Over the last two weeks it’s hard to look beyond the results of Manchester United who secured two very impressive away wins, but let’s not forget Wigan, who have also had a great few days.

A few weeks ago United were struggling in the APL as they were winning, but not winning well. They were scraping single goal victories and slipping down the form table and further behind the Manchester City freight train. But after winning comfortably at QPR, and winning 7.28 points, they beat Fulham by five goals and scooped 9.71 points in the process. Their combined score of 16.99 is 3.64 better than City’s who themselves notched up two impressive wins. City’s lead is now only 4.78 points, whereas after Gameweek 12 City had a huge 12.51 cushion at the top.

When Wigan looked at their fixture list and saw that they had home games with Chelsea and Liverpool I’m sure that even the most optimistic fan wouldn’t have seen them emerging from those games unbeaten. But two draws and 8.24 points later means that they can look towards the final game of their nightmare triple header, United away, with a bit more confidence. Wigan’s revival, and their tough fixtures, is illustrated well in the form table. Despite still sitting 17th in the APL, Wigan’s position of 5th in the form table is better than Arsenal, Spurs and Liverpool.

Aston Villa too have had two tricky home ties, but unlike Wigan, fell to defeats in both of them. Liverpool’s early goals and tough defence means that they took 7.86 point home from Villa Park, while the home side won only 1.50. The Villians only fared marginally better in their next home game. The smaller margin of defeat meant that their score was slightly higher (1.79), but Arsenal kept the pressure on those above them with nice Christmas present of 6.93.

Blackburn and QPR’s horrible form continued with two home defeats to West Brom and Bolton, and United and Sunderland respectively. QPR slipped to the bottom of the form table with 10.25 points from their last five games and have plummeted into the bottom five of the APL. Blackburn are now adrift at the bottom after losing their last three in a row. Despite only losing each game by a single goal, the low standard of their opposition means that their returns from those defeats have been especially low. Bolton, who have three of their four wins away from home, took 6.34 points from Ewood Park.

Newcastle now find themselves alone in 7th place, 10.84 points behind Liverpool in 6th and 4.59 in front Stoke in 8th. The Toon are without a win in five, and suffered two dreadful home results against Swansea and West Brom. Returns of 3.42 against Swansea in 12th and 1.47 against West Brom in 13th marks a dramatic downturn in fortune for the Magpies who lie second bottom of the form table.

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  • Highest score (16): Liverpool 7.86
  • Highest score (17): Man Utd 9.71
  • Lowest score (16): Bolton 1.52
  • Lowest score (17): Fulham 1.08
  • Best draw score (16): Wigan 4.14
  • Best draw score (17): Wigan 4.10
  Team P W D L Away Wins GD Points Prem Pos
1 Manchester City 17 14 2 1 5 38 109.88 1
2 Manchester United 17 13 3 1 7 28 105.04 2
3 Tottenham Hotspur 16 11 2 3 5 13 86.88 3
4 Chelsea 17 10 3 4 4 15 83.01 4
5 Arsenal 17 10 2 5 4 8 82.27 5
6 Liverpool 17 8 6 3 5 7 81.37 6
7 Newcastle United 17 7 6 4 3 1 70.53 7
8 Stoke City 17 7 3 7 3 -10 65.94 8
9 West Bromwich Albion 17 6 3 8 4 -7 63.20 10
10 Norwich City 17 5 6 6 1 -4 62.27 9
11 Everton 16 6 2 8 3 -2 60.82 11
12 Fulham 17 4 6 7 1 -5 60.30 13
13 Aston Villa 17 4 7 6 1 -4 59.37 12
14 Swansea City 17 4 6 7 0 -5 58.77 14
15 Sunderland 17 4 5 8 2 0 58.26 15
16 Queens Park Rangers 17 4 4 9 3 -14 55.24 16
17 Wigan Athletic 17 3 5 9 2 -15 51.89 18
18 Wolverhampton Wanderers 17 4 3 10 1 -13 50.93 17
19 Bolton Wanderers 17 4 0 13 3 -17 48.78 19
20 Blackburn Rovers 17 2 4 11 0 -14 43.00 20
  Team W D L Points APL Pos
1 Manchester United 4 1 0 34.02 2
2 Chelsea 3 2 0 28.67 4
3 Stoke City 4 0 1 27.56 8
4 Manchester City 3 1 1 26.38 1
5 Wigan Athletic 2 2 1 25.98 17
6 Arsenal 3 1 1 25.70 5
7 Tottenham Hotspur 3 1 1 24.38 3
8 Liverpool 2 2 1 22.16 6
9 Norwich City 2 2 1 20.68 10
10 West Bromwich Albion 2 1 2 20.26 9
11 Everton 2 1 2 19.81 11
12 Fulham 2 1 2 18.47 12
13 Sunderland 2 0 3 17.11 15
14 Swansea City 1 2 2 17.01 14
15 Aston Villa 1 1 3 14.87 13
16 Wolverhampton Wanderers 1 2 2 14.37 18
17 Bolton Wanderers 1 0 4 12.68 19
18 Blackburn Rovers 1 0 4 12.03 20
19 Newcastle United 0 2 3 11.32 7
20 Queens Park Rangers 0 1 4 10.25 15