Seasoned Stats

Just a few thoughts on some of the statistics from the recently finished Premiership season;

The bottom six teams had the six worst home records, yet it was Hull that came out worst - only 14 points from 19 games, 10 less than Boro and West Brom. Not exactly fortress KC.

The 'we'll score one more than you' Spurs mentality may behind us - Their 19 home games yielded a total of 31 goals. Last season there were 80.

Liverpool had the best record against other top-10 teams, Spurs recorded more points than Arsenal and Hull got more than both Man City and West Ham. Sunderland only scored 10 times in 20 games against top-10 opposition.

Champions Manchester United dropped just 2 points in 20 games against bottom-10 teams.

If Chelsea score first, they almost always win; they collected 70 points from the 25 games in which they opened the scoring. Villa and Hull never lost after scoring first.

United scored in almost 90% of their games, Bolton in only 53%. Manchester City lost every game (10) in which they went goalless.

No wonder top-class forwards cost so much money. Neither Middlesborough nor Sunderland won a single point in the 30 games in which they conceded more than 1 goal. Liverpool had he best record, averaging over 1.5 points per game when their opponents score 2 or more.

In their 38 games, Man United only conceded first on six occasions, Liverpool in 11, yet the Anfield club averaged more points in those games (a quite incredible 2 points a game). Manchester City appeared to lack resilience -they amassed only 2 points from the 16 games in which they went behind.

Two teams won every game in which they scored 2 goals or more - the first was United, 18 times. The second, suprisingly, were Middlesborough, on 6 occasions. Liverpool scored more than once the most times, 23.

Masters of the half time team talk? Rafa and Fergie's teams did the best when drawing at the break, both averaging over 2 points a game. Rookie Gianfranco Zola may need to work on his motivational speeches - West Ham had the worst record, averaging only 0.77 points per game. Arsenal seemed to find it hard to break opponents down, winning only 4 times in the 16 games that they went in level. And perhaps Phil Brown should be let to conduct team talks wherever he chooses - His Hull team ranked 7th best in this category, ahead of Wenger's Gunners.

Even harder is to inspire a team from a half-time deficit; only Liverpool, Arsenal and Man United averaged over a point a games in these circumstances whereas Bolton and Man City only gained a point each in the 21 games they combined for losing at the break.

If football games were 45 minutes long, Chelsea would have won the league - they were ahead in 19 of the 38 games at half-time; their conversion rate was also the best, winning 18 of those games. Newcastle and West Brom only managed to hold the lead after 45 mintues on 3 occasions each. Stoke, Poutsmouth and the Baggies only managed 10 goals each in the first half.

Liverpool were by far the best in the second half, 'winning' 25 of those periods and scoring 49 goals (thats more than all but 6 other teams scored all season). Both Albion and Newcastle were much better after a half time orange but Middlesborough were quite terrible - they conceded a goal for every half they played and 'lost' the half on 21 occasions.

Boro scored just 28 goals all term.

A single goal is not enough for some teams. When scoring less than 2 goals, the bottom eight teams averaged under 0.55 points a game - bottom of the pile were West Brom. The top six were all placed in the top six of this table and United were by far the best. Their series of clean sheets and 1-0 wins in January and February helped them average 1.80 points per game when scoring one or no goals.

Both Middlesborough and Newcastle had the chance to save themselves; Hull only gained 2 points in their last eight games, Sunderland only won 4 points. Unfortunately for the pair, they could only muster 5 points each during this period with Michael Owen's futility particularly damaging - they scored only 4 times in those 8 games.

Boro lost their last 12 away games.

Arsenal were involved in two 4-4 draws, against Liverpool and Spurs. Hull onlsy scored more than twice on one occasion - and lost, 4-3 to Man Utd.

Hangeland for Arsenal? Fulham had a better defensive record than their London rivals.

Value for money? Manchester City were not involved in any 0-0 draws.

Where was the title won and lost? In January. Manchester United earned 15 points, Liverpool just 3.

Carlton Cole (10) scored more league goals than Dimitar Berbatov (9).

Ricardo Fuller (11) scored more league goals than Carlos Tevez (5) and Didier Drogba (5) combined.

Cristiano Ronaldo has scored 67 league goals in the last three seasons.

Steven Gerrrard has scored 27 goals in the last five Champions League campaigns, the most by any player during that period.

Xavi had 7 assists in the Champions League and a whopping 20 in La Liga.

Jonny Evans (16) started more league games this year than Ryan Giggs (15).

Robbie Keane (16) started more league games for Liverpool this year than Ryan Giggs for United.

Denilson (36) started more league games this season than any other Arsenal player.

Only 16 players started games for Aston Villa.

29 players started for Manchester City.

Joey Barton (1) scored more goals this year than Andrei Shevchenko (0).

Do you think Blackburn regret NOT selling Roque Santa Cruz? He scored just 4 league goals.

Bobby Zamora scored twice this year. Thats about £2.5million a goal.

Fulham lead the fair play league, thanks in part to center back Aaron Hughes. Somehow, in 38 league games, he committed just 7 fouls.