With or without Lu(cas)

If you excuse the feeble U2-related pun in the title, I think you'll find some rather interesting - and alarming - statistics in this article.

These are a number of statistics of our league season before and after Lucas' injury against Chelsea in November.

Points per game

With Lucas: 1.77
Without Lucas: 1.14

Goals per game

With Lucas: 1.31
Without Lucas: 0.93

Goals conceded per game

With Lucas: 0.92
Without Lucas: 1

Hardly Earth-shattering statistics, you might think. But the Points per game ratios are the difference between 67 and 43 points - last season, that would be the difference between 5th and 15th! The goals scored/against ratios are the difference between goal differences of +15 and -3 over a season.

I posted a similar article in January, but the stats are now seriously alarming. You can forget Suarez and Gerrard, our most important player is Lucas.