Why Man Utd Sit Near Bottom of Alternative Premier League Table

Photo by DavidKenny

If you were to take the Premier League table and re-arrange it based on the relative importance for each team, what would the table look like?

For example, now that West Ham United have been relegated, they have nothing to play for other than club pride, a paycheck and a thank you to their supporters. So in this imaginary league table for Sunday, they would be ranked last (where they are now).

Sunday will be one of those rare days where the focus of the world will be on specific sections of the Premier League table (near the bottom and in the race to qualify for the Europa League).

So, here is my Premier League table based on how important the final match of the season is for each club:

1. Wigan
2. Blackpool
3. Birmingham City
4. Wolves
5. Blackburn
6. Spurs
7. Liverpool
8. Fulham
9. Arsenal
10. Man City
11. Everton
12. Stoke
13. Bolton
14. West Brom
15. Newcastle United
16. Aston Villa
17. Sunderland
18. Chelsea
19. Man United
20. West Ham

As a disclaimer, I ranked the table based on (1) staying up in the Premier League, (2) qualifying for Europa League, (3) winning the Fair Play slot to qualify for Europa League, and (4) a combination of bragging rights (based on where each club finishes the season) and TV revenue (the higher up the table the team is, the more TV revenue they’ll receive). With teams who are assured their current position no matter what happens Sunday, those are listed near the bottom of the table (Chelsea and Man United, for example).