Chelsea win Premier League, Tottenham nab useless consolation prizes
By George Perry
While Chelsea lifted their second Premier League trophy in three years and fifth overall, Tottenham are contenting themselves with consolation prizes. Generous winners that we are, here are a few meaningless consolation prizes for them.
After clinching a Premier League title that looked increasingly inevitable as the season progressed, Chelsea fell out of many discussions recapping the Premier League campaign. Their vanquished challengers captured more and more headlines as Premier League watchers sought new angles on a season that was all but over.
Among the more amusing non-Mourinho storylines were all those praising Tottenham Hotspur. Chelsea’s putative rivals celebrated their second season with a top three finish. And, to listen to their partisans, do we mean celebrated.
Spurs’ second-place finish capped off their ninth consecutive season without a trophy and 56th in a row without a first tier title. Most clubs of Tottenham’s history, bankroll and prestige would find little pride in extending those streaks. But instead, Spurs’ fans trot out such stats as “combined wins over the last two seasons.”
In the spirit of a winners’ generosity here are few more consolation prizes Tottenham can claim while staring at an empty trophy case.
Goal differential
Tottenham finished the season with a +60 goal differential, powered by the tremendous achievement of Harry Kane’s Golden Boot season. Chelsea only had a +52 goal differential. Since Tottenham’s goal differential was +8 over Chelsea’s, who won the Premier League by only seven points, by some interpretations, Tottenham should have won the league.
"Tottenham's GD was +8 over Chelsea's. You can't tell me #CFC deserved to win the title just because they had 7 more points on the table." pic.twitter.com/74L9TJE5TA
— The Pride of London (@PrideOLondon) May 21, 2017
Average finish over last three seasons
Chelsea have won two of the last three Premier League titles. The season between those championships they finished in 10th place. Tottenham finished the same three seasons fifth, third and second. That gives Tottenham a commanding 3.3 average placing in that span, while Chelsea are a meager fourth. Clearly, Tottenham have been the more consistent and dominant team since 2014/15.
Performance of a new manager
Mauricio Pochettino started at Tottenham in 2014, and is responsible for their rise from fifth to third to second. Antonio Conte, in his first season, won the Premier League and set a record for most wins in a season. Yeah, they have no way of talking around this one.
Golden Boot awards
Harry Kane defended his Golden Boot award, scoring 29 goals this season after 25 goals in 2015/16. A Chelsea player has not won the Golden Boot since Didier Drogba in 2009/10. Kane scored more goals in both seasons than any of Chelsea’s Golden Boot winners other than Drogba’s 29 in 2009/10. Didier Drogba won his third of four Premier League titles in that season.
Cherry-picked team statistics
Tottenham outranks Chelsea in shots, shots on target and possession. Spurs also received fewer yellow cards than Chelsea – we will leave that to you to decide if that’s a positive or negative. Spurs also lost fewer games that the Blues. Chelsea, on the other hand, led Tottenham in games won: a Premier League-record 30.
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