The following post comes courtesy of Rick Ormiston (@rormis) who looked at the current league positions of the remaining opponents for City, United and Tottenham. This was then plotted onto the graphs below to show the average league positions of the teams each of the three sides will face in their remaining games, also giving home fixtures a weighting of 1.5 to give some indication of home supremacy.

Essentially what the data shows is when a slip up by each team would be bad news: The pressure will be on City to get points on the board until 28th March, when their task get much harder. Slip ups by United after 7th April will be costly, whilst up to that point they will have the trickier fixtures, whereas Spurs face a tough task from now on, especially when you take into consideration the fact that they currently reside a little behind both City and United in terms of points accrued to date.

With reference to reading the graphs: the position is as it suggests, the weighted position, taken into account when one of the the three teams plays at home is league position multiplied by 1.5 to give some notion of home advantage. The cumulative positions show the positions of all remaining teams added together and divided by the number of games remaining:

Ahead of the game I wrote a piece for EPL Index looking at the comparison of the numbers between City's home and away games and looking ahead at the Villa game, here are some of the key stats:

• Villa lost 2-1 to Newcastle in their last Barclays Premier League game, with Robbie Keane scoring his third goal since signing for Aston Villa on loan
• Keane's goals have come from just ten shots on goal with eight on target
• Keane has covered 18.7 miles since he joined Aston Villa, and has also completed a pass in his opponent's half every 2 minutes 51 seconds while on the pitch
• Stiliyan Petrov has been at the heart of Villa's midfield this season and is in the top ten players for total ground covered this season with 142.5 miles on the clock
• Fulham were the latest team to suffer defeat at the hands of league leaders Man City
• City beat Fulham 3-0 in theirlast game with goals from Sergio Aguero, Edin Dzeko and a Chris Baird own goal
• Adam Johnson was at the heart of City's attacks, winning a penalty and putting in the cross for Baird's own goal
• Johnson has five goals and five assists this season, contributing to or scoring a goal every 82 minutes, the seventh best in the EA SPORTS Player Performance Index (discounting players who have had a hand in less than five goals)
• Free scoring City have five players in the top seven for minutes per goal or assist. Dzeko has contributed a goal or assist every 75 minutes on the pitch, Ballotelli every 79 minutes, and Aguero every 82 minutes
• Aguero's goal was his 15^thof the season and Dzeko's his 12^th. Aguero's goals have come from 73 shots at goal with 56% on target, while Dzeko's have come from 70 shots at goal with 61% on target

My thoughts on the game are here, but below are some of the key numbers in a game that saw City out passed by Fulham, have less possession and Final Third entries, but had a welcome return to their clinical play in front of goal:

Some of the numbers ahead of todays game:

• Man City suffered a shock defeat at the hands of Everton in their last Premier League game.
• The absence of Yaya Toure has been blamed for City's faltering form, and the loan signing of Claudio Pizarro from Roma is hoped to cover for the Ivory Coast midfielder while he is at the African Cup of Nations.
• Yaya Toure has completed 689 passes in his opponent's half this season, the fourth highest in the EA SPORTS Player Performance Index. David Silva tops the index in this with 787 passes completed in his opponent's half.
• In his absence, Samir Nasri covered the most ground for Man City with 6.16 miles• Nasri has completed 633 passes in his opponent's half this season, and has the best minutes per pass completed rate of any player in the league with one every two minutes 8 seconds on the pitch.
• A hat trick hero in the previous game, Clint Dempsey scored for Fulham in their last Barclays Premier League game to earn a point against West Brom. Dempsey has now moved above Wayne Rooney to become the player with the second highest number of shots on target in the league, behind Robin van Persie. Dempsey has now had 54 shots on target this season, scoring ten goals.
• Steve Sidwell covered the most ground for Fulham in that game with 5.85 miles. Sidwell has won 77% of tackles so far this season and contributed 15 interceptions and 10 clearances.
• Brede Hangeland was one of only two players to make five clearances in the last round of games.

There were some interesting numbers coming out of yesterdays defeat that show that in the main, City still had the better of the possession and territory and were able to create chances. However, some profligate finishing and resolute Everton defending ensured City did not get on the scoresheet and saw the home side grab the win:

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Some of the numbers ahead of tonights game:

• Everton were victorious in the FA Cup last weekend, but their last league game ended in a 1-1 draw against Blackburn.
• Tim Cahill scored his first goal in 34 games, before seeing his clearance rebound off David Goodwillie for their equaliser. Cahill has had 30 shots on goal this season with 53% on target, with 255 passes completed in his opponent's half and three assists.
• Fellaini's assist for Cahill's goal was somewhat controversial, but the Belgian midfielder put in an irrefutable 6.1 miles of ground in the game to be Everton's top player for distance run. Fellaini has also completed the most passes in his opponent's half of any Everton player with 434 so far this season.
• Phil Jagielka continues his remarkable run of winning every tackle attempted this season, having won 32 so far.
• Top of the league Manchester City are now three points clear, and added another win in their last league match against Spurs. Goals from Nasri, Lescott, and controversial striker Mario Ballotelli won the game for Man City.
• Nasri also covered the most ground for City in that game with 6.53 miles and has contributed seven assists as well as three goals so far this season.
• Ballotelli has six goals this season from 40 attempts at goal with 65% on target and a goal every 73 minutes. Only Robbie Keane has a better minutes per goal rate based on his goal scoring return to the Premier League with Villa.

My take on the game is here and below are some of the key numbers from the victory:

With victory against Wigan last Monday, City broke the 50 point barrier for the 2011/12 season and in the process of doing so become just the fifth side (since the move to three points for a win) to reach that mark after 21 games of a season.

In doing so it is perhaps then a surprise that City only currently hold a three point lead over second-placed Manchester United and a five point lead over Tottenham in third place. A closer look at the records of the sides at the top end of the 2011/12 Premier League table though shows quite how good a start has been made as we head to the two-thirds mark of the season.

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