Leeds United manager Jesse Marsch refusing to be lulled into a false sense of security by statistics ahead of Palace engagement

With every passing season, football seems to be more reliant on the latter. Sometimes they can be very useful, at others a fig leaf for those unable to witness a game with their own eyes, or perhaps to interpret it when they do.

Some get straight to the point, others try to shoehorn the subjective into the scientific and before you know it one statistician's "big" chance is another’s xG (expected goal) rating. Or worse still, xA – expected assist, if you have not had the pleasure.

People are paid good money to crunch these numbers and often their skill is about knowing the right time to take notice of them, and the correct moment to ignore them.

In that spirit, here are a couple of useless statistics.

Crystal Palace have had the fourth-worst start of the Premier League season, and Wilfried Zaha has not scored in nine matches against Leeds United. Both are factually correct (unless you quibble about the Eagles' game in hand on some, I suppose) but Whites coach Jesse Marsch is not entertaining either.

There are reasons it is so infuriating league tables are published almost as soon as the first ball has been kicked in a season. Seven games in – as 17th-placed Palace and their visitors on Sunday, 12th-placed Leeds are – you can perhaps begrudgingly accept patterns forming but still they can be horribly skewed even for a league which prides itself on anyone beating anyone (so the romantic theory goes, anyway).

Marsch will no more be counting his chickens at Selhurst Park than writing the game off because – statistic alert – his team has not won away from home in 2022-23.

"When you talk about Palace I think you need to talk about the opponents they've had," says the American sagely when asked about their early-season results. "They played against Man City, Liverpool (a draw), Arsenal, Chelsea, Newcastle (a clean sheet at St James' Park).

"When we played them in Australia (in pre-season) and I looked at their schedule at the beginning of the year to see what they were in for, I knew that was going to be a tough phase. And if you ask me, I think they played pretty well through that phase.

"Even when you look at the data and statistics, you can be fooled a little bit by what their games have been like just because their opponents have been so good.

"It's a hostile environment down there (you do not need to know the decibel count from the Holmesdale Road to know that). Last year we somehow got out with a 0-0 draw but it was very difficult. They unbalanced us almost the entire match.

"We have to be better, to defend with the same kind of mentality but tactically we have to be much cleaner in what we want out of the match to find a way to get a result."

And they have to stop Zaha, regardless of his goalscoring record against them.

"He's a very good footballer and he's incredible in transition," says Marsch of the winger. "He's very clever around the goal and can score with both feet."

This time, howver, there is a but.

"But if you pay too much attention to him and (Odsonne) Edouard can have a big match, (Jean-Philippe) Matete, (Michael) Olise, (Eberechi) Eze, you have (Jordan) Ayew – you have so much attacking talent on this team. So we know that one-v-one duels will be important in managing some of their dribblers and some of their individual talent.

"But we will need to manage specifically when we have the ball to make sure they're not getting out of transition and hurting us. The big task of the day for the entire team, not just the defending group, but we feel like we've created a good match. The guys will be ready."

Some numbers are significant, though.

When Leeds chief executive Angus Kinnear pulled out his crystal ball to write his never less than entertaining programme notes for last Sunday's match against Aston Villa, he pointed out "ball in play time has reached a decade-low average of 55 minutes (with a remarkable spread of over 20 minutes between the highest and lowest fixtures)".

Some supporters probably started casually flicking through those words at some points during the game that followed as Villa infuriated Marsch with their time-wasting tactics, then Leeds turned to them once Luis Sinisterra had been sent off at the start of the second half.

Marsch has had words, as he said he would.

"We tried to have some open dialogue with the officials and and with the (Premier) League," he reveals. "And I think that the discourse was helpful, and I think that people are aligned, that it's not great for the game to have the the time-wasting and so I think they'll try to make adjustments.

"But one of the things I said is our next home matches against Arsenal, and I highly doubt that we'll see that!

"At the very least I appreciate that that people have been open to the dialogue and the discussion in a good way. So hopefully, it'll make a difference."

Those battles can wait, though.

First to do a number on Crystal Palace.