LONDON, ENGLAND - APRIL 03: Nicklas Bendtner of Arsenal celebrates scoring a late winner during the Barclays Premier League match between Arsenal and Wolverhampton Wanderers at the Emirates Stadium on April 3, 2010 in London, England. (Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)
You'll have to take my word for it for the moment, but one of the best indicators of a team's ability is the percentage of territory that it owned on the road with the score tied. What do I mean by 'percentage of territory'? Essentially, this is a measure of both ball possession and location during a game. The more passes you complete into dangerous areas when the game is tied, the better your team is.
Here's the 2009-10 table for the EPL, ranked by road territory%:
| W | L | D | Road% | Home% | Road Mins/G Tied | Home Mins/G Tied | |
| Chelsea | 27 | 6 | 5 | 65.4 | 68.6 | 46.5 | 35.5 |
| Arsenal | 23 | 9 | 6 | 63.5 | 65.2 | 47.3 | 42.0 |
| Man United | 27 | 7 | 4 | 60.6 | 65.2 | 56.8 | 38.3 |
| Liverpool | 18 | 11 | 9 | 58.0 | 65.6 | 63.1 | 37.9 |
| Spurs | 21 | 10 | 7 | 51.3 | 60.2 | 45.4 | 37.6 |
| Everton | 16 | 9 | 13 | 47.5 | 59.5 | 47.8 | 61.1 |
| Man City | 18 | 7 | 13 | 46.7 | 55.3 | 50.8 | 44.1 |
| Wigan | 9 | 20 | 9 | 46.5 | 55.5 | 42.3 | 59.6 |
| West Ham | 8 | 19 | 11 | 46.0 | 46.4 | 44.7 | 49.1 |
| Aston Villa | 17 | 8 | 13 | 45.8 | 50.8 | 54.8 | 53.0 |
| Sunderland | 11 | 16 | 11 | 44.6 | 47.7 | 33.2 | 33.5 |
| Blackburn | 13 | 14 | 11 | 42.6 | 43.8 | 44.4 | 46.6 |
| Birmingham | 13 | 14 | 11 | 41.2 | 44.7 | 41.4 | 63.3 |
| Wolverhampton | 9 | 18 | 11 | 41.1 | 49.2 | 39.6 | 47.2 |
| Fulham | 12 | 16 | 10 | 40.5 | 51.2 | 44.5 | 48.7 |
| Burnley | 8 | 24 | 6 | 40.3 | 49.4 | 38.7 | 41.9 |
| Portsmouth | 7 | 24 | 7 | 40.1 | 47.7 | 52.5 | 44.7 |
| Bolton | 10 | 19 | 9 | 39.9 | 43.7 | 35.3 | 44.3 |
| Stoke | 11 | 13 | 14 | 38.0 | 37.1 | 62.9 | 54.3 |
| Hull | 6 | 20 | 12 | 36.8 | 40.5 | 41.2 | 50.8 |
| Totals | 47.7 | 52.3 | 46.7 | 46.7 |
I'll delve more into the details of these advanced metrics in the coming days...
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