Statistics and sports at large is a rather fascinating phenomenon, often called into question by more conservative fans that refuse to reduce teams and players to a numerical scale that can predict long-term performance.

Yet sometimes looking at the numbers and seeing consistent correlations can bring about interesting data that helps us understand the strengths and weaknesses of the best sides in a sporting competition.

The Champions League, despite only being three games old in each group stage is offering up some interesting insight about which sides are doing best under which circumstances and playing certain styles.

Take for example the possession statistic which has gone through many turns in popular opinion. For years it was the gold standard for playing modern soccer. After Barcelona's 7-0 thrashing in the UCL in 2012-13, it became a meme.

Yet possession has been crucial in determining which teams are the best in the UCL. Twenty-two sides have had 50 percent or more possession in the current tournament; they have averaged 4.25 points, a number hurt by outliers that have one point or less. Take those three teams out of the equation and the mean points comes up to 5.1. As of this day, the average points for a second-place team in the UCL is 5.5.

There are 11 teams that have less than 50 percent possession and they average 3.27 points per game. One of those 11 is a group leader with nine points (the only team with that figure in fact) and another team in this sample has six points and sits second in its group. The remaining teams in this group break down as such: five of them sit in last place and four sit in third.

That means that three teams with solid possession stats are fourth-placed sides and four third-placed teams also have positive possession stats. People might point to that as a flaw in the concept, but the overall layout of the poor possession teams clearly indicates that success is rare for those that let the opponents possess the ball.

For those wondering, the two sides that have had success without the ball are Zenit St. Petersburg and Olympiakos. The former has a group consisting of Valencia, Gent and Lyon. Olympiakos has Dinamo Zagreb another possession black hole, Bayern Munich and Arsenal which has mightily underperformed in the group stage.

Last season the spread of possession was far greater with 17 teams holding onto the ball less often than their opponents (under 50 percent). Of those 17 teams, five finished fourth, five finished third, four finished second and two finished first. The two first place teams were Atletico Madrid, which has made a mastery of winning on the counter and Monaco, which had to navigate a simple group before playing a sloppy Arsenal.

None of the team's that had less than 50 percent possession managed to get past the quarterfinals.

Some might point at the ultimate result, the Champions, and say that Chelsea was not a top five possession side in 2011-12. Yet that is the only team in the last five years that has had an average possession of less than 50 percent and won the tournament. Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Real Madrid, the other teams to win in that span have averaged around 61 percent possession through the four years of their respective championships; that number is undoubtedly spiked by Barcelona's 73.3 possession marker in 2010-11.

So what about possession is so crucial? It not only means more time with the ball but does it lead to more opportunities at goal?

Bayern Munich is the best possession team in the tournament this season with 68.3 possession; it is also the highest shooting side with an average of 23 shots per game. But look closer. The teams dominating possession are averaging 15.15 shots per game; only one team, PSV Eindhoven, has averaged less than 10 shots per game while dominating possession. Meanwhile teams with lower possession are averaging 10.9 shots per game with four of the 11 teams averaging few than 10 shots per game.

Those same 11 sides are seeing an average of 17.2 shots per game against with Zenit St. Petersburg proving the lone outlier with an average of 11.7 shots against, good for 11th in the tournament.

On average, teams have managed to get 34.7 percent of their shot attempts on target and score on an average of 28.77 percent of those attempts. Only one team has scored on more than 50 percent of its shots on target and it continues to be the lone outlier in every single metric studied in this article -- Zenit St. Petersburg. With an average 50.3 percent conversion rate on shots on target, Zenit is currently going against the current, losing the possession battle yet being the only side to pick up nine points.

Again, context is everything and being in a light group might be the difference, but it is important to note Zenit as the lone outlier. There were 15 teams that were shooting under the average of 28.77 conversion on attempts on target: two were first-place sides (albeit both were among the top shot attempters in the tournament), two were second-place sides (again in the upper half of the shots attempted, which will skew the number), four were third-place sides and seven of the eight group bottom dwellers were below the average in conversion rate (Roma was lone fourth-place team in the entire tournament to be among the top shot attempters and score on 37 percent of its shots on target).

What does it all mean? It is clear that more shots will lead to more scoring chances and a higher conversion rate. Moreover, teams with high levels of possession get higher shot attempts.

All statistics from WhoScored.com.