Liverpool, Manchester City and Tottenham have covered the most ground in the Premier League, whilst Manchester United have covered the least.
Manchester United have covered the least ground in the Premier League
A report in the Mirror this morning revealed the amount of ground covered by each Premier League team after the first five fixtures.
There were some interesting results, with the statistics showing that Manchester United have covered the least ground of any team in the top flight.
Liverpool, Manchester City and Tottenham players have done the most running, with hard-working Burnley unsurprisingly making the top four as well. All distances are given in kilometres:
1. Liverpool – 581.6
2. Manchester City – 570.7
3. Tottenham Hotspur – 565.9
4. Burnley – 563.9
5. West Brom – 562.9
6. Arsenal – 556.4
7. Middlesbrough – 554.6
8. Bournemouth – 549.4
9. Southampton – 545.1
10. Leicester City – 544.8
11. Swansea City – 543.2
12. Everton – 541.2
13. West Ham United – 539.5
14. Chelsea – 539.4
15. Watford – 539.1
16. Stoke City – 536.4
17. Hull City – 536.3
18. Crystal Palace – 533.9
19. Sunderland – 526.7
20. Manchester United – 526.6
No team has covered more ground than Liverpool this season
There are one or two surprises in the statistics. Few would probably expect Manchester United to come in dead last, and Crystal Palace’s place in the bottom three is also somewhat surprising.
The top five are all predictable. Liverpool, Manchester City and Tottenham’s managers all favour a high intensity game pressing the ball high up the field, whilst Burnley and West Brom play under demanding managers and spend a lot of the time chasing the ball, due to both teams often having very little possession.
Sean Dyche’s Burnley team work very hard off the ball
How much one reads into such data is open to interpretation. The distance covered table doesn’t correlate to the actual Premier League table particularly well.
Liverpool, Manchester City and Tottenham are all up near the top of the league, but Burnley who rank fourth in terms of running, are way down in 16th in the league, whilst bottom placed Manchester United are still 7th in the actual table, despite their current poor form.
For that reason, the table probably gives you a far better indication of how a team plays, rather than how effective they have been or how hard they have worked.
How much would you read into teams distance covered statistics?
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