By Brian Sears 16 September 2010 West Ham and Fulham have an unwanted statistic in common, one that both hope to ditch this weekend. It concerns away days, bad ones, lots of bad ones. On the very first day of last season, Fulham went to Fratton Park and a Zamora goal allowed them to return with all […]

By Brian Sears 10 September 2010 The Wolves will be on prowl in London this weekend, hunting by the river. They’re playing Fulham. And Wolves have won more Premier League points against Fulham than against any other Premier League side. Yes, yes. I know Wolves are only experiencing their third Premier League season; one season […]

By Brian Sears 8 September 2010 West Ham currently prop up the Premier League table, pointless after three games and with a goal difference of minus eight after defeats to Aston Villa, Bolton and Manchester United. Stoke are one place above them, also pointless, and with a goal difference of minus four, after successive defeats […]

By Brian Sears 27 August 2010 Ideas, ideas. Where do they come from? Sometimes they are obvious, having six six six appeal. Other times they arise in the strangest of places, like on the exercise bike at the gym. A fellow pedaller, also a football follower, was on the bike next to mine at the […]

By Brian Sears 17 August 2010 Liverpool bestrode the 1970s and 1980s like a colossus, and then fell off. As our main graphic shows below, they were top dogs for the best part of 20 years, winning 11 titles in 18 years in England’s elite division between 1973 and 1990, and have now gone two […]

By Brian Sears 13 August 2010 So here we are, on the eve of the 19th season of the Premier League, and Manchester United hold a lead in the all-time points table big enough to ensure they will remain top dogs even if they lose every game this campaign. They need just six more points […]

By Brian Sears 18 June 2010 Yesterday’s release of the fixture list for the 2010-11 season prompted a quick examination of opening-day matches in the Premier League since the top division was revamped in 1992-93, and reveals an anti-Liverpool bias and a disproportionate number of home games for the other three “big four” sides. As […]

By Brian Sears 1 June 2010 If an African nation is to win the 2010 World Cup in the first edition of the tournament to be staged on African soil, then possibly the Ivory Coast will be the team to do it. The bookmakers make Sven Goran Eriksson’s ‘Les Elephants’ the favourites among the African […]

By Brian Sears 24 May 2010 . Blackpool are setting new standards for ‘small fish in big ponds’ as they ascend to the Premier League. Their ground capacity will be the smallest of any of the 44 clubs to have been members of that top division, and their average following this season at Bloomfield Road […]

By Brian Sears 14 May 2010 Portsmouth are not unique in having been the champions of England as well as inhabitants of the bottom division in English professional football during the period since WWII. Burnley and Wolves have also achieved that “feat”, and all three clubs came together in the same Premier League season in […]