KEN EARLY: Gunners hit a new low

IN recent seasons it’s become commonplace to hear statistics based on the top five leagues, meaning the top divisions of England, Spain, Italy, Germany and France.

So we can see that Barcelona average the highest percentage of possession of all teams in the top five leagues (69%, if you’re interested), Liverpool have the most shots per game (19.3), Real Madrid are offside more than anyone else, Greuther Furth commit the most fouls, and so on.

It’s just as well that we are now measuring and comparing the little details of the leagues with each other to create these diverting pieces of information, because if you step back and look at the big picture the thing that impresses you about the top five leagues is how over they are.