Arsenal ended their 22-year wait for the Premier League title, but how do the Gunners fare when the season's data is examined through a different lens? BBC Sport and Opta have crunched the numbers across a range of alternative tables to offer fresh perspective on 2025-26.

Expected points: Sunderland's escape act exposed

Expected points (xPTS) measure the quality of goalscoring chances a team created and conceded across the campaign, giving analysts an indicator of whether a side over- or under-performed their underlying numbers.

The most striking outlier is Sunderland. According to the xPTS model, the newly promoted side would have been relegated had their points total reflected the chances they made and faced. Aston Villa, too, would have finished in the bottom half of the table — a significant drop from their actual standing.

At the other end of the spectrum, Chelsea emerge as the biggest over-performers in the wrong direction: the xPTS table places them inside the Champions League places, suggesting their underlying attacking and defensive output was considerably stronger than their real points reflected.

Whether Sunderland and Villa dip sharply next season may yet settle the debate over whether expected data is genuinely predictive or merely statistical noise.

Home and away: Tottenham's curious case

Tottenham produced one of the season's more puzzling splits. They struggled badly at home but accumulated enough points on their travels to qualify for the UEFA Europa League in a table built solely on away results. Everton and Nottingham Forest also fared notably better away from home — a surprise given both clubs are associated with intense home atmospheres.

Fulham went the other way, outperforming their away record at Craven Cottage to a greater extent than any other side in the division.

Set-pieces: Arsenal's defining weapon

The 2025-26 Premier League season will be remembered in part for the prominence of set-pieces — the goals they produced, the specialist coaches who became touchline figures, and the tactical arguments they sparked. Arsenal ranked among the division's best performers from dead-ball situations, a thread that ran through much of their title-winning campaign.

Whether rival clubs respond by investing in set-piece specialists and aerial targets during the summer window remains one of the transfer market's more intriguing questions.

Long-range goals and the English scorer table

For those who prefer power over precision, an alternative table based solely on goals scored from outside the penalty area rewards the season's most spectacular strikes and the teams whose players were willing to test goalkeepers from distance.

With England preparing for international tournament football and a Croatia fixture on the horizon, a final table ranks clubs by goals scored by English players alone — a timely measure of the domestic talent pool feeding into the national team's ambitions.