FILE this under: classic end-of-season content.
With all eyes on the Premier League as the campaign draws to a close, with fierce competition for European places and a desperate relegation scrap seemingly destined to go down to the wire, we’ve created an alternate league table, one based purely on Dream Team points.
That is the real quiz, after all.
PREMIER LEAGUE TABLE DETERMINED BY DREAM TEAM POINTS
- Manchester City – 2,727 pts
- Manchester United – 2,224 pts
- Arsenal – 1,901 pts
- Liverpool – 1,664 pts
- Newcastle – 1,552 pts
- Brighton – 1,459 pts
- West Ham – 1,432 pts
- Tottenham – 1,351 pts
- Brentford – 1,126 pts
- Chelsea – 1,118 pts
- Fulham – 999 pts
- Aston Villa – 935 pts
- Leicester – 893 pts
- Wolves – 828 pts
- Crystal Palace – 811 pts
- Nottingham Forest – 684 pts
- Leeds – 617 pts
- Everton – 604 pts
- Southampton – 594 pts
- Bournemouth – 552 pts
As you would expect, Man City’s treble quest puts them in a league of their own – it helps that Erling Haaland (£10.4m) has plundered 430 points on his own.
The big story at the top of the table, however, is that Man United are comfortably the second-most successful team in the realm of Dream Team this season.
Arsenal held top spot in the Premier League for the majority of the campaign but Erik ten Hag’s side have made hay in the additional competitions – they lifted the Carabao Cup in February and are due to meet Pep Guardiola’s side at Wembley in the FA Cup final in a fortnight’s time.
Marcus Rashford (£7.2m) and company also fulfilled four more European fixtures than the Gunners by virtue of their Europa League knockout play-off and quarter-final.
A cursory glance at the Dream Team rankings underlines how the best-performing Old Trafford assets have edged out their Arsenal counterparts across every position.
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David de Gea (£3.6m) is 57 points ahead of Aaron Ramsdale (£3.3m); Luke Shaw (£4.2m), Diogo Dalot (£3.7m) and Lisandro Martinez (£4.7m) are all above Mikel Arteta’s best defenders; Bruno Fernandes (£6.7m) reigns supreme among midfielders, while Rashford is second only to runaway leader Haaland up front.
Elsewhere, West Ham are the team most flattered by our alternative table.
In reality, the Hammers have only just crawled away from the relegation dogfight in the last few weeks but we’ve got them nipping at the heels of Brighton, a whole eight places above their actual position!
Once again, this illustrates the potential returns available to Dream Team gaffers prepared to squeeze the schedule for all it’s worth.
David Moyes’ side may have underwhelmed domestically but they’re on the brink of the Europa Conference League final with the likes of Jarrod Bowen (£4m) and Said Benrahma (£3.8m) having regularly cashed in on Thursday nights.
Looking ahead, one wonders what the Seagulls and Newcastle can achieve next season with European fixtures to bolster their schedule.
If Dream Team points are anything to go by then Everton seem more likely to suffer relegation than Leeds or Leicester (the Foxes are up to a lofty 13th in our ranking) but, then again, we’ve got the Cherries dead last despite the fact they’ve already preserved their top-flight status.
For all the differences in our league table, there’s something strangely comforting about the fact Chelsea remain solidly in mid-table – surely the Blues will improve in 2023/24, right?
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
