Corner flagging
Wednesday 15 February 2012 16:17, UK
Villa's corner woes, Adebayor's assists and West Brom's away days... Martin Tyler has the stats!
Can you answer Martin's Villa Park teaser?
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 - Villa's home discomforts
I was at Villa Park on Sunday and Aston Villa have now picked up no wins in their last seven home games, drawing two and losing five. The last time they went seven home games without a win was in an eight-game run from August to October 1987 under Graham Taylor. The last time they did it in the top division was November 1985 to March 1986 under Graham Turner. Man City's scored their 27th away goal in their 13th away Premier League game, which took them past the 26 they scored in the Premier League last season. They also continued a good run against Villa and can boast more points (56) and goals (51) than against any other Premier League rival. They also have their best tally of away points (21) at Villa Park, having picked up five wins and six draws, but only four defeats. City are tending to win games by smaller margins now. They scored 48 goals in their first 14 games of the Premier League season and only 16 in their last 11. They do have the best defensive record though with just 19 goals conceded. Boyhood Villa fan Joleon Lescott scored his fifth goal against them in only 12 career games. James Milner made his 300th English league appearance, but it was his first game at Villa Park since leaving Villa in August 2010. Nobody scored for Villa, even though they fielded three players who had scored 22 goals between them against Man City. Robbie Keane had eight, Darren Bent had seven and Richard Dunne has seven - although six of those were own goals whilst playing for City!JOY IN THE CORNER
Dear Martin. I'm an Aston Villa fan and I was frustrated to see us concede YET another goal from a corner against Manchester City. Combined with this, I don't think we have scored from a corner this season. Can you tell us how many goals each team has conceded and scored from corners this season? I bet we've got the worst "net loss" of all the teams in the league. David (Aston Villa fan) MARTIN SAYS: Aston Villa do indeed have the worst record from corners this season, at both ends of the pitch. They have conceded 11 Premier League goals from corners this season, which is more than any other side, and they are the only team not to have scored at least one goal from a corner. Sunday's opponents Manchester City have scored 12 goals from corners, four more than any other side, so it was perhaps no surprise to see the game settled in that way. However, they don't boast the best defensive record from corners. That accolade belongs to Chelsea, who are yet to concede a goal from a corner this season. In terms of "net gains" and "net losses" - as you put it - Man City have a net gain of 10 goals from corners ahead of West Brom (5). Aston Villa's miserable record reads -11 goals from corners with Bolton on -7. I have to say it's a surprise given that Villa defenders James Collins and Richard Dunne are so good at attacking the ball and Alex McLeish does like to work on the back four. Maybe credit on Sunday was due to the movement of the Man City players for their goal - and it's worth remembering that Villa came very close to scoring twice from corners late on.
| Team | Goals scored from corners | Goals conceded from corners | Aggregate goals from corners |
| Man City | 12 | 2 | +10 |
| West Brom | 6 | 1 | +5 |
| Man Utd | 7 | 3 | +4 |
| Norwich | 7 | 3 | +4 |
| Chelsea | 4 | 0 | +4 |
| Everton | 5 | 2 | +3 |
| Sunderland | 4 | 1 | +3 |
| Wolves | 6 | 5 | +1 |
| Tottenham | 5 | 4 | +1 |
| Blackburn | 8 | 8 | 0 |
| Stoke | 4 | 5 | -1 |
| Arsenal | 3 | 4 | -1 |
| Liverpool | 5 | 7 | -2 |
| Fulham | 3 | 5 | -2 |
| Newcastle | 1 | 3 | -2 |
| QPR | 3 | 6 | -3 |
| Swansea | 3 | 6 | -3 |
| Wigan | 3 | 6 | -3 |
| Bolton | 3 | 10 | -7 |
| Aston Villa | 0 | 11 | -11 |
ALL HART
Hi Martin. After watching the pre match stats on Super Sunday about Joe Hart and Shay Given I noticed even though Shay has played nearly 4 times more games he has only twice as many clean sheets. However my question is if you only count the games when they played for Manchester City who has the better clean sheets percentage. I bet it is the Irish man. Lorcan Coyle MARTIN SAYS: Joe Hart's clean sheet against Aston Villa was his 53rd in the Premier League in just 149 games. Given has just over twice as many clean sheets (108) and has played in 425 Premier League games, which is actually three times as many as his former team-mate. We have asked Opta to break their clean sheets and appearance records down for us and the results are as follows: SHAY GIVEN: 108 (Newcastle: 89/354, Man City: 14/50, Aston Villa: 4/19, Blackburn: 1/2) JOE HART: 53 (Man City: 43/113, Birmingham: 10/36) So to answer your question about their records in a Man City shirt, Hart has kept a clean sheet in every 2.63 games, while Given managed one every 3.57 games. That suggests the England man's record for the club is stronger, but his record is closer during his City days.
ADEBAYOR'S ASSISTS
Hi Martin. I must applaud you on the amazing column that you publish every week. My question comes as Adebayor got four assists in one game. Has any other player ever got four or more assists in one game? Gokul Kumar (Manchester Utd fan) MARTIN SAYS: Our friends at Opta have been keeping data on assists since the 1998/99 season onwards and Emmanuel Adebayor's efforts against Newcastle provided only the fourth occasion in that time when a player has been credited with four assists in one Premier League match. Please note, Opta's definition of an assist is "the final pass or pass-cum-shot which directly leads to a goal scored by recipient of the ball." This is also the first time that a non-Arsenal player has been credited with four assists in one game, as Gunners players are the only ones to have done it in the top flight in the last 13 years. The last man to do so was Cesc Fabregas, who directly set up four goals in Arsenal's 6-2 win over Blackburn in October 2009. Like Adebayor, he also scored one himself on top. Back in January 2006, Jose Antonio Reyes was credited with four assists in Arsenal's 7-0 win over Middlesbrough, while in February 1999 Dennis Bergkamp got four assists in a 5-0 win over Leicester. No player has been credited with five or more assists in any Premier League game since 1998/99. Adebayor now has 10 Premier League assists to his name this season. Only Manchester City's David Silva has more with 12.
UP AND AWAY
Dear Martin. As a West Brom fan I'm pretty happy with Sunday's result, but I'm surprised by how good our away from has been this season. Can you show us what the Premier League table would look like if only away games were counted because I reckon we'd be top? Finlay Cooper-Gavin (West Brom fan) MARTIN SAYS: The 5-1 win over Wolves was West Brom's sixth win in 13 away games this season and while that record wouldn't quite put them top of the table, it would see them in a Champions League spot! As you can see from the table below, the Baggies have the fourth best away record in the Premier League this season, behind only Manchester United, Manchester City and Tottenham. At the other end, Fulham have the worst away record in the Premier League having picked up only eight points and one win from 12 games. Swansea have also been reliant on their home record, having achieved only nine points on the road, the same tally as Blackburn. Premier League away games table:
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
| 1 | Man Utd | 12 | 8 | 3 | 1 | 24 | 10 | 14 | 27 |
| 2 | Man City | 13 | 7 | 3 | 3 | 27 | 13 | 14 | 24 |
| 3 | Tottenham | 12 | 6 | 3 | 3 | 20 | 15 | 5 | 21 |
| 4 | West Brom | 13 | 6 | 3 | 4 | 20 | 19 | 1 | 21 |
| 5 | Chelsea | 13 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 17 | 12 | 5 | 20 |
| 6 | Liverpool | 13 | 6 | 1 | 6 | 15 | 15 | 0 | 19 |
| 7 | Newcastle | 13 | 5 | 3 | 5 | 18 | 24 | -6 | 18 |
| 8 | Arsenal | 13 | 5 | 2 | 6 | 24 | 26 | -2 | 17 |
| 9 | Norwich | 13 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 18 | 26 | -8 | 16 |
| 10 | Aston Villa | 12 | 3 | 6 | 3 | 15 | 17 | -2 | 15 |
| 11 | Everton | 12 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 12 | 14 | -2 | 15 |
| 12 | Sunderland | 12 | 4 | 2 | 6 | 14 | 13 | 1 | 14 |
| 13 | Stoke | 13 | 4 | 2 | 7 | 9 | 24 | -15 | 14 |
| 14 | Bolton | 12 | 4 | 0 | 8 | 14 | 24 | -10 | 12 |
| 15 | QPR | 13 | 3 | 2 | 8 | 14 | 24 | -10 | 11 |
| 16 | Wigan | 13 | 3 | 2 | 8 | 12 | 28 | -16 | 11 |
| 17 | Wolves | 12 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 11 | 21 | -10 | 10 |
| 18 | Blackburn | 12 | 1 | 6 | 5 | 18 | 30 | -12 | 9 |
| 19 | Swansea | 12 | 2 | 3 | 7 | 10 | 22 | -12 | 9 |
| 20 | Fulham | 12 | 1 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 17 | -10 | 8 |
THE BIGGEST CONVERTS
Dear Martin. I read that Blackburn striker Yakubu has the best chance conversion rate of any striker in the Premier League this season. He has certainly been pretty lethal for us. Do you have the stats to show us if this is true? Phil Port (Blackburn Rovers fan) MARTIN SAYS: Yakubu's 13 Premier League goals this season have come from just 34 shots, meaning his shot conversion rate is an impressive 38.2%. However, when we asked Opta for the top shot conversion rates in the Premier League this season (we asked them only to include players who have scored five or more goals), Yakubu's name was not at the top of the list. That accolade belonged to Manchester United's Dimitar Berbtaov, who has scored seven goals from just 15 shots - that's a conversion ratio of 46.7%. Chelsea's Frank Lampard is the only other player to have at least five goals to his name to have scored with more than one third of his shots. Best shot conversion rates in the Premier League this season: 1. Dimitar Berbatov (7 goals): 46.7%
2. Yakubu (13 goals): 38.2%
3. Frank Lampard (9 goals): 33.3%
4. Javier Hernandez (8 goals): 30.8%
5. Anthony Pilkington / Ivan Klasnic (7 goals): 30.4%
7. Demba Ba (16 goals): 29.6%
8. Mario Balotelli (9 goals): 29.0%
9. Adam Johnson (5 goals): 27.8%
10. Steven Fletcher (10 goals): 27.0%
SCORING, BUT NOT SOARING
Hey Martin. Your column has been enlightening as always. My question for you is, with Arsenal in mind, what is the lowest a team has finished when their top scorer was also the league's top scorer? Padraig Cradock (Arsenal fan) MARTIN SAYS: I assume you're backing Robin van Persie to finish as top scorer this year! In the last 10 seasons, no team has finished lower than fourth with the Premier League's eventual top scorer in their team. The last side to fail to qualify for the Champions League with the Golden Boot winner in their ranks was Chelsea in 2000/01, who finished 6th despite boasting the league's top scorer in Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink. However, in the early days of the Premier League, it was more common for the league's top scorer to come from a mid-table side. Kevin Phillips' Sunderland came 7th in 1999/2000, as did Michael Owen's Liverpool in 1998/99 and Alan Shearer's Blackburn in 1995/96. Teddy Sheringham was the top scorer in the first Premier League season, playing predominantly for Tottenham, and they finished in eighth place. However, just one player has finished the season as the Premier League's top scorer while playing for a side that didn't even finish in the top half. That man is Dion Dublin, who scored 18 goals for Coventry City in 1997/98 to share the Golden Boot with Chris Sutton and Michael Owen. But despite those goals, the Sky Blues finished down in 11th.
| Season | Top scorer | Team | League position |
| 1992/93 | Teddy Sheringham | Tottenham | 8th |
| 1993/94 | Andrew Cole | Newcastle | 3rd |
| 1994/95 | Alan Shearer | Blackburn | 1st |
| 1995/96 | Alan Shearer | Blackburn | 7th |
| 1996/97 | Alan Shearer | Newcastle | 2nd |
| 1997/98 | Chris Sutton Michael Owen Dion Dublin |
Blackburn Liverpool Coventry |
6th 3rd 11th |
| 1998/99 | Dwight Yorke Michael Owen Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink |
Man Utd Liverpool Leeds |
1st 7th 4th |
| 1999/00 | Kevin Phillips | Sunderland | 7th |
| 2000/01 | Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink | Chelsea | 6th |
| 2001/02 | Thierry Henry | Arsenal | 1st |
| 2002/03 | Ruud van Nistelrooy | Man Utd | 1st |
| 2003/04 | Thierry Henry | Arsenal | 1st |
| 2004/05 | Thierry Henry | Arsenal | 2nd |
| 2005/06 | Thierry Henry | Arsenal | 4th |
| 2006/07 | Didier Drogba | Chelsea | 2nd |
| 2007/08 | Cristiano Ronaldo | Man Utd | 1st |
| 2008/09 | Nicolas Anelka | Chelsea | 3rd |
| 2009/10 | Didier Drogba | Chelsea | 1st |
| 2010/11 | Dimitar Berbatov Carlos Tevez |
Man Utd Man City |
1st 3rd |
