I wasn't sure if this was the best place to post this, but stealing from the Guardian, someone has done a "top 10" (*including Chelsea*) vs each other mini table, to see of the top 10, as it is so tight (at least the top 8-9). whether certain teams have had "easier" fixtures, and how well they have done in these harder fixtures:
| Team | Total Games | Home | Away | Won | Draw | Loss | Goals For/Against | Points | Points per game |
| Man City | 7 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 14/9 | 14 | 2.00 |
| Liverpool | 7 | 2 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 13/8 | 12 | 1.71 |
| Aston Villa | 6 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 14/11 | 12 | 2.00 |
| Newcastle | 7 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 12/10 | 10 | 1.43 |
| Spurs | 6 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 12/10 | 8 | 1.33 |
| Arsenal | 5 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 8/6 | 8 | 1.60 |
| Brighton | 6 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 11/15 | 7 | 1.17 |
| West Ham | 6 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 9/13 | 7 | 1.17 |
| Chelsea | 7 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 13/16 | 6 | 0.86 |
| Man Utd | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2/11 | 0 | 0.00 |
What this shows is the difference between us and City is basically down to the 1 extra home game they had (which they won) and the Spurs game which the refs cheated us on; Villa have the joint best record with City, although from only 6 games (and the games they did win were Brighton at home, Chelsea away, West ham home and Spurs away - so hardly the hardest fixtures). On the flip siode, Unit have had the easiest fixtures so far, having only played 4 of the top 10 (and got 0 points from those 4 games), with Arsenal the 2nd hardest (due to only 5 fixtures, but have the 4th best record) and Spurs the 3rd (due to home/away split - and even with their cheated points from our match, have got an average record - if we won that game, and they lost, then we'd have the best record frtom the hardest set of fictures, and they'd have the second worst ppg at 0.83 despite this 3rd easiest set).
This also explains how United are only 4 points behind us - thanks to a disproportionate number of games against the bottom 10, masking their terrible performance in bigger games (their 4 games were against Spurs away, Brighton at home, Arsenal away, and Man City at home, so a mixture). Villa's next top half team btw is City at home next Weds - a loss in that takes them to the same record as we have; they then have Arsenal at home the Sat as well; whereas our next one is Man United at home.
