Those people wouldn't describe any stat as useless, they'd describe the application of the statistic as wrong.
I wouldn't dismiss it so readily. It's far less useless than shots, shots on target, possession, corners won, etc. etc., which have been used for ages. Is it a perfect statistic? No, of course not. But it comes closer than any other to illustrate which team was most likely to win a match and it is a decent predictor over the long term of where a team will finish. To put it another way, if you're buying a stock, would you just look at the price movement in the last few days (due to sudden hype or whatever), or would you look at the company's fundamentals? Probably the latter. xG is something similar: it doesn't look at the results, but at the probability of a team winning based on the quality of the chances they create and concede. In the long run the team with the better quality chances will outperform the team that has fluked its way to wins over a short period of time (see Palace vs Burnley).
They were doing well before Woy. Just very unlucky. But if you're outperforming your opponents in xG game after game, your luck is bound to change.
Statistically speaking, that is. Because ultimately, we are all one, sharing the planet, drinking in the auras of those around us and understanding, deep in our everlasting souls that transcend these corporeal vessels we call bodies, that every one is every one else.
clown shoe.
So all records mean absolutely nothing, is that it?
The achievement and memory does not dissappear. But what city does or does not do is totally irrelevant. Records are there to be broken, and in the end it means nothing. If they win all the rest of their games, who cares! All that happens is that they win the league, and next season someone else might win it. It's not as if breaking a record will give you 10 points at the start of next season, so I'll stand by my point that it is irrelevant.
You cannot have it both ways. If what City achieve is irrelevant then so is for example what Harry achieves in beating the records of Shearer / Sheringham / most goals scored in 2017, whatever. Either a record stands for something or it doesn't.
I agree with all of that 100% except that for me statistics are merely what comes out of what you've been watching. They help you recognise what the club has achieved, take just pride in it and help you remember just how good the achievement was in later years when others come along and threaten to better it.
We have dropped a total of 25 point so far this season, but only four of those to teams currently below 11th in the table - just two more than to teams finishing below 11th last season.
