Pep Guardiola’s famous tiki-taka football always attracted the same jibe from its critics: “you don’t get bonus points for possession.”
Well, today the Examiner have decided to do just that.
We’ve awarded each Championship team a bonus point for every time they had at least 10 percentage points of possession more than their opponents.
Huddersfield Town have been awarded 18 bonus points, the third highest total in the division - it puts them on 67 points and lifts them into fourth place.
Jaap Stam’s possession based play sees his team pick up 21 bonus points, more than any other club in the division and is enough to lift Reading into third place, just one point behind Newcastle United.
Fulham pick up the next most points (20) and leap into the play-off places in fifth place.
Leeds United only pick up seven bonus points, which is far fewer than any other team to remain in the top six, which they only just do.
Brighton and Newcastle stay in the top two with 12 and 13 bonus points respectively.
Alternative Table
Position | Team | Bonus Points | New Points |
1 | Brighton and Hove Albion | 12 | 72 |
2 | Newcastle United | 13 | 71 |
3 | Reading FC | 21 | 70 |
4 | Huddersfield Town | 18 | 67 |
5 | Fulham FC | 20 | 60 |
6 | Leeds United | 7 | 58 |
7 | Sheffield Wednesday | 13 | 58 |
8 | Norwich City | 11 | 51 |
9 | Derby County | 7 | 50 |
10 | Barnsley | 3 | 44 |
11 | Aston Villa | 8 | 44 |
12 | Preston North End | 3 | 43 |
13 | Queens Park Rangers | 9 | 42 |
14 | Brentford | 8 | 41 |
15 | Birmingham City | 4 | 41 |
16 | Ipswich Town | 4 | 38 |
17 | Wolverhampton Wanderers | 5 | 37 |
18 | Bristol City | 10 | 37 |
19 | Cardiff City | 2 | 35 |
20 | Wigan Athletic | 9 | 34 |
21 | Nottingham Forest | 4 | 34 |
22 | Burton Albion | 6 | 31 |
23 | Blackburn Rovers | 3 | 28 |
24 | Rotherham United | 1 | 17 |