We are deep into the final quarter of the Premier League season and Opta\u2019s Power Rankings make clear which clubs face the steepest tests. The dataset lists mean difficulty scores for each side\u2019s remaining fixtures, with Wolves (88.83) and Leeds (89.38) among the friendlier schedules and Everton (92.57) and Crystal Palace (92.30) toward the more difficult end.<\/p>\n
The full set of mean difficulty figures runs from Wolves at 88.83 up to Everton at 92.57, with notable entries including Brighton (90.13), Aston Villa (90.28), Arsenal (90.30), Tottenham (90.49), Brentford (90.64), Nottingham Forest (90.72), Sunderland (91.06), Newcastle (91.21), Manchester United (91.33), Bournemouth (91.40), Fulham (91.40), Manchester City (91.44), Liverpool (91.52), Burnley (91.66), Chelsea (91.70), West Ham (92.01), Crystal Palace (92.30) and Everton (92.57).<\/p>\n
Chelsea supporters will be concerned: Opta shows the Blues have the highest mean difficulty among the top-seven sides. The report notes Chelsea have taken points from Liverpool, Manchester City and Aston Villa, and still have to face Liverpool and Manchester City again.<\/p>\n
In the title race, the rankings suggest Arsenal hold a scheduling edge over Manchester City. Arsenal\u2019s only remaining match against a current top-seven side is the trip to City in April. City, by contrast, still face Chelsea, Aston Villa and Arsenal, plus potentially testing away fixtures at Everton and Bournemouth.<\/p>\n
Aston Villa, meanwhile, register one of the clearest runs among the teams competing for Champions League qualification, with a relatively straightforward closing schedule according to the numbers.<\/p>\n
Manchester United and Liverpool both confront tricky finishes as they chase a top-five place; United\u2019s path includes games against Villa, Chelsea and Liverpool, while Liverpool must play Chelsea, Villa and travel to Old Trafford in the closing weeks.<\/p>\n
At the other end, Tottenham, Leeds, Nottingham Forest and Bournemouth occupy varied positions on the difficulty scale, with Leeds and Wolves among the clubs with the kinder runs remaining.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Opta rankings expose which Premier League sides face the toughest remaining fixtures this season…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7579,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[230,190,172],"tags":[1162,1047],"class_list":["post-7580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-analytics-stats","category-chelsea","category-epl","tag-analytics","tag-champions-league"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7580\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}