By Brian Sears 2 October 2015 It was four years, one month and a few days ago that this happened: Arsenal went to Old Trafford on 28 August 2011 and were given an absolute mauling as Manchester United thrashed and embarrassed them, 8-2, with Wayne Rooney scoring a hat-trick, Ashley Young getting two, and Danny Welbeck, Nani […]

By Brian Sears 25 September 2015 Newcastle have represented the north-east of England in the Premier League in 22 of the 24 seasons since the 1992-93 revamp, this season included. Sunderland have been in the PL for 15 of the 24 years and Middlesbrough, currently in an automatic promotion spot in the Championship, for 14 of 24. Newcastle have by any […]

By Brian Sears 18 September 2015 Almost a month ago, we highlighted how the statistical evidence suggested Chelsea had blown their title hopes after two games. Now, five games into the season, or more than an eighth of it gone already, they’ll have to do something unprecedented to retain their crown. No Premier League title […]

By Brian Sears 11 September 2015 Tottenham have the youngest starting XIs in the Premier League this season at 25.2 years, followed by Liverpool, while Newcastle are the only other team with an average under 26. Tim Howard (age 36) is the oldest player and Oxford Reece (age 16, turns 17 in December) is the […]

By Brian Sears 28 August 2015 This is the 24th season of the Premier League and the previous 23 seasons have involved 466 teams collectively starting campaigns. That’s 22 teams for the first three seasons, then 20 for each of the past 20 seasons. Of those 466 teams, only 18 of them, or 3.9%, began […]

By Dr Tom Markham 21 August 2015 Manchester United are by far the most valuable football club in England, worth £1.848 billion, and the only other club worth more than £1bn is Arsenal, at £1.118bn. By ‘worth’, the definition is market value, using a fixed set of financial criteria – hard economic data – to look at what they earn and […]

By Brian Sears 21 August 2015 No Premier League team in the past 22 seasons has won the title after winning a single point or less in their first two games. So in that sense, purely statistically, Chelsea have a slim chance of retaining their crown. They have one point from two games. In fact the only […]

By Brian Sears 7 August 2015 There are many ways to try to predict the winners of the Premier League title, as this site explored in great detail two years ago. The odds on getting even the top 10 in the correct order are 670,442,572,800 to 1. Yes, that’s 670 billion to one. And then to complete the […]

By Alex Miller                                                            20 July 2015 Chelsea and Liverpool’s new shirt sponsorship deals have helped push the combined total value for Premier League shirt deals through […]

By Sam Jackson 11 June 2015 Gianluigi Buffon demonstrated in the Champions League final last Saturday that age needn’t be an impediment to high-level performances by a goalkeeper. And as the rumour mill turns on the future of David de Gea, the debate intensifies around what price Manchester United will persuade Real Madrid to pay, and who can […]