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Ronaldo & Rooney: how do they compare?

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Tyler's Starting Stat - A record for Rooney

I was at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday where Wayne Rooney scored his landmark 100th Premier League goal. But the strike was also notable because it took him past Cristiano Ronaldo in Manchester United's all-time goalscoring charts. Rooney now has 119 United goals in all competitions, compared to Ronaldo's 118. What's more, Rooney did it in 24 fewer games (he has played 268 compared to Ronaldo's 292). Rooney has also overtaken Ronaldo's Premier League record for the club. He now has 85 goals in 180 league games for United, overtaking the 84 scored by Ronaldo in his 196 appearances.

Looking at Rooney's Premier League century (including his 15 for Everton), I can tell you only four of Rooney's 100 goals came from penalties with a further 87 coming from inside the area and nine coming from outside. Out of interest, 80 were scored with his right foot, 15 with his left and five were headers - although as he has scored with his head in his last two games at old Trafford that is clearly an area of his game which is getting better!

Meanwhile, Manuel Almunia remarkably became the sixth player to score an own goal in favour of Manchester United in the Premier League this season - joining Abou Diaby, Anton Ferdinand, Scott Dann, Michael Dawson and Zat Knight.

ROONEY'S TRAVEL LOG
Dear Martin. I was very pleased to see Wayne Rooney score his landmark 100th goal on Sunday. Someone told me that of all the players to have scored 100 goals in the Premier League, Rooney has the best record for scoring away from home? He does seem to do well when we go away, so do you have any stats to back that up? Thanks for the info. Stuart Attewill (Manchester United fan).

MARTIN SAYS: Wayne Rooney does have an excellent record of scoring away from home. He has scored 49 of his 100 goals away from home. However, this is not the best record of the Premier League's 18 centurions. Rooney's Manchester United team-mate Ryan Giggs scored 56 of his 100 Premier League goals on the road. The only other Premier League centurion to have scored more away goals is Frank Lampard, who scored 52 of his first 100 league goals in away games.

Rooney is the ninth quickest player to 100 goals in Premier League history. He has a better away goals record than the eight men who were quicker than him. Perhaps that is the stat you heard, Stuart.

Courtesy of Opta, here are the Premier League's 18 centurions - and the breakdown of their home and away goals.

RON, BUT NOT FORGOTTEN?
Hi Martin. Love your column. Speculation about Manchester United's ability to score as many goals as Ronaldo for them over the last few years is rife. Rooney is handling those duties pretty well so far, but statistically how has Ronaldo's departure damaged, if any, United's goalscoring record? And has Rooney's form so far this season equalled Ronaldo's goal return at this same point in 2009, 2008, or 2007 (Ronaldo's most successful years)? Thank you very much. Mo Golbo, Dublin.

MARTIN SAYS: To answer your first question, Mo, United's goalscoring record this season does not appear to have been damaged by Ronaldo's departure. To date they have managed 56 goals in their first 24 Premier League games, which is significantly higher than the same stage in the previous three seasons.

Goals scored by Manchester United in first 24 Premier League games:

2009/10: 56 goals
2008/09: 41 goals
2007/08: 48 goals
2006/07: 53 goals

As for the comparison between Rooney and Ronaldo, the Englishman has managed 20 goals in the 23 Premier League games he has played this season. That's an impressive average of 0.87 goals per game - and it is better than Ronaldo's record at the same point last year. Remarkably, Ronaldo had a better record at the same stage in 2007/08 with 21 goals - one more than Rooney has this term. That season, the Portuguese international went on to score 31 league goals.

Ronaldo's record after 23 Premier League games:

2008/09: 12 goals
2007/08: 21 goals
2006/07: 14 goals

YOUNG GUNS... REALLY ?
Hi Martin. Have been following your commentary a lot. I happen to be in Malcolm Glazer's "growing up" town Rochester, NY and am a United fan, fortunately there is no Glazer hatred here!! I had a question regarding Arsenal's youngsters. I keep hearing they are a young team. However, I checked the ages of the starting line-up of United and Arsenal and didn't find a difference of more than 1.2 yrs. If you take off the goalkeepers of the list, it's less than 1 year. Also United had the youngest player on the pitch today. Could you confirm this? Thanks, Gaurav Joshi

MARTIN SAYS: We've done the maths Gaurav and we don't quite come up with the same numbers. The ages of Sunday's teams were as follows:

Arsenal: Almunia (32), Vermaelen (24) Clichy (24), Sagna (26), Gallas (32), Arshavin (28), Fabregas (22), Song (22), Denilson (21), Nasri (22), Rosicky (29)
Used subs: Eboue (26), Walcott (20), Bendtner (22)
Subs not used: Silvestre (32), Traore (20), Fabianski (24), Ramsey (19).

Average age of Arsenal's starting XI: 25.64
Average age of Arsenal's starting outfield players: 25
Average age of Arsenal's matchday squad: 24.72

Man Utd: Van der Sar (39), Evra (28), Brown (30), Evans (22), Rafael Da Silva (19), Park (28), Fletcher (26), Carrick (28), Scholes (35), Nani (23), Rooney (24)
Used subs: Valencia (24), Giggs (36), Berbatov (29)
Subs not used: Kuszczak (27), Owen (30), Gibson (22), de Laet (21)

Average age of Man Utd's starting XI: 27.45
Average age of Man Utd's starting outfield players: 26.30
Average age of Man Utd's matchday squad: 27.28

On average, Arsenal's team was 1.81 years younger than United's and the outfield players were 1.3 years younger. When substitutes are taken into account, Arsenal's squad was around 2.5 years younger than United's. However, you are right to suggest United had the youngest player on the pitch in 19-year-old Rafael Da Silva, but the youngest player involved on the day was Arsenal's unused substitute Aaron Ramsey who is just over five months younger than Rafael.

As an interesting point of comparison, the average age of Chelsea's starting XI against Hull City on Tuesday night was 29.45 - more than three years older than Arsenal's.

THE FALL GUYS
Hi Martin. It seems Portsmouth are heading to the Championship and I've heard if this happens Herman Hreidarsson will have the unwanted title of the 'most relegated player' from the Premier League. Could you please give a list of the players who have been relegated from the Premier League the most. Jonny Beesley

MARTIN SAYS: Herman Hreidarsson has already suffered Premier League relegation on four occasions - with Crystal Palace (1997/1998), Wimbledon (1999/00), Ipswich Town (2001/02) and Charlton Athletic (2006/07). One more relegation would equal the record for the most relegations in Premier League history.

That record is currently held by Nathan Blake who has been relegated five times. He went down with Sheffield United (1993/94), Bolton Wanderers (1995/96 and 1997/98), Blackburn Rovers (1998/99) and Wolves (2003/04). However, should Hreidarsson be relegated from the Premier League with Portsmouth he would become the first player to do so with five different clubs.

Nigel Quashie narrowly avoided that accolade in 2006/07 when his West Ham side avoided the drop by the skin of their teeth. Previously he had been relegated from the Premier League with four clubs: QPR (1995/96); Nottingham Forest (1998/99); Southampton (2004/05) and West Brom (2005/06).

Along with Hreidarsson, Blake and Quashie, the only player we are aware of to have been relegated from the Premier League on four occasions is Ashley Ward with Norwich City (1994/95); Barnsley (1997/98); Blackburn Rovers (1998/99) and Bradford City (2000/01).

Those players still have some way to go to match the record of former West Brom defender Simeon Hodson, who was relegated on SIX occasions and has been relegated from the top five levels of the English football league system with five different clubs.

Five of them came before he was 26. His relegations were: Notts County (1983-84); Lincoln City (1985-86 and 1986-87); West Brom (1990-91); Mansfield (1992-93) and Altrincham (1999-2000). It was almost seven relegations but he left Newport County in 1987-88 two months before they were relegated to the Conference. Sorry to bring that up Simeon!

LONG TIME AT THE TOP
Dear Martin, I was saying to my mate the other day that teams such as Nottingham Forest, Leeds and Sheffield Wednesday are true top-flight clubs and that it would be nice to see them back up there in the near future, but when I thought about it I had no real basis for that assumption. Could you tell me which teams would be in the top division next year if it was made up of the teams who have spent the most seasons in the top-flight? Thanks, Brendan

MARTIN SAYS: I have outlined the 20 clubs who have spent the longest time in the top flight below. The tables includes the preceding legal entities of modern clubs (such as Newton Heath for Manchester United and Woolwich Arsenal and Royal Arsenal) and includes this season's Premier League clubs.

As you can see, Everton have, by a distance, played the most seasons in the top flight of English football. They are the only club to have played more than 100 seasons in the top division, but Aston Villa will presumably join them next season.

Of the clubs you mention, Sheffield Wednesday and Nottingham Forest both feature in the top 20, but Leeds United (50 top flight seasons) miss out. Other teams who have narrowly missed the cut include Stoke City (54 seasons), West Ham (53) and Burnley (52).

Teams who have played the most seasons in the English top flight:

Everton (107)
Aston Villa (99)
Liverpool (95)
Arsenal (93)
Man Utd (85)
Man City (81)
Newcastle (79)
Sunderland (79)
Tottenham (75)
Chelsea (75)
West Brom (72)
Bolton (71)
Blackburn (70)
Sheff Wed (66)
Derby (65)
Wolves (61)
Sheff Utd (60)
Middlesbrough (60)
Birmingham (56)
Nottingham Forest (56)

HUNDRED FOR KEEPS
The next time Petr Cech avoids conceding he will keep his 100th Premier League clean sheet. Is this a record and if not who holds it? I assume Pepe Reina must be up there. Cain Bradley (Chelsea fan)

MARTIN SAYS: According to our friends at Opta, Petr Cech is currently on 96 clean sheets. Perhaps the difference lies in the fact that clean sheets are only counted if a goalkeeper plays a whole match.

The Chelsea goalkeeper is currently 10th on the list of Premier League clean sheets. The record is held by David James who has kept the opposition out on 170 occasions. Eight goalkeepers have kept clean sheets on more than 100 occasions - but Stoke's Thomas Sorensen just needs one more shutout to join that particular group. Reina is actually behind Cech. According to Opta he has 87 Premier League clean sheets to his name.

Goalkeepers with the most Premier League clean sheets:

1. David James (170)
2. David Seaman (140)
3. Nigel Martyn (137)
4. Peter Schmeichel (128)
5. Mark Schwarzer (114)
6. Edwin Van der Sar (111)
7. Brad Friedel (106)
8. Shay Given (103)
9. Thomas Sorensen (99)
10. Petr Cech (96)

Tyler's teaser

Hit the video for this week's tricky teaser. Send in your answers to Martin's question using the feedback form below - and don't forget to keep your own questions coming in...

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