Football fans have called out Opta’s supercomputer as it looks set to be wrong in every position for its prediction of the Premier League table.
The supercomputer is a predictive AI model which determines the likelihood of match results and end-of-season standings, with it becoming increasingly popular over recent years.
Back in the summer, it unveiled its estimations for how the top flight would look come the end of the campaign.
However, heading into this Sunday’s final day, the model looks to have got things badly wrong, with a strong chance that no teams will finish in their predicted position.
The supercomputer had Liverpool as champions, with Arsenal, Man City, Chelsea and Newcastle making up the top five.
At the bottom, it backed Burnley, Leeds and Sunderland for relegation.
The Opta supercomputer’s predicted Premier League table at the start of the campaign
The actual current Premier League table, with no sides in their predicted position as it stands
| Team | Predicted position | Current position | Positional difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Liverpool | 1st | 5th | -4 |
| Arsenal | 2nd | 1st | +1 |
| Man City | 3rd | 2nd | +1 |
| Chelsea | 4th | 10th | -6 |
| Newcastle | 5th | 11th | -6 |
| Aston Villa | 6th | 4th | +2 |
| Crystal Palace | 7th | 15th | -8 |
| Brighton | 8th | 7th | +1 |
| Bournemouth | 9th | 6th | +3 |
| Nottingham Forest | 10th | 16th | -6 |
| Brentford | 11th | 8th | +3 |
| Man United | 12th | 3rd | +9 |
| Everton | 13th | 12th | +1 |
| Tottenham | 14th | 17th | -3 |
| Fulham | 15th | 13th | +2 |
| West Ham | 16th | 18th | -2 |
| Wolves | 17th | 20th | -3 |
| Burnley | 18th | 19th | -1 |
| Leeds | 19th | 14th | +5 |
| Sunderland | 20th | 9th | +11 |
The current top five are Arsenal, Man City, Man United, Aston Villa and Liverpool, while West Ham are extremely likely to join Burnley and Wolves in being relegated.
Wolves have just 19 points, Burnley are two points better off, while West Ham are on 36 points.
In the predicted table, the supercomputer had Sunderland coming last with an expected points total of 31.35, Leeds in 19th with 36.72 and Burnley in 18th with 36.94.
In reality, Leeds are 14th on 47 points, Sunderland are ninth on 51 and Burnley have just 21 points.
Wolves and West Ham currently occupy 20th and 18th respectively despite being backed to come 17th and 16th in the estimations.
Sunderland’s official account replied to the original post showing the predicted table from last August on X last night following their 3-1 win at Everton by adding a thinking emoji.
At the top, Liverpool were expected to win the league with a points total of around 73.33, with Arsenal on 71.77 and Man City on 70.12.
However, Arsenal are in prime position to take home their first title since 2004 and Mikel Arteta’s side are on 79 points with two games to play, while Liverpool have taken just 59 points in a turbulent campaign.
The biggest underperformers compared to the supercomputer’s predicted Premier League table are Chelsea (by six places), Newcastle (six places), Crystal Palace (eight places) and Nottingham Forest (six places).
They currently occupy 10th, 11th, 15th and 16th despite being predicted to come fourth, fifth, seventh and 10th respectively.
Meanwhile, the teams that have overperformed the most are Man United (nine places), Sunderland (11 places), Leeds (five places) and Bournemouth and Brentford (both three places).
Those teams had been backed to come 12th, 20th, 19th, ninth and 11th respectively.
It must be noted Arsenal, Burnley, Bournemouth, Man City, Tottenham and Chelsea have a game in hand on the other 14 teams.
This means that those fixtures, coupled with the final day encounters on Sunday, could result in some of the predicted positions coming true, particularly as there are currently just three points between 13th and eighth place.
