The Premier League table is truly taking shape, with the league just short of halfway through.

The top three have run away with it, with Liverpool, Manchester City and Chelsea breaking away from the pack.

Things are tighter with regards to fourth place, with Tottenham, Arsenal, Leicester, Manchester United and West Ham competing for the final Champions League spot. 

However, stats show that the Premier League table 'should' look slightly different, at least if xP is to be believed. 

xP, otherwise known as expected points, works out the likelihood of each result, based on each shot any given match and its respective xG.

Taking those figures into consideration, xP calculates the number of points that each team should pick up given their xG performance.

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Now we've got all the nitty-gritty definitions out of the way, let's look at how xP dictates the Premir League table 'should look', according to understat.com.

While the rest of the table is rather interesting, xP has the top four in exactly the same positions, with Man City, Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal, in that order, occupying the top four slots.

Things get very interesting after that though, with Crystal Palce, who currently occupy the 11th spot in the actual Premier League table, sitting in 5th according to xP.

Premier League table

Next in the table is West Ham, who are in fifth place in the real Premier League table, but sit in sixth according to xP, suggesting they're about where they should be.

Brentford and Brighton are up next, in the seventh and eighth spots respectively, which is much better than the 12th and 13th positions that they currently occupy in the real table.

Turn away Manchester United fans, as xP has the Red Devils sitting in ninth position, higher than the sixth position that they currently occupy.

This suggests that despite their torrid form, Ralf Rangnick's men have been pretty lucky this season.

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Another overperforming team next, as the defensively solid Wolves sit in tenth position in the xP Premier League table, two places below the eighth-place position they currently occupy. 

Next in the table are Southampton, Everton and Leeds, who sit in 11th, 12th and 13th respectively, suggesting they've been unlucky considering they sit at 15th, 14th and 16th respectively in the actual table. 

Two of the league's biggest teams come in next, with Leicester and Tottenham occupying the 14th and 15th spots respectively, which is much worse than the ninth and seventh positions that they are actually in.

Next is Steven Gerrard's Aston Villa, who despite being in tenth position in the actual table, should be much worse off in 16th if xP is to be believed.

The next two spots are bang on, with Watford and Burnley occupying the 17th and 18th positions,  just as they do in the actual Premier League table. 

The final two teams have switched positions, as while the actual Premier League table has Norwich in 20th and Newcastle in 19th, xP has the two teams the other way around.