Statistics prove lady luck deserted Déise

In his seminal book Moneyball, Michael Lewis observed that the play-offs could frustrate the hell out of some of the most progressive front offices in baseball because it offered such a small sample size.

With the regular season a 162-game slog-marathon, they could easily identify trends, strengths, and weaknesses. A bad performance or a slice of bad luck amounted to essentially an irrelevance, like Man City losing the odd game — by the odd goal — under Pep.

Over a long season,” Lewis wrote, ”the luck evens out, and skill shines through.