United Secure League Double

Manchester United completed a Premier League and Promroiship double yesterday after amassing a massive 80 points in their final game against Wigan which featured joint first on Match of the Day along with Chelsea and Bolton (both awarded 10 running order points). THis saw them win the inaugural Promroiship competition as the only team to secure more than 600 points. The relegation battles featured next (joint third - awarded 8 running order point each) which saw Fulham avoid relegation and finish third in the Promroiship, above west London rivals Chelsea but not above Reading unlike the Premier League. With every Premier League team featuring on Match of the Day yesterday, it was always likely that high scoring mid-table matches would generate negative points and Middlesborough's thrashing of Manchester City saw them lose 50 points each this week, dropping City into the bottom three. It was not enough to take Derby of the bottom though, who completed a miserable season finishing bottom of every league they entered (except the Gubbometer, which they won with weeks to spare). Blackburn finished second from bottom, despite being involved in the relegation battle; conceding four goals will not help you in any league (unless it involves counting the number of goals you have conceded).

I am hoping to make a more detailed analysis of the Promroiship and will probably post this over next weekend. Provisional conclusions are as follows:

1) The Beeb may be biased towards Manchester United. The other Premier League contenders finished lower than those involved in the relegation battle. Derby on the other hand, were almost always last (as the Gubbometer proved).

2) Match of the Day in the second half of the season concentrates on league positions rather than high scoring matches. Teams involved in relegation battles and title challenges are more likely to be featured before teams languishing in mid-table obscurity.

3) As such, it would make more sense to run the Promroiship from the beginning of the season to December 31st than January 1st to the end. Such a season would be more likely to expose MOTD bias, which, from this experiment, is hard to prove conclusively exists.

Just to remind you, weekly points are calculated using the formula (m-g)*n where

m is the points for position in the running order (10 for appearing in first match, 9 for second etc)
g is the number of goals in match
n is the number of Premier League matches on MOTD

Promroiship Results May 3rd 2008 (Match of the Day Running Order)

Joint First
Wigan Athletic v Manchester United..80
Chelsea v Bolton Wanderers..........80

Joint Third
Portsmouth v Fulham.................70
Birmingham City v Blackburn Rovers..30
Derby County v Reading..............40

Normal Order
Everton v Newcastle United..........10
Middlesborough v Manchester City...-50
West Ham United v Aston Villa......-10
Totenham Hotspur v Liverpool........0
Sunderland v Arsenal................0

The Promroiship Table after Round 18

Manchester United ...625
Reading .............594
Fulham ..............589
Bolton Wanderers ....497
Birmingham City......484
Chelsea .............475
Arsenal .............469
Tottenham Hotspur....424
Wigan Athletic ......399
Portsmouth ..........398
West Ham United......393
Sunderland ..........392
Newcastle United.....357
Liverpool ...........327
Aston Villa .........301
Middlesbrough .......300
Everton .............299
Manchester City .....285
Blackburn Rovers.....283
Derby County.........259

* indicates match played in Round 18