This is somewhat inspired by Arsenal winning the Emirates Cup even though they lost a game when Sevilla who finished second won both of theirs, yes it was a farcical way to win a tournament but at the end of the day it is Arsenal’s competition and therefore they get to make the rules.

The key rule which led them to victory was the fact that you also were awarded a point if you scored a goal, that meant that at the end of Day 1 Arsenal had already amassed 8 points thanks to a 5-2 win over Benfica on Saturday afternoon.

So that got me thinking what if the Premier League also gave out points for scoring goals and more importantly what difference would it have had on last season’s table? Well like any good analyst it was time for me to do the sums and find out

First let’s take a look at the final table from 2016/17

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts
1 Chelsea (C) 38 30 3 5 85 33 52 93
2 Tottenham Hotspur 38 26 8 4 86 26 60 86
3 Manchester City 38 23 9 6 80 39 41 78
4 Liverpool 38 22 10 6 78 42 36 76
5 Arsenal 38 23 6 9 77 44 33 75
6 Manchester United 38 18 15 5 54 29 25 69
7 Everton 38 17 10 11 62 44 18 61
8 Southampton 38 12 10 16 41 48 −7 46
9 AFC Bournemouth 38 12 10 16 55 67 −12 46
10 West Bromwich Albion 38 12 9 17 43 51 −8 45
11 West Ham United 38 12 9 17 47 64 −17 45
12 Leicester City 38 12 8 18 48 63 −15 44
13 Stoke City 38 11 11 16 41 56 −15 44
14 Crystal Palace 38 12 5 21 50 63 −13 41
15 Swansea City 38 12 5 21 45 70 −25 41
16 Burnley 38 11 7 20 39 55 −16 40
17 Watford 38 11 7 20 40 68 −28 40
18 Hull City (R) 38 9 7 22 37 80 −43 34
19 Middlesbrough (R) 38 5 13 20 27 53 −26 28
20 Sunderland (R) 38 6 6 26 29 69 −40 24

But now let’s add a point for ever goal scored

PrevPos Team P W D L GF PTS New Pts New Pos Change
1 Chelsea (C) 38 30 3 5 85 93 178 1 0
2 Tottenham Hotspur 38 26 8 4 86 86 172 2 0
3 Manchester City 38 23 9 6 80 78 158 3 0
4 Liverpool 38 22 10 6 78 76 154 4 0
5 Arsenal 38 23 6 9 77 75 152 5 0
6 Manchester United 38 18 15 5 54 69 123 6 0
7 Everton 38 17 10 11 62 61 123 7 0
9 AFC Bournemouth 38 12 10 16 55 46 101 8 1
11 West Ham United 38 12 9 17 47 45 92 9 2
12 Leicester City 38 12 8 18 48 44 92 10 2
14 Crystal Palace 38 12 5 21 50 41 91 11 3
10 West Bromwich Albion 38 12 9 17 43 45 88 12 -2
8 Southampton 38 12 10 16 41 46 87 13 -5
15 Swansea City 38 12 5 21 45 41 86 14 1
13 Stoke City 38 11 11 16 41 44 85 15 -2
17 Watford 38 11 7 20 40 40 80 16 1
16 Burnley 38 11 7 20 39 40 79 17 -1
18 Hull City (R) 38 9 7 22 37 34 71 18 0
19 Middlesbrough (R) 38 5 13 20 27 28 55 19 0
20 Sunderland (R) 38 6 6 26 29 24 53 20 0

As you can see though there is not all that much of a change as the top 7 teams stay in exactly the same order, the first movement in the table is Bournemouth who move up a place from 9th to 8th while the biggest losers in all of this are Southampton who slump all the way down to 13th position.

The relegation zone is unchanged while Crystal Palace would be the highest beneficiaries as they moved up three places from 14th to 11th and they would have a much more comfortable season. Hull would be relegated by 8 points as Burnley swap places with Watford.

So in conclusion there would not be a great deal of change but I will compare and contrast this season’s points to see if we end up with any change at the top of the table, another route to go down is looking at historical tables and see if any other seasons could have panned out differently had this Emirates Cup style points system been implemented.

I hoped you enjoyed reading this and if you have any football data work available then please contact me at realfootballmanwordpress@gmail.com