We are 10 games into the Premier League season. Who are the biggest underperformers and overachievers? Manchester United and Hull City, in particular, make for an interesting contrast when you compare their league position with how much their squads cost to assemble.
While squad cost is not a direct assessment of how a team should perform, it does give us an idea of where they should be aiming for.
With that in mind, we’ve taken the current Transfermarkt valuation of each Premier League squad cost and compared it to where each team currently finds itself in the table.
And boy, does it make Manchester United look bad. United are 18th in the Premier League table, despite having the fifth-most expensive squad in the division, giving them a 13-place disparity between their squad cost position and their actual league position.
That’s miles worse than even the likes of Tottenham and Newcastle, who this table doesn’t exactly make pretty reading for either.
At the other end of the scale, Hull are 13th despite having the cheapest squad in the division. That puts them six places above where their squad cost would suggest they might be expected to be.
Everton are also punching well above their weight, sitting sixth despite ranking 16th for squad cost. Brighton (+7), Leeds (+8), Arsenal (+5) and Brentford (+2) have also outperformed their squad cost rankings.
Manchester City, meanwhile, are third in the Premier League while having the second-most expensive squad according to Transfermarkt.
Here’s the full ranking:
League Position: 18 Squad cost Position: 5 Total squad cost: £883.5m Difference: -13
League Position: 11th Squad cost Position: 4 Total squad cost: £883.5m Difference: -7
League Position: 20 Squad cost Position: 15 Total squad cost: £293.7m Difference: -5
League Position: 12 Squad cost Position: 7 Total squad cost: £677.4m Difference: -5
League Position: 16 Squad cost Position: 12 Total squad cost: £357.8m Difference: -4
League Position: 4 Squad cost Position: 1 Total squad cost: £977.9m Difference: -3
League Position: 10 Squad cost Position: 8 Total squad cost: £485.5m Difference: -2
League Position: 5 Squad cost Position: 3 Total squad cost: £900.7m Difference: -2
League Position: 19 Squad cost Position: 18 Total squad cost: £231.4m Difference: -1
League Position: 15 Squad cost Position: 14 Total squad cost: £308.3m Difference: -1
League Position: 14 Squad cost Position: 13 Total squad cost: £308.9m Difference: -1
League Position: 3 Squad cost Position: 2 Total squad cost: £977.9m Difference: -1
League Position: 17 Squad cost Position: 19 Total squad cost: £186.4m Difference: +2
League Position: 8 Squad cost Position: 10 Total squad cost: £384.2m Difference: +2
League Position: 7 Squad cost Position: 11 Total squad cost: £358.8m Difference: +4
League Position: 1 Squad cost Position: 6 Total squad cost: £857.8m Difference: +5
League Position: 13 Squad cost Position: 20 Total squad cost: £170.7m Difference: +7
League Position: 2 Squad cost Position: 9 Total squad cost: £425.2m Difference: +7
League Position: 9 Squad cost Position: 17 Total squad cost: £248.5m Difference: +8
League Position: 6 Squad cost Position: 16 Total squad cost: £287.4m Difference: +10