Fairest of them all! Liverpool shoot to No 1 on Premier League Fair Play ladder... Man United are 17th with Stoke dead last



Liverpool have caused a surprise by emerging on top of the Premier League’s newly released Fair Play Table.

Whatever dirty reputation the Merseyside club may have - largely as a result of the antics of one Luis Suarez - the statistics would prove it to be completely unfounded.

Chico Flores meanwhile will be delighted following his Twitter outburst last night as Swansea have come ahead of West Ham in the 'positive play' category.

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We're number one: Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge's Liverpool are top of the Premier League Fair Play table Going down: Suarez won a controversial penalty against Aston Villa in January this year The positive play category rewards teams which 'encourage attractive play that will increase the enjoyment of spectators.'

The Swansea defender, who was on the receiving end of Carroll’s flailing arm at the weekend, posted that West Ham should be 'more preoccupied with the ugly way their team play football' than his role in Carroll’s dismissal.

West Ham, whose style of play was branded '19th century' by Mourinho, scored lower than both Swansea and Chelsea in the positive play rankings.



Negative: Chico Flores will be happy to see his criticism of West Ham's style after their fiery recent clash is backed up by statistics and his Swansea side finish seven places above the east London team Hit out: Flores made the comments after he was lambasted for the way he reacted to a swinging arm from Andy Carroll that saw the Hammers striker sent off

Unsurprisingly, given their abrasive style of football, Stoke find themselves at the bottom of the list.

Mark Hughes’ side prop up a bottom three consisting of two north easterly sides; Hull and Sunderland. More surprising is the side that lies fourth from bottom, in the form of David Moyes’ Manchester United.



The appearance of the Red Devils near the bottom certainly screws the general trend of the table.



Opposites: Mathieu Flamini's Arsenal are second for Fair Play while Ryan Giggs' Manchester United are 17th



There is a positive correlation between the fair play league position of the sides and their actual league position, dispelling, in this case anyway, the myth that nice guys finishing last.

The fair play top four of Manchester City, Arsenal, Liverpool and Tottenham is not, barring Chelsea, an unrealistic Premier League top four.

The results are calculated by taking into account five main categories. These categories, which are judged by delegates at every Premier League game, are:

- Red and yellow cards - Positive play

- Respect toward opponents - Respect towards the referee - Behaviour of the team officials. Abrasive: Mark Hughes' Stoke side are on track for the Fair Play wooden spoon according to the new statistics Rough and ready: Stoke's no nonsense approach has seen them fall foul of the Fair Play calculations

A sixth category, relating to the behaviour of fans, is also assessed but does not form part of the overall rankings.

Should England be in UEFA’s top three ranked fair play nations then the winner of the Premier League fair play league will be granted a slot in next season’s Europa League.



After all, who can forget when a Junichi Inamoto-inspired Fulham, granted European entry through the fair play league, won their first piece of European silverware, the Intertoto Cup in 2002.



Euro flash: Fulham won their first European silverware when Junichi Inamoto inspired their victory in the 2002 Intertoto Cup against Bologna - they won their place in the competition via the Fair Play ladder