Keeping the ball well and controlling possession is key to winning any football match.
Both almost go hand-in-hand and proof of how important they are to a successful campaign can be simply explained.
In terms of keeping possession across every match in the Premier League last season, the top five teams [in order] to keep the ball for the longest average time were Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea, Leicester and Manchester United.
All five of those teams took the top five positions in the league at the end of the 2019/20 term - albeit in a different order - with City coming second after recording an average of 62.6% possession in every game while Liverpool clinched the title, finishing 18 points clear of City and recording a 59.6% average possession in every match.
Elsewhere, United finished third having amassed a 54.6% average possession during games with Chelsea in fourth and Leicester in fifth achieving 57.9% and 55.1% possession respectively.
Of course, keeping possession only gets you so far and what teams do with it is really what counts - but it clearly goes a long way in helping any side in a match.
Interestingly, Liverpool were only dispossessed 306 times across the 38 games last season - despite the incredible amount of time they kept hold of the ball.
Jurgen Klopp's men were actually dispossessed fewer times during matches than 16 other teams in the league with only Sheffield United [292], Burnley [291] and Newcastle [288] having fared better in that metric, according to Compare.bet who utilised official statistics from the Premier League.
The Reds actually lost the ball almost 30% less during their 2019/20 title-winning campaign than they did in the previous season.
Chelsea, for comparison, were dispossessed the third most times of any side in the top flight - having lost the ball 414 times when previously in control of possession.
United, meanwhile, came in sixth having been dispossessed on 396 occasions and City sat in 12th after losing the ball 341 times across the campaign.
It's small margins, of course, but the Reds new-found ability to keep the ball incredibly well when in control of possession might have just given them an extra advantage last term to claim the top flight crown.
