By Brian Sears 28 March 2014 The top four teams in the Premier League this weekend before the action starts have all passed the 60-point milestone. They are the only clubs to do so and are the only four with any realistic chance left of winning this season’s title. (Some would argue Arsenal’s realistic chance […]

By Brian Sears 7 March 2014 There have been seven ‘ever-present’ clubs in the Premier League, none of them relegated from the top flight since England’s top division was revamped in 1992-93: Arsenal, Aston Villa, Chelsea, Everton, Liverpool, Manchester United and Tottenham. That means each of those seven have now faced each of the others […]

By Nick Harris 24 February 2014 Wayne Rooney’s goal for Manchester United on Saturday at Crystal Palace, which came the day after the club confirmed his contract extension until June 2019, prompted inevitable headlines and comment along the lines ‘That’s how to repay a £300,000 per week wage.’ It also got me wondering: how much is […]

By Brian Sears and Nick Harris 7 February 2014 Everton and Tottenham are both aspiring to play Champions League football next season and along with Liverpool, and perhaps Manchester United, are the only credible challengers for a top-four finish behind the three teams already highly likely to finish inside the top four: Arsenal, Manchester City […]

By Brian Sears 3 February 2014 Chelsea visit the Etihad Stadium on Monday evening to face a team racking up goals at unprecedented levels in the Premier League era. This season already City have netted 115 goals in 37 matches in all competitions for an average of 3.1 goals per game. At home they have […]

By Simon Austin 1 February 2014 Prospective Leeds owner Massimo Cellino claims he had “no choice” but to sack manager Brian McDermott. The controversial Italian businessman has placed former Middlesbrough and Portsmouth defender Gianluca Festa in charge for today’s derby at Elland Road against Huddersfield. Cellino, 57, is close to taking a 75 per cent […]

By Brian Sears 27 January 2014 One in five regular home fans stayed away from third-round FA Cup games but the weekend’s fourth-round games saw a marked rise in interest. Taking the total average league gates of all the home side into account, the third-round Cup matches were 19.1 per cent down on league games, […]

By Nick Harris 21 January 2014 Barcelona produce more first-team footballers across Europe’s elite ‘Big 5′ divisions than any other club in the world, according to new analysis by the CIES Football Observatory and published today by Sportingintelligence. The Spanish giants have developed 44 players currently with top-flight clubs in Spain’s La Liga, England’s Premier […]

By Brian Sears 17 January 2014 Chelsea host Manchester United on Sunday in the knowledge they have beaten the champions more often in the Premier League era than any other side have beaten them. In 43 meetings that have won 14 times for a win rate of almost 33 per cent. They achieved all those […]

By Brian Sears 17 January 2014 Any Premier League game with eight goals or more is a remarkable occasion, statistically speaking, because they happen so infrequently. In fact in the 8,436 Premier League games  played so far over the past 22 years, only 75 of them have had eight goals or more. That’s only 0.69 […]