Manchester City will have to start games much faster in the second half of the season if they are to catch Chelsea and retain their Barclays Premier League crown.
A new study shows Chelsea have spent 56.1 per cent of matches in a winning position, a whopping 18 per cent higher than their nearest rivals City.
In fact, the Blues have led for 19 hours and 47 minutes this season, over six hours more than Manchester City and four clubs (Burnley, Crystal Palace, Leicester and Sunderland) combined.
Chelsea and City square off at Stamford Bridge on Saturday with Chelsea heading in to the match five points clear and they will look to exploit City's slow-starting habit.
At the wrong of the table, Sunderland may be just one point clear of the relegation zone but if the league were determined on who spent the most time winning then they would be rock-bottom.
That unwanted position currently befalls Leicester and the Foxes have spent just 12.8 per cent of matches in the lead, compared to Sunderland's 10.5 per cent.
The worst culprits for squandering leads are Aston Villa, who would be 12th but instead find themselves down in 15th place.
Tottenham have made a habit of coming from behind this season and winning late and that is reflected in the MatchStory table, where they are 10th based on time spent winning compared to sixth in the table proper. Second-bottom QPR would be 14th if the table were based on time spent in winning positions and they also have the unwanted honour of having spent more time losing positions than any other side.The 13 hours and 32 minutes during which QPR have trailed this season is more than Chelsea and the two Manchester clubs put together.
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