A lot has been said these last few days about the apparent "implosion" of Manchester City's title quest this season. And if The Guardian is to be believed, Roberto Mancini has six games to save his job. So what went wrong for Mancini and the Citizens?
Data can help settle arguments, so I thought I'd take another look at some basic performance indicators to see how the City's performance developed over the course of the season.

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In hindsight, relegation often seems inevitable. If you had asked the pundits, Blackpool's demotion to the Championship last year was all but a done deal in August. But do the data agree? And what can they tell us about the inevitability and predictability of relegation ahead of time, rather than after the fact?

By Laban Scott Libby
In a world of unrelenting pressure for results, the January transfer window offers the tempting opportunity for the quick fix. For clubs contending for the championship or Europe, it encourages the hunt for that one piece of the puzzle that will make the club complete; and for clubs fighting relegation, that one special player may seem like the difference between another year among the world's top or a long year of away games at Barnsley and Peterborough.

Now that the January transfer window is closed, clubs are gearing up to be ready for the rest of the season. For promoted clubs in particular, the Premiership adventure has entered the second - and possibly last - half of the season. Whether they will be able to continue their adventure is anyone's guess, but judging from the league table, Norwich and Swansea look to be in a good position to stay up.

On this side of the Atlantic, the football news that received quite a bit of attention over past few days was Friday's FA Cup tie between Everton and Fulham, featuring Clint "Hat Trick" Dempsey, Landon Donovan, and Tim Howard. Everton won, and as SI.com put it,

Landon Donovan etched his name further into Everton lore with two assists in the Toffees' FA Cup victory over Fulham.

Football's a simple game. If you score more or concede less than the other side, you win the match. So I thought it would be worth taking a look at which teams have been doing better than their opponents. The simplest way of doing just that is to calculate differentials for the stuff that matters most - goals - and the stuff without which - shots - the stuff that matters most usually doesn't happen.

Here's a short PS to my earlier post about Manchester City's offensive performance so far this season. It provides a summary of shot creation and finishing for the first and second 10 weeks of the season. Dots mark the club's performance in an individual match. The number next to the dot indicates the week.

Arsenal have had a most unusual season of highs and lows. After a rough start to the campaign, the ship seems to have steadied. Robin van Persie is on pace for a record setting season; his 19 goals so far are only one less than last year's 20 scored by Golden Boot winners Carlos Tevez and Dimitar Berbatov.

When Manchester City dispatched Manchester United in commanding fashion earlier this season, the City steamroller was powerful, efficient, and impressive. It looked downright unstoppable. As Kevin McCarra noted the day of City's 6-1 trouncing of United in The Guardian, "For the football world at large, it is more significant still that City have 33 goals from nine league games.

With the pressure and excitement of each and every week's matches, it's sometimes easy to lose the overall plot of how a season has evolved in the league as a whole. Since we are just past the halfway point of the season, I thought I'd take a look at a couple of trends in teams' output in the Premier League this season.

As a follow-up to yesterday's post about offensive performance in the Premiership so far this season, here's a simple graph summarizing clubs' defensive performance this season. Naturally, it's limited in what it can tell you - all stats are - but the picture does provide some interesting pieces of information.

Afternoon. I think this in the business is what they call a round-up. But seeing as I'm not exactly sure what this business is or even if I'm in it, I'll just go ahead and scatter-gun some nonsense at you and see if anything sticks.

Tottenham pull Cheltenham out of the old F.A Cup hat, then.

Aloha and good morning. Just a quick one from me. What to say about Bolton? Not a great deal if I can help it. In his comparatively short turn at t'Reebok, Owen Coyle's managerial stock has fallen somewhat rapidly. From the Glaswegian Wenger to Sue Barker in the time it takes to polish and glue in those unfeasibly white teeth.

Watching City take on United at Old Trafford on Sunday was a sight to behold. Unfortunately, I wasn't there to see it in person (not that I wish United ill in any way) for the historical occasion it was (and the good football, too).
We now know that the outcome of the match was truly unusual. But how unusual?

Now then, now then, as a wise old scholar once said. Well, I say wise. You have to wonder about the cunning of a man whose favourite indulgences include highly-flammable daywear and smoking cigars the size of bicycle pumps. He could probably choose his photo ops better, too. Yes, that's Frank Bruno.

Every Season we ask the languagecaster fans which team they think will win the Premier League. Last season the majority of fans correctly went for Manchester United (nearly 40%) but how about this season? Simply click on the poll below and let us know what you think.

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