By Brian Sears 5 March 2010 If we define a nail-biting game as one in which the result could be changed with the last kick of the match, then they’re becoming rarer in the Premier League. Never before this season has the percentage of nail-biters been as low as this campaign. In the first season […]

By Brian Sears 26 February 2010 Never before in Premier League history have there been so many “big cushion” wins, and by that I mean wins by three clear goals or more. Already this season there have been 50 of them altogether among 196 wins by all teams combined. In the whole of last season […]

By Brian Sears 19 February 2010 Occasionally in this life as a statistician, you unearth a statistical gem so lovely that you want to pop it into your anorak pocket, go for a stroll around town in the splendid late-winter sunshine, and share it with everyone you meet. Today, dear readers, is such a day. […]

By Brian Sears 10 February 2010 Omens, omens. The last time Chelsea and Cardiff met in an FA Cup match (in 1927), we all know what else happened that year. That’s right. Saudi Arabia became independent of the United Kingdom. (And Cardiff went on to win the Cup). If you’re interested in such ephemera and […]

By Brian Sears 5 February 2010 . It’s getting harder and harder for teams at the bottom end of the Premier League table to win points away from home. Our first table today illustrates that clearly. In the first season of the Premier League, 484 points were won away from home by all the clubs […]

By Brian Sears 30 January 2010 . A feature of the domination of the Premier League in recent years by England’s “big four” clubs – Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool – has been how rarely any of that quartet have lost at home to “other” sides from outside their elite group. This is the […]

By Brian Sears 28 January 2010 Heaven forfend that a humble statistician should put the Heebie-jeebies on any club, but it has occured to us after this midweek’s games that Rochdale are currently sitting at the top of League Two, 11 points above the play-off zone and therefore, one must conclude, be in with a […]

By Brian Sears 20 January 2010 . Nine top-flight clubs are in danger this weekend of becoming the 101st Premier League giants to be slain in the FA Cup by lower-division opponents. Since the English top flight was revamped in 1992, there have been 100 such “slayings”, with Liverpool the 100th and most recent victims […]

By Brian Sears 15 January 2010 If the second half of this season is as good for Arsenal as the second half of last season, they’ll win the title. That’s the hope that Arsene Wenger will be nurturing into the Spring, and we can paint a statistical scenario where it might just happen. Here’s how […]

. By Brian Sears 14 January 2010 . Manchester City have been purring under Roberto Mancini, and Carlos Tevez was the pussy-cat-in-chief when he scored a hat-trick in the 4-1 thrashing of Blackburn on Monday. Everton will not be relishing the prospect of facing fellow blues in form when they meet this weekend. Tevez’s treble […]