Comparison: Barça-Chelsea-Inter

By: Isaiah | November 24th, 2008

Thanks to a comment by reader ballbeav, I’ve decided to compare the big leagues and their current leaders. There’s always debate about which league is better, but this is not one of those posts. I’m thinking of it more as a “where things stand” than a true comparison. It’s impossible to know if Barça would have as many points or more if it were in the Premiership and the same is true for Chelsea or Inter or whoever moving to La Liga.

But it’s still instructive to look at how things are going. And, for the record, I’m comparing the EPL, La Liga, and Serie A because those are 3 leagues out there that provide CL champions. If you’re big on any other league, I’m sure you’ve got your arguments as to why its better, but that’s not the point here. I’m also not including Liverpool in this because they’re technically in second thanks to goal differential. Next week this could change, but for now, it’s Chelsea, so I’m going with them.

Here is where each team stands, right now:

Barcelona: 12GP, 29pts (9W-2D-1L), 37GF, 9GA
Chelsea: 14GP, 33pts (10W-3D-1L), 32GF, 4GA
Inter: 13GP, 30pts (9W-3D-1L), 20GF, 7GA

Barcelona and Inter are currently both 3 points clear of the second-placed teams (Real Madrid and AC Milan, respectively) while Chelsea is, as previously mentioned, tied on points with Liverpool but ahead on goal differential. As a share of points earned to points possible, here is how these three break down:

Barça: 29 of 36 (80.5%)
Chelsea: 33 of 42 (78.6%)
Inter: 30 of 39 (76.9%)

Barça, then, has earned more points per game than the others (2.42 as opposed to Chelsea’s 2.36 and Inter’s 2.31). All 3 have 1 loss, Barcelona’s coming at the very beginning of their season against currently 16th-placed Numancia (1-0). Chelsea lost to 2nd-placed Liverpool (1-0). Inter lost to city rivals and currently 2nd-placed AC Milan (1-0).

The draws (score; current rank):
Barça: Racing Santander (1-1, 10th); Getafe (1-1, 14th)
Chelsea: Tottenham (1-1, 15th); ManU (1-1, 3rd); Newcastle (0-0, 17th)
Inter: Sampdoria (1-1, 13th); Genoa (0-0, 8th); Fiorentina (0-0, 6th)

Make of that what you will, especially considering that Barcelona has not played anyone in the top 5, while Chelsea has played Liverpool (2), ManU (3), Aston Villa (4), and Hull (6). They play Arsenal next week. Inter has played Milan (2), Juventus (3), and Fiorentina (6) and they play Napoli (4) and Lazio (5) over the next two weeks. From this perspective, Barcelona has the most to prove over the next month: Sevilla (5), Valencia (4), Real Madrid (2), and Villarreal (3) all in a row. But, Barcelona also has the most to gain by performing well in what could well be the decisive 4 weeks of the year.

I don’t have the time (or the specific resource) to find out what the average rank of each team each has played is, but suffice it say that Chelsea and Inter have played “tougher” opponents until now. So think of the following statistics in that light:

Goals scored and goals allowed per game can be a good way to view a team’s overall offensive and defensive capabilities. We here at the Barça Offside know that the blaugrana have put on several offensive fireworks shows, but what of Chelsea and Inter?

Barcelona’s biggest win was 6-0 over Valladolid.
Chelsea’s biggest wins were twin 5-0 wins over Middlesbrough and Sunderland.
Inter’s biggest win was 4-0 over Roma.

Barcelona scores an average of 3.08 goals per game. Chelsea scores 2.29 and Inter 1.54. Barcelona has failed to score on only one occasion: the loss to Numancia. Barcelona allows 0.75 goals per game, Chelsea allows 0.29, and Inter allows 0.54. Those statistics are pretty damned good, of course, but let’s bring that better into perspective by looking at the percentage of the total goals scored in the respective leagues that amounts to:

As of today, there were 336 total goals scored in La Liga. Barcelona accounted for 11.01% of those. In the EPL there were 366 goals scored, of which Chelsea had 8.74%. In Serie A, there were 307 goals scored, of which Inter scored 6.51%.

Interestingly, when you break down the percentage of goals scored by the top 5 in each league you come up with this: in La Liga, the top 5 sides have scored 38.69% (130/336); in the EPL it was 34.15% (125/366); in Serie A it was 31.6% (97/307). That’s fairly statistically close, I would say, though Serie A starts to creep down and La Liga starts to creep up when you compare the two directly. [An interesting side note is that the two highest scorers in Serie A are Lazio (22, 5th) and Udinese (21, 7th). Inter is T-3rd with Genoa (8th).

Barcelona and Chelsea are both leading scorers in their leagues, though interestingly enough 11th placed ManCity is 2nd with 29 and 2nd-placed Liverpool is T6th with Hull on 21. La Liga is fairly calm at the top, with only an appearance by 13th-placed Sporting Gijon in 6th with 20. Who knew Gijon scored more often than Liverpool and Inter?

In terms of goals allowed, Inter and Chelsea top their leagues while Barça is second, one back of Sevilla. Here’s how they stack up against the total goals scored (that is, what percentage of all the goals have been theirs?): Barcelona have allowed 2.68%, Chelsea 1.09%, and Inter 2.28%. The top five in each league account for 17% (Spain, 60/336), 15.30% (England, 56/366), and 17.26% (Italy, 53/307). These are roughly similar numbers and, to be perfectly honest, Real Madrid has shipped 17 goals, tying them for 10th with Valladolid (6 of whose goals came from Barcelona). Arsenal has allowed 18 in 14 matches, so they’re roughly similar to Real Madrid (as is Aston Villa with 16 in 14).

So I’ll leave you to decide what is the best league and all of that. I’m just here to provide the numbers and bring back the decimals to their rightful place: my posts.