By Brian Sears 8 December 2010 Aston Villa have been kings of the Midlands in the Premier League era; in 16 of the 18 completed seasons they have finished higher in the table than all their rivals from the region. For season by season detail, see the table below. This is a proud record, based […]

By Brian Sears 2 December 2010 Just a week ago we were noting the high number of drawn games in the Premier League this season, and there were another four in the most recent round of matches. Now it’s time to ponder the lack of clean sheets. Up to the beginning of this season, the […]

By Brian Sears 26 November 2010 As any statto worth his anorak knows, the Premier League’s draw rate has been high this season, buy how high? And just how many stalemates are we now witnessing involving Fulham, Sunderland, Birmingham, Everton, Bolton and Manchester United? Yep. A lot. . More Brian Sears Sportingintelligence home page

By Brian Sears 19 November 2010 West Ham rest at the foot of the Premier League table, glancing nervously upwards. They catch sight of their next hurdle. Oh no. Surely not. Of all the places they don’t want to go on Saturday at tea-time it’s Anfield. And where are they going? Yes indeedy; red peril […]

By Brian Sears 11 November 2010 There’s no nice way of saying this: Fulham are rubbish on the road. They haven’t won an away game in the Premier League since the opening day of last season. That’s as poor as West Ham, which is poor, believe me. That’s 24 games ago. It’s bad, really bad, […]

By Brian Sears 4 November 2010 While one of this Sunday’s ‘major’ Premier League games features table-toppers Chelsea away at lower-half opposition, the truly big game between a pair of genuine top-four aspirant clubs is surely West Bromwich Albion at home to Manchester City. Removing tongue from cheek, it is certainly a contrast of wealth […]

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 […]

By Brian Sears 22 October 2010 Manchester United and Fulham have a fascinating statistic in common this season and it’s got nothing to do with the amount of time they’ve been without their star strikers, either metaphorically or literally, before being gloriously reconciled in recent hours. (That’s a reference to Rooney and Johnson for those […]

By Brian Sears 15 October 2010 The Merseyside derby takes place at Goodison Park this weekend with Everton and Liverpool on fairly equal terms; they have been fairly equally bad this season, that is. A chant of “6-1! 6-1!” should normally signal a joyous occasion. Today it’s a statistician reciting the number of points won, […]

By Brian Sears 23 September 2010 Carling can rarely if ever have been responsible for a regional hangover of such proportions as the one clouding Merseyside today. First Everton became the penalty shoot-out victims of League One Brentford in the Carling Cup on Tuesday. Now Liverpool are licking their wounds after going down to Northampton, […]