Premier League Win Ratios (19/11/16)

A Premier League all time best win ratio has been created this November international break, and there are some surprising results in the table.

Judged on all Premier League games since the rebrand back in 1992, admittedly a wise man or woman once said stats can prove anything, and this table and piece ably demonstrates that.

When judged alone on win ratio per games played, Leeds United find themselves in seventh place in the overall table despite only having played 189 applicable games, but their win ratio sees them tot up a 40.4% score. But there are plenty of curiosities based on how this table was worked out by Express Sport, and fans may have seen it also in The Star (but limited to 20 clubs only).

For example out of 935 applicable games, Chelsea return a win % of 52.8%, yet with 564 wins, Liverpool only tally 49.6%.

Words are my particular friend (many would argue not!) but simple mathematics isn’t, and even factoring in the difference between applicable draws and losses, I can’t get my head around that one – but presumably cleverer than me at the Express and Star – agree on the figures.

They aren’t the only figures that look ‘out of whack’, but as said, numbers aren’t my friend so it’s probably me.

As you look down the table though, for the more youthful Premier League fan, there are probably some surprising entries in the table.

Wimbledon at 16th place based on the old ‘Crazy Gang’ days and even Charlton Athletic down in joint 18th with the current Premier League Champions Leicester City tied on a win % of 30.6%.

To an outsider, it feels like Charlton are probably on their 100th manager search in the last 24 months, and I doubt they take much solace in their relative win % success in the top flight given they find themselves in League One, with owner troubles and potentially another relegation to contend with.

But it does show how things can change pretty quickly in football – blips can maybe be tolerated and dealt with, but truly bad seasons if not addressed can quickly snowball and there are plenty of fans out there that know it applies to their clubs.

But for the soon to be middle aged, or wiser, the table certainly has a sense of nostalgia to it as you look through and see clubs who were Premier League – if only for a season – that you’ve long forgot about.

And that trip down memory lane for most of us is all the table probably actually provides, as very little can be taken from the win % when you look at games played, and that in turn makes the table position utterly irrelevant.