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By Brian Sears
28 October 2010
Five clubs have yet to win a single point in the Premier League this season in games in which they’ve conceded first, and Liverpool are the ultimate “kings of crumble”. After going 1-0 down, the Reds have about as much backbone as Paul the octopus, and about as much life. In fact, as our fiendishly complicated but immensely brilliant table below shows, Liverpool have gone 0-1 down in four of their games this season, and have gone on to lose all four.
The four other teams getting no points after going 0-1 down are Everton and Blackburn (both spineless in all three games when they’ve conceded first), and Chelsea and Aston Villa, who can be somewhat excused for the infrequency of going behind in the first place.
Stoke have the best record after falling behind, in terms of the relative amounts of points gained from that position set against their total points. In fact Stoke have won a massive 70 per cent of their points (seven from 10) in games in which they conceded first. Eight times in nine games they’ve gone behind, and then they’ve come back to win two and draw one of those games.
Tottenham have a better absolute record of come-backs, conceding first six times but winning three of those and drawing one for 10 points. But as a percentage of their total points (15), the comeback points account for 66.7 per cent. West Brom and Fulham are the other clubs who’ve won a majority of their points in these 0-1 “comeback” situations, whereas Manchester City, Blackpool and Wigan are almost as spineless as the Merseyside giants after shipping the first goal.
Considered collectively, clubs’ collection of points in the Premier League after conceding first is a minority pursuit; a total of 57 points have been won this way, or 23.9 per cent of the total of 238 points won.
Still the best route to points is scoring first: teams that score first have won 165 points or 69.3 per cent. Chelsea are the kings of scoring first, having done it seven times in nine games, while Aston Villa and Manchester United have done it six times, and at the other end of the scale, Stoke just once.
Goalless draws have accounted for 16 points (from eight 0-0s this season), or 6.7 per cent of all points.
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