Pedro Neto to Chelsea, Europe’s High-5 League Competitiveness, and Premier League Preview Questions

August 14, 2024

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Stat, Viz, Quiz is the Opta Analyst soccer publication. This week’s version consists of numbers on Chelsea, Europe’s prime 5 leagues, and Premier League predictions.

Simply three extra sleeps earlier than the brand new Premier League season begins. We’re like a child within the construct as much as Christmas, solely with suntan lotion and ice cream as a substitute of winter coats and mince pies.

We’re right here to bestow presents upon our fantastic subscribers within the type of one other version of SVQ, together with a bonus viz part this week simply because we wished to point out our gratitude to you all.

We’ll be discussing Chelsea’s newest addition (as of writing, however you may by no means be completely updated with regards to the Blues’ switch dealings), evaluating the power of Europe’s large 5 leagues, and firing up the oh-so sensible Opta supercomputer.

All that and a Premier League quiz as effectively; tis the season!

Correction; tis virtually the new season.

If you happen to haven’t accomplished so already, you may subscribe beneath and obtain SVQ each week.

STAT – Pedro’s Precision

Put down your mug of espresso or tea lest you drop it in shock after we inform you that Chelsea signed a participant over the weekend.

Sure, Sunday noticed Pedro Neto unveiled to the gang at Stamford Bridge following his £54 million switch from Wolves, making it 9 signings for Chelsea on this summer season switch window.

The place Enzo Maresca goes to play all these new arrivals is one factor, however Neto is definitely somebody who has are available in to be a key element of a Chelsea crew trying to get again to the place they really feel they belong.

Neto might be an absolute menace to opposition defences and appeared set to be one of many Premier League’s brightest stars final season, till damage halted his momentum.

The 2023-24 season started brilliantly for Neto as he racked up seven assists in 10 video games earlier than a hamstring damage sidelined him till Christmas.

A stop-start remainder of the marketing campaign noticed Neto finish with 10 Premier League assists in 20 appearances, with solely Aston Villa’s Ollie Watkins (13) and his new Chelsea teammate Cole Palmer (11) registering extra, although they did so from 37 and 34 video games respectively. Of gamers who performed at the very least 1,000 minutes within the Premier League, solely Kevin De Bruyne (0.73) averaged extra assists per 90 than Neto’s 0.53.

Questions have been raised in regards to the Portugal winger’s health. He made 20 Premier League appearances final season, with 18 begins after lacking a while with two separate hamstring accidents.

It was nonetheless the second-most league begins he has managed since arriving at Wolves in 2019. In actual fact, Neto solely recorded 18 Premier League begins in whole throughout each the 2021-22 and 2022-23 seasons. He has not been in a position to keep constantly match since 2020-21 when he had 30 begins and 31 total appearances within the Premier League.

If he can keep away from additional damage agony, Neto may very well be an incredible acquisition for Chelsea, and imagining him linking up with Palmer and Christopher Nkunku in assault is kind of the attractive prospect.

Wish to learn extra about Chelsea? We’ve requested 4 questions for the Blues forward of the 2024-25 Premier League season.

VIZ – High 5 Leagues Competitiveness

Euro top 5 leagues power rankings — Viz by Danny Dinsdale

It’s one of many nice soccer debates. Which is probably the most aggressive prime league?

Final season noticed Manchester Metropolis and Paris Saint-Germain’s current dominance of the Premier League and Ligue 1 respectively proceed, Bayern Munich lastly had their hogging of the Bundesliga title ended by Bayer Leverkusen, and Inter and Actual Madrid ran away with the Serie A and La Liga titles respectively. It may be a tough query to reply.

Properly, utilizing the Opta Energy Rankings, we’ve had a go at attempting to make issues clearer.

Groups are measured out of 100, with the highest crew in Europe attributed 100 factors. As you may see, that’s at the moment Manchester Metropolis, with Actual Madrid second and Inter third.

Our viz above exhibits the hole between the reigning champions and the remainder is kind of large in 4 of Europe’s prime 5 leagues, with the Bundesliga probably the most tightly-bunched on the prime. That implies there may very well be fairly an fascinating title race once more in Germany this season, with the highest 5 a good manner forward of the remainder, however all comparatively shut to one another within the Energy Rankings.

Within the Premier League, the massive hole is between the highest three of Metropolis, Arsenal and Liverpool in opposition to the remainder, whereas in Italy it appears the fights for European spots and relegation may very well be very shut certainly.

In La Liga you may see that everybody other than Actual Madrid are pretty evenly unfold out, so maybe we will surmise that to be the reply to the query, although as with all the pieces else in soccer, it’s up for debate.

You can argue comparable in Ligue 1, particularly with the groups combating for Champions League locations so carefully bunched collectively.

In keeping with the leagues’ common crew score, we will additionally see a steered order of power of every league, with the Premier League highest with a median of 87.6 factors.

Then it’s Serie A (87.1) adopted by La Liga (86.8), the Bundesliga (86.3) and Ligue 1 (85.2).

We hope that’s answered some questions for you, although greater than possible it’s simply raised considerably extra.

BONUS VIZ – The Opta Supercomputer Has Spoken

Premier League Predictions Opta Supercomputer

Because it’s the week earlier than the Premier League season begins, we thought we’d deal with you with an additional viz.

Properly, we are saying an additional one, you might have already seen it.

After a summer season of sunning itself, going to festivals and getting some much-needed R&R, the Opta supercomputer is again from its holidays and prepared for a brand new season.

We gave it a nudge and requested it to spit out some predictor numbers forward of the 2024-25 Premier League marketing campaign, and it didn’t disappoint… until you help Southampton.

Unsurprisingly, Man Metropolis are the heavy favourites once more, however their 82.2% probability of creating it 5 Premier League titles in a row is a good bit down on the greater than 90% Pep Guardiola’s males got this time final yr.

Arsenal (12.2%) and Liverpool (5.1%) can be hoping to cease them from persevering with their stranglehold on the league. The Gunners may not assume that proportion is excessive sufficient, nevertheless it’s nonetheless an enormous enhance on the 4.1% they got forward of final season.

Chelsea (0.2%) and Newcastle United (0.1%) can’t be completely discounted both, although these percentages inform you that, truly, anybody however one in all final season’s prime three successful is extremely unlikely.

On the different finish, the thrill of the trio promoted from the Championship is likely to be tempered by the supercomputer anticipating all of them to go straight again down, as occurred final season in England’s prime flight.

If you wish to learn extra element on the supercomputer’s projections for the 2024-25 Premier League season, head to the Opta Analyst web site now, the place we’ll even be offering numbers for different prime leagues later this week.

QUIZ – Premier League Posers

How else may we have a good time the upcoming begin of the 2024-25 Premier League season than by getting our large quiz hats on? Right here’s 5 questions on England’s prime flight. Solutions on the backside of the web page.

1. What number of Premier League titles have Manchester Metropolis received? (not together with their two First Division titles as a result of, as everyone knows, soccer began in 1992)

2. Which crew has come second within the Premier League period extra usually than another?

3. Which crew has been relegated from the Premier League probably the most usually? Clue: They aren’t at the moment within the Premier League.

4. Which crew has scored probably the most objectives in Premier League historical past?

5. Which crew has scored probably the most penalties in Premier League historical past?

Ask Opta

Do you have got a stats-based soccer query you need to Ask Opta? In that case, ship it to editors@theanalyst.com and we’ll do our greatest to offer you the reply in a future version of SVQ.