Punters analyze the Home and Away Form of football teams to be able to properly evaluate whether they collect more points at home or away, and consequently place their bets based on actual performance statistics.
What Are the Advantages of the Home Team?You can commence your personal research of Home and Away Form by selecting a football league you are interested in. In case a particular sports match has stirred your interest then you may be wondering how far back to look into the records to see how both teams are faring against one another.
When two closely matched football teams are playing, usually the home team’s advantage is factored into the odds and they are made the favorite. What might give punters the upper hand in a particular football match is an in-depth knowledge of the home and away record of both sides. It is quite beneficial and may help them in finding value betting markets.
In the current article, we are going to examine how the knowledge of Home and Away Form influences the precision of our football predictions.
What Are the Advantages of the Home Team?
To what extent does playing on a home field give football teams an advantage? You may be wondering what these benefits are and how important they are when it comes to predicting the outcome of football matches. This is a topic that has been discussed in great detail by football fans and bettors all over the world.
The first and most obvious advantage of the home team is the number of football fans who have gathered to support their favorite team. This factor has a psychological effect on the players’ performance and shows in the key moments of football matches.
Yet another factor that adds to the benefits of playing at a home venue is the familiarity of the field. It could be of particular importance for the performance of some players.
What is more, hosts do not need to travel and thus they are better rested for the forthcoming game.
While we may clearly see that the advantage of the home ground is undeniable, it naturally does not guarantee teams to win all of their home clashes. As per statistics, home teams may expect to win in nearly half of their games, while the away side is triumphant in a quarter of the cases. To be precise in most of their football predictions, punters need to be familiar with the home and away records of the particular teams they are interested in.
Home and Away Form
As an example in our Home and Away Form study, we may take the top-level English Premier League, which is zealously followed by both novice and experienced bettors from all over the world.
The Premier League includes a total of 20 clubs, as each of them plays the rest of the teams two times in the course of a season running from August to May. This makes for a total of 38 matches per season for each club. For each of the sides, one match is played at home ground and one match – away.
According to statistics, teams in the English Premier League league win 46.2% of the home games, while the away team gains the upper hand in 26.32% of games. Both teams score an equal number of points in 27.52% of games.
Home Table
- Let us now proceed with our Home and Away Form Research by looking at the top 5 and bottom 5 teams from the English Premier League Home Win Table. Information is valid as of the day of writing the current article for the 2021/22 season.
Top 5 Teams at Home Matches played Win Draw Loss Goals For Goals Against Goal Difference Points Last 5 Liverpool 14 11 3 0 37 7 +30 36 5 wins Manchester City 14 11 1 2 40 10 +30 34 4 wins, 1 loss Arsenal 15 10 2 3 24 12 +12 32 1 draw, 3 wins, 1 loss Tottenham Hotspur 14 9 1 4 26 16 +10 28 3 wins, 2 losses West Ham United 15 8 3 4 27 20 +7 27 1 loss, 1 draw, 3 wins - And here are the worst-performing teams at home fixtures:
Bottom 5 Teams at Home Matches played Win Draw Loss Goals For Goals Against Goal Difference Points Last 5 Leeds United 15 4 4 7 17 29 -12 16 4 losses, 1 win Brighton 15 3 5 7 10 20 -10 14 1 draw, 4 losses Burnley 13 2 6 5 10 16 -6 12 1 draw, 1 win, 3 losses Norwich City 15 2 3 10 10 31 -21 9 1 win, 1 draw, 3 losses Watford 14 2 1 11 14 34 -20 7 5 losses
By looking at the Home Win table, we may summarize that the top-performing team in the Home Table is Liverpool with a total of 36 points amassed from 14 matches, and a home gain win percentage of 79%. Manchester City and Arsenal are the other two teams performing exceptionally well on home ground.
Burnley, Norwich City, and Watford perform quite poorly at home fixtures, with home game win ratios between 13 and 15%.
Away Table
- Now, let us look at the Away Table, again showing the top and bottom 5 teams.
Top 5 Teams Away Matches played Win Draw Loss Goals For Goals Against Goal Difference Points Last 5 Manchester City 15 11 3 1 28 8 +20 36 3 wins, 2 draws Liverpool 15 10 3 2 38 13 +25 33 1 draw, 4 wins Chelsea 15 10 3 2 29 9 +20 33 1 loss, 1 draw, 3 wins Wolverhampton Wanderers 15 8 2 5 15 11 +4 26 3 wins, 2 losses Manchester United 14 6 5 3 24 22 +2 23 2 draws, 2 wins, 1 loss - And here are the worst-performing clubs at away fixtures:
Bottom 5 Teams Away Matches played Win Draw Loss Goals For Goals Against Goal Difference Points Last 5 Leeds United 15 3 4 8 17 38 -21 13 1 draw, 3 losses, 1 win Leicester City 13 3 3 7 18 27 -9 12 4 losses, 1 win Burnley 14 1 6 7 12 22 -10 9 2 losses, 2 draws, 1 win Norwich City 14 2 2 10 8 32 -24 8 1 win, 4 losses Everton 13 1 3 9 10 28 -18 6 1 draw, 4 losses
As far as the statistics from the Away Form table are concerned, the best-performing club is Manchester City, with 36 points from 15 matches, and an away match win percentage equalling 73%. Liverpool and Chelsea show strong performance at away fixtures as well, and their away match win percentage is 67%.
On the other hand, Burnley, Norwich City, and Everton are the three teams showing the worst performance at away fixtures, with an away match win percentage as low as 7% for Burnley, 8% for Everton, and 14% for Norwich City.
General Conclusions for Home and Away Form Statistics
The statistics available for the last 5 games played both in the home and away tables are quite indicative of the current Home and Away Form of the teams. Any information that goes beyond the last 5 or 6 games of a team may be irrelevant to its current form.
A good marker of a team’s scoring power is the number of goals scored away. Punters should also consider opponents, as goals against weak opponents are not as valuable as goals against a stronger team.
The available information in the Home and Away Form tables, particularly the data regarding the goals scored and goals conceded could also be used for betting on Goals markets, such as Total Goals, Correct Score, and more.
It is important to point out that statistics for football Home and Away Form get more precise with the advance of the season. So, the beginning of a season is not quite indicative and the scarcity of data available at this initial stage might hinder punters from making a reliable analysis.
Conclusion
Football teams tend to perform better when they are playing on home ground. This is universally acknowledged, and something that novice bettors are aware of. Home advantage is always taken into account by oddsmakers. However, other teams show a tendency of performing better away. So, the knowledge of simply who is the home and who is the away team is not quite indicative. Tracking the home and away records of football teams can bring value to betting markets that other punters might have missed to check.Home and Away Form