I am amazed at times with some people who post on internet forums, the only kind of consistency most of the time is their incosistency.
How can you go from looking like we are going to win the league last week to defo not a chance this week ?
Is this same rationale (loss at a smaller club) to be applied to all of the title contenders ? Surely it needs to be does it not ? Great, cus then that means that United (Bolton) Arsenal (Boro) and our selves (Reading) are out of the title race already . . . . . .
Its a well known and much maligned theory that you see and learn more about your people in the face of a loss/defeat than you ever can following victories. It says a lot for our fans, and the word fickle definitely springs to mind, when following a defeat the same people who where eulogising about 21 goals in five games talk of slipping out of the title race after one loss.
We are not the Harlem Globe Trotters, and as such will not win every game. In fact the great sides of the seventies and eighties never won every game. Even the Invincible Arsenal actually only won 68% of their games in the infamous "invincibles" season.
Since football was invented by Rubert Murdoch, otherwise known as the inception of the Premier League, the winners of the league have fared as follows:
1992/93 - Man United
Lost 6 of 42 = 14.2%
Drawn 12 of 42 = 28.5%
1993/94 - Man United
Lost 4 of 42 = 9.5%
Drawn 11 of 42 = 26.1%
1994/95 - Blackburn
Lost 7 of 42 = 16.6%
Drawn 8 of 42 = 19%
1995/96 - Man United
Lost 6 of 38 = 15.7%
Drawn 7 of 38 = 18.4%
1996/97 - Man United
Lost 5 of 38 = 13.1%
Drawn 12 of 38 = 31.5%
1997/98 - Arsenal
Lost 6 of 38 = 15.7%
Drawn 7 of 38 = 18.4%
1998/99 - Man United
Lost 3 of 38 = 7.8%
Drawn 13 of 38 = 34.2%
1999/2000 - Man United
Lost 3 of 38 = 7.8%
Drawn 7 of 38 = 18.4%
2000/01 - Man United
Lost 6 of 38 = 15.7%
Drawn 8 of 38 = 21%
2001/02 - Man United
Lost 3 of 38 = 7.8%
Drawn 9 of 38 = 23.6%
2002/03 - Man United
Lost 5 of 38 = 13.1%
Drawn 8 of 38 = 21%
2003/04 - Arsenal
Lost 0 of 38 = 0%
Drawn 12 of 38 = 31.5%
2004/05 - Chelsea
Lost 1 of 38 = 2.6%
Drawn 8 of 38 = 21%
2005/06 - Chelsea
Lost 5 of 38 = 13.1%
Drawn 4 of 38 = 10.5%
2006/07 - Man United
Lost 5 of 38 = 13.1%
Drawn 5 of 38 = 13.1%
Only once has a team gone the whole season without loss, on average the league winners have lost 4.3 games per season and drawn 8.7 games over the last 15 years.
We currently have 1 loss and 6 draws. It looks like the four draws at home to date could cause us the biggest problem in our quest for the holy grail.
Interestingly if we are to clock up as many as 11, 12 or 13 draws in one season then the only team to have done this and still won the league with at least one defeat on the clock are United, in 92/93, 93/94, 96/97 and 98/99.