The Difficulty of Aston Villa’s remaining fixtures
After MOMS previously analysed Aston Villa’s remaining fixtures in terms of their opponents’ respective home and away Points Per Game, that led to the conclusion Villa face the hardest Premier League run-in, Opta have issued a table that backs up that conclusion.
Based on the average Opta power ranking (basically, how well the team is recently doing in form, etc) of each remaining opponent, the below table puts Aston Villa clearly on top in terms of the Premier League’s hardest run-in on a score of 33.8.
Nottingham Forest, who dropped into the Premier League’s bottom three after a 2-0 defeat at Villa Park, have the second hardest run-in according to the Opta table, with a score of 35.2. It looks like curtains for the Tricky Trees, who are winless in nine games and needing a minor miracle to turn their form around now.
Villa’s Rivals’ Run-ins
There is a considerable gap between the Midlands teams and the third team Brentford, who also having a tough fixture list will help Villa’s case when it comes to finalises the places in the top half of the table. European qualification rivals Tottenham and Brighton have the 8th and 9th toughest remaining fixtures, so at least will have to earn their European spots in the run-in.
As with the PPG results, Liverpool with a score of 72.9 (the higher, the easier the games) have the second easiest remaining fixtures, and realistically, it’s hard not seeing them ultimately take advantage of that to pip Villa in the table.
We are not getting our excuses in early, more laying down the path of the extent of Emery and the team’s achievement, if they do make it!
Aston Villa’s Remaining Fixtures
- 15: Newcastle United (h)
- 22: Brentford (a)
- 25: Fulham (h)
- 30: Manchester United
- 6: Wolves (a)
- 13: Spurs (h)
- 20: Liverpool (a)
- 28: Brighton (h)
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