Comparing Team Performance of the English Premier League, Serie A, and La Liga for the 2008-2009 Season

Abstract

Three of the most celebrated football leagues in the world include the English Premier League (EPL), Italy's Serie A, and Spain's La Liga. To date, little football research has been conducted that attempts to determine why these leagues are so successful. What is it that the EPL, La Liga, and Serie A do that fosters such a high caliber of play, and what pitch factors, if any, either (1) contrast or (2) connect these prestigious leagues? The paucity of rigorous inquiry has not deterred popular speculation-common folklore has not waited for hard data. Experts rush to characterize the perceived performance characteristics of these leagues with little hesitation. And these assumptions have, to some degree, taken on a life of their own: football's answer to urban legend. This paper searches for key similarities and differences between these leagues that are bolstered by statistically significant findings as well as evidence to identify the key pitch factors that are associated with a team's ultimate success within its respective league.

The impact of ball recovery type, location of ball recovery and duration of possession on the outcomes of possessions in the English Premier League and the Spanish La Liga

“…The most common ball recovery type in the EPL was an interception (30.8%), which suggests that EPL teams favour regaining possession through open play. This supports the findings of Oberstone (2011), who discovered that EPL teams make more interceptions than teams in Spain. Set-plays were the most common ball recovery type in La Liga (29.2%).…”

“…Set-plays were the most common ball recovery type in La Liga (29.2%). This may be due to the strictness of La Liga referees, as significantly more free kicks are awarded in Spain (Oberstone 2011). In both competitions, there was a significant underrepresentation of goals scored after an interception (EPL = 0.4%, SR −2.2; La Liga = 0.1%, SR −2.1).…”

Inter-operator reliability of live football match statistics from OPTA Sportsdata

“…Previously, lots of studies focusing in football performance analysis had used different sources of data, mainly included Prozone Sports Ltd ® (Valter et al, 2006;Bradley et al, 2007;Bradley et al, 2011), Gecasport (Gómez et al, 2009a;2009b;Lago-Peñas et al, 2010), Amisco Pro ® (Di Salvo et al, 2007;Carling et al, 2008;Dellal et al, 2011) and OPTA Sportsdata (Oberstone, 2009;2011). The accuracy and reliability of former three data resources have already been verified, while the data from OPTA Sportsdata has still not been validated.…”

Modeling team compatibility factors using a semi-Markov decision process: a data-driven approach to player selection in soccer

“…This means that from each team's perspective the goal is to maximize probability of winning in each game in order to collect the largest number of points possible and then hope for the best standing in the league table. The implication is that team performance should be primarily assessed based on the number of points collected over the course of the season (Oberstone 2011). The next question to be answered is what events translate into points for teams?…”