What the Premier League Would Look Like if Only 90 Minutes Was Considered

Dive into the world of Premier League football where FIFA's latest added time directive has revolutionized the duration of games, leaving the traditional match length in its wake. Learn how these changes affect the standings and betting strategies, and what if league outcomes were frozen at 90 minutes. This article offers an in-depth analysis of the potential impact on your favourite teams, the league table itself, and which Betting Sites offer 90-minute betting options.

Bookmakers that Offer 90 Minute Betting

Betfair offer 90 minute betting markets on their sportsbook site: Check the full terms and conditions for this offer.

offer

Bet £10 on Sports, get £40 in Free Bets

Place a min £10 bet on Sportsbook on odds of min EVS (2.0), get £40 in Free Bet Builders, Accumulators or multiples to use on any sport. Rewards valid for 30 days. Only deposits via cards or Apple Pay will qualify. T&Cs apply. Please Gamble Responsibly.

SEE OFFER

#ad. 18+, gambleaware.org, T&Cs Apply

90 Minute Premier League Table

Who benefits the most from added time? Who wishes there was no concept of additional minutes? This is what the Premier League table would have looked like if only 90 minutes play was considered.

*Everton 8 points deducted, Nottingham Forest 4 Points Deducted

If the Premier League had no added time attached to its 2023/24 matches, it would be Manchester City who rules the roost at the end of the season. A massive 10 points clear at the top, as Arsenal find themselves placed as their nearest challengers.

A margin this big only highlights how important injury time has been and with Arsenal being so far behind in this table compared to in real life, it does suggest that the Emirates outfit have done a lot of their heavy lifting as the seconds begin to run out. At the same time, it was not heavy enough to lead them to the title.

From there the Gunners would be better off than Liverpool by another seven points and with this chasm of points between the Anfield outfit and their Manchester-based rival, even the matches stopping at 90 minutes would do them no real favours.   

Sitting fourth in the table would be Aston Villa and just like in real life, it would mean a place in the Champions League next season. Unai Emery's men just pipping Tottenham to fourth place after 90 minutes and these position mirror what happened in real life. Of course, you could also expand this point to the top five in the Premier League as there was no overall change from Manchester City through to Spurs.

Rounding out the top six would be Newcastle, the Magpies edging Manchester United out of the top six but both teams await who will win this season's FA Cup. If it is Manchester United, they will be in Europe at the expense of their Newcastle counterparts. In addition to this, Chelsea, Crystal Palace and West Ham would all find themselves in the top 10.

At the bottom, it is the near same picture (only slightly repositioned) as we have seen in the real-life relegation battle. Nottingham Forest declaring themselves safe in 17th position. In the 90-minute table, they would find themselves 11 points clear of Burnley. The Clarets find themselves two points further clear of Luton and spare a thought for Sheffield United who finished the campaign with just 21 points at this certain marker of time.

Current and Correct Premier League Table

*Everton 8 points deducted, Nottingham Forest 4 Points Deducted

Manchester City made it four successive Premier League titles in a row, as they cleared both their final week hurdles to go past Arsenal to maintain the current status quo in English football. 

A two-horse race that went down to the wire, as the Gunners once again have to make do with being the bridesmaid rather than the Premier League bride. Can Mikel Arteta finally conquer the mountain 12 months from now?

A two-horse race that was previously three and with Liverpool’s downturn at the worst possible time, it means that Jurgen Klopp did not get the perfect send off as his time at Anfield now comes to an end.

At the bottom, Everton’s run-in with the football financial laws saw them receive an eight-point deduction across two punishments. However, this did little to stop Sean Dyche's men rolling up their sleeves and getting down to business, business that saw them put a considerable distance between themselves and the bottom three.

The same can also be said for the other team that has suffered a deduction and with Nottingham Forest also falling foul of the financial regulators, the City Ground outit can take pride in finishing 17th and consigning the three promoted clubs at the start of the season straight back to the EFL Championship.

Points Difference

With two contrasting tables now in play, the next step is to see the points difference between the two and in doing this, we can see who the true profiteers of adding time are and who ends up bemoaning all this newfound added time.

While there is something to be said for leaving it late and with Arsenal earning a net profit of six additional points in added time and all those additional entries almost fired the Gunners to the top of the final Premier League table of the season.

Six additional points for Arsenal, the same number of additional points for Liverpool and although both have profited the most from late goals, the latter’s propensity to concede in regulation time has hampered their title bid.  

Two more points than Chelsea who have gained four additional points from late goals and with Cole Palmer having a remarkable debut season at Stamford Bridge, there is no underestimating his contribution in front of goal.

The Blues have gained a single point more than West Ham and Aston Villa and as the former now say goodbye to manager David Moyes, their West Midlands counterparts now look forward to the Champions League.  

In terms of the relegation battle, a now-relegated Sheffield United find themselves five points worse off because of late goals. While Nottingham Forest who eventually secured safety found themselves seven points worse off.

This highlights just how brutal the conceding of late goals has been for Nuno Espirito Santo’s men and were it not for even weaker relegation rivals, the mood could have been far different at the City Ground.

If the relegation battle was decided on late points swings alone, it would be Crystal Palace joining both the Blades and Forest in the bottom three. Not a huge concern for the new Palace manager Oliver Glasner and especially as the Austrian has turned the fortunes around of the Selhurst Park outfit and led the club to an eventual top-ten finish.

Positional Comparison

Finally, we can add another layer of context by comparing a team’s position from the 90 minute table to the overall table and see who has benefitted the most from a positional standpoint: 

When all the numbers are crunched and the positions are all realigned, we can see that four clubs have currently profited from late goals. However, some have profited more than others and the biggest profit can be found in West London.

Chelsea's start to the season was a rather shaky one, but there has been nothing shaky in how they finished. Late goals turning eighth place into sixth and converting staying at home next season to playing in Europe.

Behind them, three clubs find themselves a position better off because of late drama. West Ham, Everton and Luton all better off by a single position, not enough for the Hatters to keep themselves up in the Premier League.

Four clubs profiting, another five feeling the pinch at the other end. A quartet of clubs that are accounted for by Newcastle, Manchester United, Brentford, Burnley and Crystal Palace all sliding down a position.

With 11 teams being unaffected at the end of this season, added time may not have had a huge bearing on the final table but it still had a considerable say on who finished where.

Methodology

One of the main takeaways from the 2022 FIFA World Cup was not necessarily Lionel Messi finally getting his hands on the one prize that had constantly eluded him until then but more the amount of additional minutes played within the confines of Qatar.

A newly added time directive from FIFA saw time-wasting quickly become a thing of the past, and with some games creeping into 100-minute territory without anything in the way of a serious injury, it certainly added a new dimension to any fixture played on the game’s biggest stage.

Although there were plenty of additional minutes to be added, the directive was largely deemed a success and if players wanted to try and kill the clock as they would in the past, they would simply see those same seconds added back on.

As always, if a directive is a success in the World Cup it will then soon trickle down to domestic competitions and at the start of the 2023/24 season, the Premier League decided to take the same stance on timewasting.

Again, this has led to a flurry of additional minutes being added to proceedings and not only are paying supporters getting more action overall but it also widening the number of minutes available for in-play betting.

Something which has created a double-edged sword for those who like a weekend wager, as although it does offer punters more time for a bet to get over the line, it also offers the same additional minutes for it all to go wrong. 

Thankfully the bookies have tried to see off this threat and offer something of a safety net when it comes to late, late goals. With new 90-minute markets in place, it means any goals in the newfound abundance of added time will not affect the outcome just seconds before.

This got us thinking, what if the Premier League was decided on results at 90 minutes? The clock stops dead and all those late twists in the tale are erased, as a consequence, the league table could have a completely different look to it.

This meant the next step was to record all this season’s Premier League results slice off all the goals post 90 minutes and see how those final scores would comprise a league table with this new criteria.

Source

https://fbref.com/en/

Data correct as of 20th May 2024