SA Footy

Here's the place for any interesting stats, or stat questions.

So lets start with this little "OPTA" ditty on Spurs.

At the end of the 2007/08 campaign Tottenham had dropped the most points in the Premier League after having scored the first goal, a troubling total of 28.

Things got worse though.

If last term Juande Ramos' men were struggling to defend a lead, in the current situation the main thing is avoiding to concede first, never mind scoring one.

2006/07
Team - First Goal Scored - Points Dropped
Tottenham - 23 - 28
Fulham - 15 - 25
Middlesbrough - 17 - 20
Derby - 9 - 19
Birmingham - 15 - 18
West Ham - 17 - 17

In five games out of six Spurs have been trailing while in the remaining fixture they could not break the deadlock in their home fixture against Wigan, a side they had never previously failed to score against in the league.

2007/08
Team - First Goal Conceded - Pts Won
Tottenham - 5 - 1
Everton - 4 - 1
Hull City - 4 - 7
Newcastle - 4 - 0
Portsmouth - 4 - 3
Stoke City - 4 - 0

The only point won once behind was away at Chelsea, a result which is without doubt the highlight of the season so far.

And here's the seasons so far, best of, also thanks to "OPTA"

Category - Player/Team - Total
Top Shooter - Amr Zaki (Wigan) - 22
Top Passer - Xabi Alonso (Liverpool) - 424
Top Tackler - Valon Behrami (West Ham) - 33
Most Dribbles & Runs - Lassana Diarra (Portsmouth) - 37
Most Crosses - David Bentley (Tottenham) - 76
Most Offsides - Emmanuel Adebayor (Arsenal) - 23
Most Fouls - Kevin Davies (Bolton) - 21
Team with most fouls - West Ham - 92
Team with most shots - Arsenal - 98

Speaking of stats, there was an unfunny story in the Mirror today

Stoke's Liam Lawrence is an injury doubt for his side's weekend meeting with Portsmouth after tripping over his pet dog.
The former Sunderland winger suffered the bizarre injury to his ankle this morning, leaving Potters boss Tony Pulis with a potential selection headache for Sunday's clash.
Pulis told Stoke's official website: "He has stepped over his dog on the stairs and his ankle just gave way and he went over on it. The initial scan has shown no break but we have sent him back for another X-ray to make sure.”

Liam Lawrence is just the latest in a long line of football stars to suffer bizarre injuries. Here's The Mirrors Top 10:

1. David James
The England goalkeeper once pulled a muscle in his back when reaching for the TV remote control.

2. Chic Brodie
The Brentford goalkeeper's career came to an abrupt end in October 1970 when he collided with a sheepdog which had run on to the pitch. Brodie shattered his kneecap while the dog got the ball.

3. Santiago Canizares
The Spain goalkeeper missed the 2002 World Cup after accidentally shattering a bottle of aftershave in his hotel sink. A piece of glass fell on his foot, severing a tendon in his big toe.

4. Kasey Keller
The American international knocked out his front teeth while pulling his golf clubs out of the boot of his car.

5. Alan Wright
The diminutive former Aston Villa full-back strained his knee by stretching to reach the accelerator in his new Ferrari. He subsequently swapped the sports car for a Rover 416.

Talking about the start Hull have had this year.

Here are a few others that did ok for 1 year in the top flight..


Barnsley 1977/8 season. Highest leagus position was 8th. Was in 10th after 5 games but bottom after 10. they never recovered and was relegated.

Carlisle 1974/5 season. Started with a bang, topping the EPL for the 1st 3 weeks of the season and was still in 6th after 9 games. Then a sequence of only 1 win in 9 saw them drop into the relegation zone after 17 games and it was good night vienna.

Hey Jabber, that was also the same year Derby pipped Liverpool to the title

johntheclaret wrote:Carlisle 1974/5 season. Started with a bang, topping the EPL for the 1st 3 weeks of the season and was still in 6th after 9 games. Then a sequence of only 1 win in 9 saw them drop into the relegation zone after 17 games and it was good night vienna.

Hey Jabber, that was also the same year Derby pipped Liverpool to the title

And I was 2 years old ! I'd love to say....

SING IT BOYS

Memory, All alone in Pride Park, I can smile at the old days, I was a Derby County Ram, I remember the time I knew what top flight was,
Let the memory live again......

johntheclaret wrote:Hey Jabber, that was also the same year Derby pipped Liverpool to the title

OK seen enough, lock this thread please

Take heart C_P.

If my stats are right, I think Liverpool haven't finished outside the top eight since promotion in the 1961/2 season. And I think that has happened only twice in that time (8th that is). Not bad a top six side for 46 years, less two 8th places and one 7th place.

Although a Man U fan at work did remind me that they hadn't finished higher than 3rd since 1991/2.

Reminiscing about Derby's days in the top flight, the Rams are the 15th highest points earner, having played 2,468 games and ammassed 2,510 points. The down side is they have a GD of -150


Looking at all time records, Everton are the most consistent top flight side in English history, having played 4106 1st Division (EPL) matches. They have played nearly 400 matches more than anyone else. Liverpool, Vill and Arsenal come next with 3722 matches apiece.

Consistently playing in the top flight doesn't make them the most successful though. Liverpool have a superior goals difference, in fact they have the best goal difference of all, +1528. compare that to the nouvo riche' of Chavski +65 and Man City -10. Everton has a GD of +671

The story is quite different since the inception of the EPL in 1992. In that time Man U have been by far the most successful club side accumulating more than 150 points more than their nearest rivals Arsenal, and having a better goal difference of more tha 150 goals.

Love it. Thanks JTC.

As a relative late comer to English Soccer I love reading about the "old" days, and the stats
that make the league what it is now....

Bit on an enigma are Derby.

Spent most of their early history bobbing up and down between the 1st and 2nd divisions. Had their most succesfull spell in the 70's, where they finished champoins in 71/2 and 74/5. also finshed 4th and 3rd in that time. then there was an almighty crash having finshed 4th in 75/6 within 4 years they wre relegated and four years later were playing 3rd Division football.

The have never reached the success of those early 70's days, not coming close to a title, with 8th their highest finish in 1998/9 season.

Yeah that's what I sort of knew...They have a surprising supporter base in Australian including a fan club.

Everytime I wear my shirt to Hindmarsh I usually get stopped and asked about them...

Not exactly stats, more of an opinioni but might just jog a few happy / sad memories.

Thanks to The Game

Top 5 results in the history of the EPL

Here we select five more outstanding performances from the Premier League's history:

Arsenal 1-2 Hull City, 2008
It is extremely rare for any promoted team to get a draw at one of the big four let alone a win, so the Tigers victory at the Emirates just over a week ago is without doubt one of the top performances in the Premier League's history.

Arsenal 4-2 Liverpool, 2004
Arsene Wenger's invincibles were behind twice in the match but mounted a scintillating second half display which saw Thierry Henry complete his hat-trick and Gerard Houllier described the Gunners as "stunning".

Manchester United 6 Arsenal 1, 2001
Dwight Yorke's early hat-trick led a rampant United to a 5-1 half-time lead against their title rivals.


Chelsea 5 Manchester United 0, 1999
The treble winners had been unbeaten since December 1998 but their run was ended in emphatic style ten months later by Gianluca Vialli's team.


Newcastle United 5 Manchester United 0, 1996
Kevin Keegan produced an attractive attacking side in his first incarnation as Newcastle manager and reached its zenith with a storming performance against United at St James' Park. David Ginola's exocet shot in the first half and Philippe Albert's delicious chip over Peter Schmeichel being the pick of the goals.

I was thinking about Hull City tonight and how they are managing to return miracle results. Here are some stats on today's game v West Ham


Hull City Team Statistics West Ham United

1 Goals 0
0 1st Half Goals 0
3 Shots on Target 1
8 Shots off Target 8
2 Blocked Shots 6
3 Corners 5
11 Fouls 11
1 Offsides 2
2 Yellow Cards 1
0 Red Cards 0
78 Passing Success 85.5
33 Tackles 14
78.8 Tackles Success 78.6
39.8 Possession 60.2
52.5 Territorial Advantage 47.5

The one stat that stands out a mile to me is the Tackles. Hull got in more than twice the number of tackles than WHU, and whilst WHU had more than 60% of the possesion, it seems that Hull did the business at the pointy end.

Is this a lesson that the rest of the EPL could learn. Get you tackles in and you increase your chances of winning. Getting a tackle in, or putting pressure on the man on the ball forces him into errors and if you do that in the right half of the field you open goal scoring opportunities.

The Blocked Tackle stat also suggests that Hull play a 'pressure on the man with the ball' game. Again, close the man on the ball down and you force errors.

Just a thought

johntheclaret wrote:Is this a lesson that the rest of the EPL could learn. Get you tackles in and you increase your chances of winning. Getting a tackle in, or putting pressure on the man on the ball forces him into errors and if you do that in the right half of the field you open goal scoring opportunities.

And that my friend is the reason my stupid team finds themselves in the predicament we are in. Lay a bloody tackle!

While I'm on that, 2008 - Tottenham's WORST start to a season in their history. With Bolton, Arse and Scouse in the next 3 games, 2 points from 10 games is looking more likely than not.

Amr Zaki is the toast of the town at Wigan (for the moment). Not really stats, but here's a few snippets about him.

Thanks to the Mirror

1) Amr Hassan Zaki was born on April 1st, 1983, in Mansoura, Egypt. He’s currently signed to Egyptian top flight side El Zamalek, but is on a season-long loan to Wigan.

2) He moved to Portsaid to join first club El Meriekh, but started his career proper at local club Al-Mansoura. A strong lad even as a teenager, the coaches there advised him to take up wrestling instead of football. Zaki wisely ignored them.

3) 20 goals in 20 league appearances secured him a £1m move to Premier League side ENPPI – which, of course, stands for Engineering for the Petroleum & Process Industries – in 2003.

4) He became an instant hero at ENPPI, finishing the league’s top scorer for the 2004/05 season and also helping the side win their first ever trophy – the Egyptian Cup – and finish second in the league - their highest ever league position.

5) He cemented his reputation by starring for the Egyptian national team in their 2006 African Nations Cup triumph. Zaki scored the winner in the2-1 semi-final win over Sengal (below) and also netted the penultimate penalty in the final’s shoot-out.

6) After the tournament, he turned down several clubs in favour of a big-money move to Lokomotiv Moscow, becoming the most expensive Egyptian player ever to move to Europe.

7) Having failed to feature in a single game, Zaki returned to Egypt that same year, signing for El Zamelak, the club that launched the career of Middlesbrough striker Mido. His first league goal for the club – ironically against ENPPI – was also their 2000th ever, and he picked up another cup winners’ medal in 2008, scoring this goal in the final against – yes, you guessed it – ENPPI:

He helped Egypt to their 6th Cup of African Nations in 2008 by scoring four goals – including two in the 4-1 semi-final win over the Ivory Coast (below). Zaki was later named in the team of the tournament.

9) After angling for a move to the Premier League, he joined Wigan – with relatively little fanfare – in July 2008. Zaki promptly scored on his league debut in the 2-1 opening day defeat at West Ham.

10) He’s now notched seven goals in his first eight Premier League games, including a brace against Hull and two at Anfield last weekend. Zaki has since been nominated for the 2008 African Footballer of the Year award, for which he will be competing against the likes of Michael Essien and Didier Drogba. If he continues his current form for Wigan, then he’ll be a shoo-in come December…

Here's an indication of how tight it is in the CCC again this year.

Games Won By... (so far this year)
1 Goal Margin 40
2 Goal Margin 24
3 Goal Margin 12
4 Goal Margin 3
5 Goal Margin 0
6 Goal Margin 1
7 Goal Margin 0
8 Goal Margin 0

johntheclaret wrote:Here's an indication of how tight it is in the CCC again this year.

Games Won By... (so far this year)
1 Goal Margin 40
2 Goal Margin 24
3 Goal Margin 12
4 Goal Margin 3
5 Goal Margin 0
6 Goal Margin 1
7 Goal Margin 0
8 Goal Margin 0

I saw a stat like that on soccernet, pretty cool how you can look that information up along with a lot of other stats. Like McCormack has 10 in 14 now, what a gun and Cardiff only had 8 yellows before their last game (not sure how many they got there) which was 7 less than the 2nd lowest team.

I thought this week we could have some A League Stats.

Top Player Rating

Top Ten
Shane Smeltz 9
Nikita Rukavytsya 8
Matt Simon 8
Danny Allsopp 7
Charlie Miller 7
Travis Dodd 6
Cristiano 5
Eugène Dadi 5
Joel Griffiths 5
Mile Jedinak 5

Top 10 - Forwards
Shane Smeltz 9
Nikita Rukavytsya 8
Matt Simon 8
Danny Allsopp 7
Cristiano 5
Eugène Dadi 5
Joel Griffiths 5
Sasho Petrovski 5
Archie Thompson 5
Mark Bridge 3

Top 10 - Midfielders
Charlie Miller 7
Travis Dodd 6
Mile Jedinak 5
Steve Corica 4
Kevin Muscat 4
Alex Brosque 3
Matt McKay 3
Grant Brebner 2
Tim Brown 2
Adrian Caceres 2

Top 10 - Defenders
Robert Cornthwaite 2
Tarek Elrich 2
Saso Ognenovski 2
Alemao 1
Cássio 1
Karl Dodd 1
Josh McCloughan 1
Craig Moore 1
Jade North 1
Matt Thompson 1

With the draw pitting Burnley at Spurs in the League Cup, I thought I would put up a few stats.

Previous meetings in the League Cup, things have been very close, with 2 wins and a draw a piece.

09.11.2004 r4 Burnley 0-3 Tottenham Hotspur
06.11.2002 r3 Burnley 2-1 Tottenham Hotspur
06.10.1993 r2-2 Tottenham Hotspur 3-1 Burnley (Whiite Hart Lane) (agg 3-1)
22.09.1993 r2-1 Burnley 0-0 Tottenham Hotspur (Turf Moor)
19.01.1983 r5 Tottenham Hotspur 1-4 Burnley

The two clubs had some great battles in the league too, particularly in the late 50's / early 60's.

Here is the summary of all the games played between the two. (all be it they haven't meet in the League since the 77/78 season. Bunley won 2 -1 at home and lost 3 - 0 away, in the old Division 2.

All time Record

At....................... Burnley Spurs Cup Total
Burnley wins........... 24..... 10.... 4... 38
Spurs wins.............. 7...... 25.... 7... 39
Draws................... 13...... 9..... 2... 24
Burnley goals ..........87..... 51... 18.. 156
Spurs goals............ 50.... 109... 23.. 182

38 to 39 wins, very close.