The same 2 charts published earlier, with adjusted classifications to rate match difficulty.
Fixture difficulty table:
Trailing 5-game average difficulty table:
The pictures may now be a bit more acceptable to some readers, with Newcastle now in the 8-15 group and the top 3 separated from the rest.
And the difficulty scoring chart is no longer linear – I have removed the middle group scores to skew the difficulty distribution:
| Group | Venue | Difficulty |
| 1-3 | Away | 6 |
| 1-3 | Home | 5 |
| 4-7 | Away | 5 |
| 4-7 | Home | 4 |
| 8-15 | Away | 3 |
| 8-15 | Home | 2 |
| 16-20 | Away | 2 |
| 16-20 | Home | 1 |
Discussion
Many of the comments I made in the earlier post still apply, although Fulham’s fixture difficulty volatility no longer looks so extreme. Instead, Swansea’s does.
Swansea have arguably one of the most difficult runs of 6 games of any team in the league (through games 17-22) where they play Everton home, Chelsea away, Aston Villa away, Man City home, Man Utd away, Spurs home. It could be an unhappy Christmas and New Year for the Swans as this run of fixtures lasts about 1 month starting from 21st December.
