A deep-dive into the alarming statistics behind Sheffield Wednesday's post-Christmas freefall

But it’s not long ago that Wednesdayites were daring to dream of promotion to the Premier League, sat third at Christmas and boasting a long unbeaten home record that underpinned what was surely developing into a serious play-off campaign.

But defeat at Stoke on Boxing Day was the first domino in a decline that has seen them crash to 15th place in the league, eight points and nine places clear of a play-off place that even the most optimistic of supporters would admit is way beyond their reach.

Since Christmas only Hull City have a worse record in the Championship, one point worse off than the nine Wednesday have collected in 14 games. Hull (32) are also the only team to have conceded more than Wednesday’s 29 and only Barnsley (11) have scored fewer goals than the Owls’ 12.

A deeper dive into the statistics reveals some concerning trends in how they’ve gone on, however.

Their xG rating – the number of goals they should be expected to score based on the quality of the chances they’ve created – has dropped to less than a goal a game. It’s at 0.99 to be exact, with Wednesday opposition boasting a far superior xG rating of 1.44.

Contrast that with their pre-Christmas form, which saw the Owls on an xG rating of 1.49 to their opposition’s 1.20, and it begins to paint a picture.

They launch far fewer counter attacks now, 1.71 per game compared with a pre-Christmas 2.16 per game, suggesting that opposition defences have perhaps set up differently to kill the threat enjoyed by the likes of Kadeem Harris earlier in the season.

They complete over 30 fewer passes per game – 283 down to 252 – and though they make more crosses – 16.82 per match – they are far less accurate, a pre-yuletide percentage of 38.41% falling to a meagre 22.38% more recently.

Passing accuracy is down 3%, shots on target are down and errors are up.

These are a sorry set of numbers for Sheffield Wednesday.