Not exactly spot on
Tuesday 14 December 2010 17:05, UK
Missed penalties, Asia Cup absentees and the season with the most goals... Martin Tyler's here!
Can you answer Tyler's teaser this week?
Martin Tyler's stats and facts column is here! Every week he will be here to offer you statistical gems to make your day, impress your mates and, on occasion, to settle the odd bet. Sky Sports' voice of football and his back-up team of experts are here to answer your questions and queries on all things statistical and historical from the beautiful game. If you have spotted something from a game or have been stumped by a pub quiz question, simply email skysportsclub@bskyb.com and he will do his best to help.Tyler's Starting Stat - United are top Guns
I was at Old Trafford on Monday night to see Manchester United score in their 20th consecutive Premier League game at Old Trafford - a run which stretches back to their 1-0 defeat at home to Aston Villa on December 12 last year. Ji-Sung Park's goal was in fact his fourth in 12 games against Arsenal. He's a horse for the course! I was amazed to discover that since Wayne Rooney joined Manchester United, he has scored in 39 home games in the Premier League - and United have won all of them. He squandered the chance to take that run to 40 games when he missed his penalty, but look out for me mentioning that record in the weeks and months ahead. Arsenal continued their goal drought at Old Trafford. They haven't scored more than once in a league win there since 1984; all five of their victories in that period have been 1-0. When they did manage to score twice in 1994, they ended up losing the game 4-2. Even though Jack Wilshere and Theo Walcott were involved in the game, an Englishman has still not scored a league goal for Arsenal against Manchester United since 1998. The last man to do so was Tony Adams - and he's now 44 years old. The last man to do so in any competition was Ray Parlour in 1999. So Arsenal's last 34 goals in all competitions and their last 26 Premier League goals against Manchester United have all been scored by foreign players.NOT ON THE SPOT
Dear Martin. After Didier Drogba and Wayne Rooney both missed penalties can you tell me if more penalties are being missed this year than normal? I also noticed that Rooney didn't even hit the target, a bit like Defoe the other week. Are players hitting penalties high and wide more than usual this year? Keep up the good work, Chris (Ipswich fan) MARTIN SAYS: According to our friends at Opta, of the 45 penalties to have been awarded this season, only 31 have been scored. That's a conversion rate of 68.9% - and that figure is much lower than in previous seasons. Last year 77.5% of penalties were scored in the Premier League and in the previous season it was 78.8%. You are also correct in thinking that more players are missing the target than usual this year. So far, five players have failed to hit the target with their penalties (Wayne Rooney high v Arsenal, Jermain Defoe wide v Liverpool, Roman Pavlyuchenko wide v Blackburn, Thomas Rosicky high v Sunderland and John Carew high v Newcastle) while there were only two in the whole of last season (Louis Saha wide v Burnley and Jimmy Bullard hit post v Sunderland). In fact, in the last five seasons we have never seen more than five penalties fail to hit the target - a record that has already been matched this year. Penalty conversion rates (last five seasons):
| Season | Penalties taken | Penalty Goals | Penalty saves | Penalty off target | Penalty success rate |
| 2010/11 | 45 | 31 | 9 | 5 | 68.9% |
| 2009/10 | 111 | 86 | 23 | 2 | 77.5% |
| 2008/09 | 85 | 67 | 13 | 5 | 78.8% |
| 2007/08 | 88 | 68 | 16 | 4 | 77.3% |
| 2006/07 | 112 | 87 | 20 | 5 | 77.7% |
STARS OF ASIA
Hi Martin. As a Manchester United fan I was alarmed by Sir Alex Ferguson's comments that Ji-Sung Park could be called up to play for Korea in the Asia Cup in January. Are any other teams going to lose any equally high-profile players to this competition? I can't think of many Asians in the Premier League. Kevin (Manchester United fan) MARTIN SAYS: Of the 16 teams that have qualified for this year's Asia Cup, only two have players currently playing in the Premier League - South Korea and Australia (who now play in the Asia Cup having joined the AFC federation). If you're looking for players currently in the first-team squads of Premier League clubs, there are nine who could potentially be called up - seven Australians and two South Koreans. The Australians are: Tim Cahill (Everton)
David Carney (Blackpool)
Brett Emerton (Blackburn)
Vince Grella (Blackburn)
Chris Herd (Aston Villa)*
Brad Jones (Liverpool)
Mark Schwarzer (Fulham) * Chris Herd has never been capped by Australia at full international level. The Koreans are: Lee Chung-Yong (Bolton)
Park Ji-Sung (Man Utd), There are also thee players contracted to Premier League clubs who are currently out on loan. Liverpool's Dean Bouzanis (on loan at Accrington) and Aston Villa's Shane lowry (on loan at Leeds) are eligible to play for Australia but have never been called up before. There's also Wigan's South Korea international Cho Won-Hee, who is currently on loan at Korean side Suwon Samsung Bluewings
CAN'T KEEP THEM OUT
Hi Martin. As a Wolves fan I have seen us suffer at the back so far this season having not yet kept a Premier League clean sheet. It has now been 19 consecutive Premier League games since we kept a clean sheet. What is the most number of matches any team has gone without keeping a clean sheet in the Premier League? Thanks, Dominic. MARTIN SAYS: Since you sent us this question, that run has, of course, come to an end following their clean sheet against Birmingham. However, I can tell you that their run of 19 games without a clean sheet is the 15th longest in Premier League history. The longest run in history without a clean sheet was Burnley's 27-game run last season. They only kept three clean sheets all season - against Manchester United, Everton and Hull City. The clean sheet against Hull was on October 31 and they did not enjoy another shut-out for the rest of the campaign. Here are the longest runs without a clean sheet in Premier League history: (stats courtesy of Opta)
| Date of last game in run | Team | Games without clean sheet |
| 09/05/2010 | Burnley | 27 |
| 30/10/1999 | Wimbledon | 26 |
| 21/04/2001 | Newcastle | 25 |
| 07/05/1994 | Swindon | 24 |
| 08/11/2008 | West Ham | 24 |
| 02/10/2004 | West Brom | 23 |
| 20/01/2010 | Bolton | 22 |
| 02/04/2005 | Norwich City | 22 |
| 17/09/2005 | Sunderland | 21 |
| 16/08/2009 | Birmingham | 20 |
| 15/05/2004 | Leeds | 20 |
| 24/10/1998 | Southampton | 20 |
| 17/03/2007 | Tottenham | 20 |
| 11/03/2000 | Watford | 20 |
| 13/01/2001 | Bradford | 19 |
| 27/02/1993 | Oldham | 19 |
| 04/12/2010 | Wolves | 19 |
THE ZERO HEROES
Hi Martin. As a Spurs fan I was trying to remember how many 0-0 draws Tottenham have had in the past few seasons. Could you tell me out of the Premier League clubs who have been there since the Premiership began, who has had the least and who has had the most 0-0 draws? Stuart Gilmour, 22, Glasgow MARTIN SAYS: As a commentator I'm no lover of 0-0 draws and when you've had two or three in a row, you pray you're going to get a goal to talk about. But I appreciate how much clean sheets mean to teams - and some 0-0 draws are very entertaining. To answer your question, I have detailed below how many 0-0 draws Tottenham have had in each Premier League season. As you can see, their highest was seven in 2000/01 and the lowest, was an entire 42-game season without drawing a game 0-0 in 1993/94. Tottenham, number of 0-0 draws per season: 1992/93: FOUR
1993/94: ZERO
1994/95: FOUR
1995/96: FIVE
1996/97: THREE
1997/98: THREE
1998/99: FIVE
1999/00: ONE
2000/01: SEVEN
2001/02: ONE
2002/03: ONE
2003/04: THREE
2004/05: FOUR
2005/06: THREE
2006/07: TWO
2007/08: ONE
2008/09: FIVE
2009/10: THREE
2010/11: ONE (so far) In total, Tottenham have been involved in 56 goalless draws in their Premier League history, the second lowest out of the seven ever-present sides. Manchester United have been involved in the fewest of these teams with just 43 goalless draws in the Premier League era. This includes three entire campaigns without a goalless draw in 2002/03, 2000/01 and 1999/00. The side with the most goalless draws in Premier League history is Aston Villa, who have been in 77 games that have finished 0-0. They have been involved in at least one 0-0 draw in every season - as have Chelsea, Liverpool and Everton. In contrast Arsenal went throughout the entire 2001/02 and 2002/03 seasons without a 0-0 draw. Number of 0-0 draws in PL history (ever-present teams): Arsenal: 64
Aston Villa: 77
Chelsea: 60
Everton: 68
Liverpool: 65
Man United: 43
Tottenham: 56
GOALS GALORE
Hi Martin, Great column it must be said. I couldn't help but notice that teams seem to be scoring a lot of goals over the past few years in the Premier League. Could you tell me what season the most goals were scored in? Thanks. Ryan O'Neill (Arsenal fan) MARTIN SAYS: The record is the 1,222 goals scored in the very first Premier League season, but this was a 42-game season. If you're looking for statistics from a 38-game season then you have to go back to 1999/2000 when a total of 1,060 goals were scored - approximately 2.79 goals per game. Last season, the Premier League was just seven strikes for that record as 1,053 goals were scored. The average goals per match was 2.77, the second highest scoring season in Premier League history. This season we have seen 455 goals in 169 games, an average of 2.69 goals per match. If that ratio is maintained, then this will be the third highest-scoring Premier League season yet. Goals in each Premier League season: 1992/93: 1222 (2.65 per match)
1993/94: 1195 (2.58 per match)
1994/95: 1195 (2.58 per match)
1995/96: 988 (2.60 per match)
1996/97: 970 (2.55 per match)
1997/98: 1019 (2.68 per match)
1998/99: 963 (2.53 per match)
1999/00: 1060: (2.79 per match)
2000/01: 992 (2.61 per match)
2001/02: 1001 (2.63 per match)
2002/03: 1,000 (2.63 per match)
2003/04: 1012 (2.66 per match)
2004/05: 974 (2.56 per match)
2005/06: 944 (2.48 per match)
2006/07: 931 (2.45 per match)
2007/08: 1,002 (2.64 per match)
2008/09: 942 (2.48 per match)
2009/10: 1053 (2.77 per match)
2010/11: 455 (2.69 per match)
EURO VISIONS
Hi Martin. Great column, as usual, love reading this every week! One question I would like to ask though; in the last 10 years, which country has been the most successful in Champions League campaigns? I mean as in, winners (obviously), most final and semi-final appearances. Having a "disagreement" with a work colleague who insists it must be Spain but I remember English teams being very dominant for quite a few years and during that time the Italians were as prominent (if not more) than Spanish teams. Matt Ruddell (Coventry City fan) MARTIN SAYS: It depends which way you look at it. In terms of winning the Champions League then Italy (AC Milan twice, Inter Milan) and Spain are the most successful, ahead of England's two wins (Manchester United and Liverpool), followed by Germany (Bayern Munich) and Portugal (Porto). WINNERS
1. Italy, Spain (3)
2. England (2)
3. Germany, Portugal (1) However, English sides have had the most final appearances, with Manchester United (twice), Liverpool twice, Chelsea and Arsenal all reaching the final in the last decade: FINALISTS
1. England (6)
2. Italy (5)
3. Spain (4)
4. Germany (3)
5. France, Portugal (1) And in terms of semi-finals, England are clearly out in front. 15 of the 40 Champions League semi-finalists of the last 10 seasons have been Premier League clubs, while 11 have been Spanish and just seven Italian: SEMI-FINALISTS
1. England (15)
2. Spain (11)
3. Italy (7)
4. Germany (3)
5. France (2)
6. Holland, Portugal (1) So while English teams have gone far in this competition in the last decade, they have not been as successful as other European nations at converting those runs into Champions League wins.
