hit Liverpool hard, too, with the number crunchers at the football thinktank, the Twenty First Group, now predicting the Reds have only a seven per cent chance of winning the league.
Meanwhile, the analysis for Sportsmail has Manchester City’s odds of retaining the title rocketing to 91 per cent following the Christmas fixtures, even though there are still 17 games to go.
He knows… Manchester City are leaving their rivals in their wake as they pile up the wins
The prediction confirms the worst fears of City’s rivals.
‘Our model uses historical results to understand the strength of all teams’ squads and manager, and simulates the remainder of the league season, accounting for the difficulty of fixtures to come for each team,’ Omar Chaudhuri, the group’s chief intelligence officer told Sportsmail.
The gap at the top of the Premier League has stretched to 10 points, with Manchester City on 53 after their last-gasp win over Arsenal, Chelsea on 43, both teams having played 21 games, and Liverpool on 42 points with a game in hand.
Big leads have been blown before, of course, but not often on this scale. In 1997-98, during Arsene Wenger’s first full season in charge at Highbury, the Gunners overhauled a 12-point gap to Manchester United going into January to win the title.
City’s last-gasp win at Arsenal looked even better when Chelsea and Liverpool drew next day
United struggled after Christmas, losing five times before the end of March, including to their London rivals.
Arsenal, however, did not lose between December 26 and May 6 and won the league with a couple of games to spare.
While Chelsea and Liverpool are both capable of a similar run this season, the problem is City’s mesmerizing form and the analysts see little hope…
Source : dailymail
