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As I began watching the F1 testing in Bahrain I hoped that we might see some realistic evidence that the competition had closed up on Red Bull and we have an element of uncertainty this coming season. It would appear, however, that Max Verstappen and team once again have a car that's considerably ahead of the chasing pack. Testing is no guarantee of performance in the first race but the ease with which Red Bull demonstrated their testing program sure does look ominous. Now that's finished my eyes have turned to the cricket and the continual roller coaster of watching England go from positions of strength to outright collapse. Currently, with them seeking to eke out every run to set India a competitive total to chase it's on a knife edge. Stop press: we've just lost another wicket!
It's a shorter week in terms of content but with no lack of quality let's begin with the round-up.
First up, we begin with this eye-catching design from Gurpal Gohler who takes a look at activity in the UK of children and young people with an interesting regional lens applied. Lovely use of annotations to call out the main talking points and there are some fascinating insights to be discovered. Great work, Gurpal.
Next up we have, Nick van Lieshout taking a look at the teams competing in the last 16 of this year's Champions League with this absolute belter. Do take your time with this view as there is a ton to explore. As Nick himself explains, discovering the movement of the ball across the pitch based on team origin and destination points, where teams predominantly distribute the ball, from what areas do they reach the box and which teams are more liable to take an early shot are all available within the one interactive view.
Continuing the Champions League theme Ben Griffis has created this fantastically comprehensive analysis of the recent match between Porto and Arsenal. Ben breaks down the match using clear visuals and within the Twitter thread explains what many of the graphs are showing. It's common for fans to say "We were terrible today" without really stopping to think "Is that because the opposition were too good". This piece does a great job of breaking that down.
We remain with football with this final piece from Kees van Hemmen. Taking a look at the current 2023/2024 Premier League season, Kees compares the points per game vs the expected goal difference for each club. While you'd expect to see the teams in the relegation zone towards the right and those competing for the league across to the right, Kees calls out some cool observations within his analysis. Top work, Kees!
That's a wrap for this week, folks. Until next time, thanks for reading and have a fantastic week ahead.
Simon and the Sports Viz Sunday team