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Hello, all!
At the top today is forward Jessica Naz.
Ramble of the Day
When I did the ramble for Monday, I forgot that the Premier League teams had actually finished playing for the month. That also means I forgot the end of the month’s fixtures marks (for me) a new round of the Expectation-Embarrassment Index!
Since I came up with this index midway through last season, this will be the first time the index takes the early parts of the season into account. I thought it might impact how I measure expectation, but it turns out it didn’t since I take the specific results into account more than the team’s standing. (Standing is worth less at this point in the season than it is later, anyway.)
The main adjustment I did have to make, though, was accounting for the fact that not every team has played five games so far this season, but I used an equation to assign them form points out of 15 and rounded appropriately for a whole number. (For example, West Ham have seven points out of nine to start the season, so I used the equation 7/9 = x/15 and solved for x. I got 11.67, which I rounded up to 12 as it’s the nearest whole number.)
If you need a refresher on the rubric, here it is, and below is the first edition of the Expectation-Embarrassment Index for the 2021-22 season.
- West Ham United, 42 points
- Everton, 42 points
- Liverpool, 42 points
- Tottenham Hotspur, 40 points
- Brentford, 40 points
- Chelsea, 40 points
- Manchester United, 38 points
- Leicester City, 38 points
- Brighton & Hove Albion, 38 points
- Aston Villa, 35 points
- Watford, 34 points
- Manchester City, 31 points
- Leeds United, 29 points
- Southampton, 27 points
- Burnley, 23 points
- Norwich City, 22 points
- Newcastle United, 22 points
- Crystal Palace, 22 points
- Wolverhampton Wanderers, 19 points
- Arsenal, 15 points
There are a lot of teams close together at the top, mainly because there are enough teams that have done what was required of them. Like I mentioned earlier, I rate teams based on the individual results and all of those teams are close to their best case scenarios. The teams at the bottom are almost entirely winless, and the two teams without a goal naturally occupy the last two spots. It feels right that Arsenal are at the bottom, considering they’re the team that inspired the index. It’s truly been an embarrassing run of form to start this season for them.
tl;dr: The Expectation-Embarrassment Index is back! Tottenham are doing just fine while Arsenal are dead last.
Stay informed, read this: Dave Zirin on the 2016 James A. Garfield High School football team, their early support of Colin Kaepernick, and the backlash they faced in an excerpt of The Kaepernick Effect
Links of the Day
The entire Iceland FA board resigned after it was accused of mishandling and covering up allegations of sexual assault against players.
Chester crown court denied Benjamin Mendy’s bail application after he was charged with four counts of rape last week.
Scotland’s Kim Little announced her international retirement after 14 years with the national team.
Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo broke the men’s international goal record.
Jitka Klimková is the new manager of New Zealand women.
A longer read: Molly Hensley-Clancy and Steven Goff on the ownership battle at the Washington Spirit as an investigation into abuse by former head coach Richie Burke continues for The Washington Post
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