Drop stars

Martin Tyler has stats on double droppers, uncapped stars and the sides who get the most penalties.

Can you answer Martin's teaser from Molineux?

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 - Five alive

I was at Molineux on Sunday to see Wolves take their defensive record to 19 goals in their last five games and go 26 matches without a clean sheet in the Premier League. They'll be hoping to avoid a club record of 28 matches that was set between April 1926 and January 1927. This is also the first time in their history that they've lost six home games in a row in one season. They've won only one of their last 15 in the Premier League and taken eight points out of the last 45. It's hard to believe they were top on August 27! Man Utd secured their first away clean sheet of 2012 in the Premier League and through Javier Hernandez they scored their 14th Premier League headed goal of the season - the most in the division along with Norwich It was Hernandez's 50th Premier League appearance and his 23rd goal, 16 of which have come away from home. Wayne Rooney had scored the five previous goals for Man United (all competitions), but when they scored five he didn't get one! This was only their second Premier League win at Molineux, having lost on two of their previous three visits. Jonny Evans scored his first goal in his 99th game for Man Utd, five years and one day after his only other club goal for Sunderland at home against Hull (14 March 2007). Paul Scholes made his 689th appearance for Man Utd, taking him above Bill Foulkes into third on their list of all-time appearance makers. Bobby Charlton (758) and Ryan Giggs (903) are still ahead of him.

SPOT PRIZE
What a total surprise to find out that Man U have won the most penalties so far this season. Now go one better Martin and find out what team has won the most penalties over the past 10 seasons, One guess, I wonder what team it could be? And how many were given at Old Trafford, sorry I meant to say at home. Richard Boyes (Arsenal fan) MARTIN SAYS: According to our friends at Opta, two teams have been awarded more penalties than Manchester United in the last 10 Premier League seasons. Those two sides are Liverpool and Arsenal, who have both been given 60 spot kicks with United just behind on 59. Arsenal have had the most awards at home, with 44 penalties given on their home turf in the Premier League, compared to 39 home penalties for Manchester United and 36 for Manchester City. Away from home, Aston Villa have been awarded more penalties than anybody else with 32 in the last 10 years, followed by Liverpool on 27 and Blackburn on 23. Penalties awarded in the Premier League in the last 10 seasons:

Team	Penalties awarded	Home	Away
Arsenal	60	44	16
Liverpool	60	33	27
Man Utd	59	39	20
Aston Villa	55	23	32
Chelsea	54	35	19
Blackburn	48	25	23
Man City	47	36	11
Newcastle	46	29	17
Tottenham	45	27	18
Fulham	43	32	11
Everton	41	28	13
Bolton	39	18	21
West Ham	32	25	7
Portsmouth	31	24	7
Birmingham	28	18	10
Wigan	28	11	17
Middlesbrough	25	17	8
Sunderland	24	17	7
Charlton	21	13	8
West Brom	20	10	10

PS I'll also point out that Man United have conceded four penalties this season - all at Old Trafford!

SEEING RED
Hi Martin. Really enjoy your column. What I would like to know is, from the beginning of the Premier League, which team has played the most against 10 or less men in any fixture i.e. having someone on the opposing team sent off. Thanks, Anesh Rajkumar (Liverpool fan) MARTIN SAYS: Thanks Anesh. Arsenal are the team who have faced 10 men or less since the inception of the Premier League. Opposition sides have received red cards on 95 occasions against the Gunners. Your own team, Liverpool, are second in the table with 86, while Merseyside rivals Everton are one place behind with 72. Blackburn hold the best record for a team that has spent at least one season outside of the Premier League. Although Rovers dropped down to the Championship between 1999 and 2001, teams have seen red 59 times against them in the Premier League, three more than Manchester United.

OPPOSITION	RED CARDS
Arsenal	95
Liverpool	86
Everton	72
Tottenham Hotspur	64
Blackburn Rovers	59
Manchester United	56
Newcastle United	56
Aston Villa	54
Chelsea	52
West Ham United	49
Manchester City	43
Fulham	39
Bolton Wanderers	38
Leeds United	36
Middlesbrough	34
Sunderland	34
Leicester City	33
Southampton	28
Birmingham City	25
Derby County	21

DOWN AND DOWN AGAIN
Hi Martin, I noticed players like Roger Johnson and Jean Beausjour are in danger of getting relegated from the Premier League in consecutive seasons with different teams having both been part of Birmingham's relegation last season. I was wondering how many players this has happened to. Thanks Tom Weaving (Birmingham City fan) MARTIN SAYS: In last week's column we told you that Avram Grant was the only manager to take two teams down (although Peter Reid was in charge of two sides in their relegation seasons), but the Premier League has witnessed a larger number of players going down in consecutive seasons. In fact we have seen 40 players playing for relegated sides in two consecutive seasons - and one player who has played for relegated sides in THREE consecutive seasons. That man is Benito Carbone, who played seven times for Sheffield Wednesday in 1999/2000, 31 times for Bradford City in 2000/01 and 13 times for Derby County in 2001/02. He wasn't at all of those clubs when their fates were sealed, but he is the only man to have played for three relegated Premier league sides in consecutive seasons. Players who have played for relegated clubs in consecutive seasons: Willie Falconer (28 games for Middlesbrough in 1992/93; 23 for Sheff Utd in 1993/94)
Chris Kamara (5 games for Middlesbrough in 1992/93; 16 for Sheff Utd in 1993/94)
Neil Adams (13 games for Oldham in 1993/94; 33 for Norwich in 1994/95)
Carl Bradshaw (40 games for Sheff Utd in 1993/94; 26 for Norwich in 1994/95)
Mike Milligan (39 games for Oldham in 1993/94; 26 for Norwich in 1994/95)
Simon Tracey (15 games for Sheffield Utd in 1993/94; 1 for Norwich in 1994/95)
Franz Carr (10 games for Sheff Utd in 1994/95; 13 for Leicester in 1995/96)
Gavin Ward (6 games for Leicester in 1994/95; 5 for Bolton in 1995/96)
Ray Wilkins (1 game for Crystal Palace in 1994/95; 15 for QPR in 1995/96)
Nigel Clough (15 for Man City in 1995/96; 13 for Nottingham Forest in 1996/97)
Niall Quinn (32 for Man City in 1995/96; 12 for Sunderland in 1996/97)
Neil Cox (31 games for Middlesbrough in 1996/97; 21 for Bolton in 1997/98)
Jan-Aage Fjortoft (5 games for Middlesbrough in 1996/97; 15 for Barnsley in 1997/98)
Alan Miller (10 games for Middlesbrough in 1996/97; 38 for Crystal Palace in 1997/98)
Nathan Blake (35 games for Bolton in 1997/98; 11 for Blackburn in 1998/99)
Matt Jansen (8 games for Crystal Palace in 1997/98; 11 for Blackburn in 1998/99)
Dougie Freedman (7 games for Crystal Palace in 1997/98; 31 for Nottingham Forest in 1998/99)
Neil Redfearn (37 games for Barnsley in 1997/98; 30 for Charlton in 1998/99)
Neil Shipperly (25 games for Crystal Palace in 1997/98; 20 for Nottingham Forest in 1998/99)
Ashley Ward (29 games for Barnsley in 1997/98; 17 for Blackburn in 1998/99)
Des Lyttle (10 for Nottingham Forest in 1998/99; 11 for Watford in 1999/00)
Peter Atherton (35 games for Sheff Wed in 1999/00; 25 for Bradford in 2000/01)
Benito Carbone (7 games for Sheff Wed in 1999/00; 31 for Bradford in 2000/01; 13 for Derby in 2001/02)
John Hartson (16 games for Wimbledon in 1999/00; 12 for Coventry in 2000/01)
Ian Nolan (32 games for Man City in 1999/00; 21 for Bradford in 2000/01)
Marcus Stewart (28 games for Ipswich in 2001/02; 19 for Sunderland in 2002/03)
Paul Dickov (21 games for Man City in 2000/01; 12 for Leicester in 2001/02)
Mart Poom (15 games for Derby in 2001/02; 4 for Sunderland in 2002/03)
Lee Marshall (35 games for Leicester in 2001/02; 9 for West Brom in 2002/03)
Matt Piper (16 games for Leicester in 2001/02; 13 for Sunderland in 2002/03)
Jody Craddock (25 games for Sunderland in 2002/03; 32 for Wolves in 2003/04)
Les Ferdinand (14 games for West Ham in 2002/03; 29 for Leicester in 2003/04)
Henri Camara (30 games for Wolves in 2003/04; 13 for Southampton in 2004/05)
Rory Delap (37 games for Southampton in 2004/05; 6 for Sunderland in 2005/06)
Nigel Quashie (13 games for Southampton in 2004/05; 9 for West Brom in 2005/06)
Jon Stead (30 games for Sunderland in 2005/06; 14 for Sheff Utd in 2006/07)
Claude Davis (21 games for Sheff Utd in 2006/07; 19 for Derby in 2007/08)
David Edgar (11 games for Newcastle in 2008/09; 4 for Burnley in 2009/10)
Tal Ben Haim (22 games for Portsmouth in 2009/10); 8 for West Ham in 2010/11)
Frederic Piquionne (34 games for Portsmouth in 2009/10); 34 for West Ham in 2010/11) Those clever chaps at Opta have also found three players who played for two relegated clubs in the SAME season: 1994/95: Mark Robins played 17 times for Leicester before moving to Norwich and playing 17 league games for them. Both sides were relegated. 2006/07: Steve Kabba made seven appearances for Sheffield United, before signing for Watford. Again, both sides went down. 2009/10: David Nugent started the season at Portsmouth, playing seven times and then he played 30 times on loan for Burnley. Both sides went down that year.

DOUBLE TROUBLE FOR MAN UTD
Martin, great column as always! My 'teaser' relates to the Europa League ties against Bilbao. How many times have Man Utd lost BOTH legs of a European knock out tie? I can't seem to remember when we lost both legs. Thanks. Regards from Mumbai! Homzie D (Manchester Utd fan) MARTIN SAYS: According to our friends at Opta, this was only the fourth occasion in Manchester United's proud history that they have been beaten in both the home and away legs of a European knock-out tie. The first such occasion was in the semi-final of the 1996/97 Champions League against Borussia Dortmund. They the first leg in Dortmund 1-0 and were beaten by the same scoreline in the return at Old Trafford. It happened again in 2000/01 when they lost home and away to Bayern Munich in the quarter-final of the Champions League. An 86th-minute goal from Paulo Sergio saw the Germans win the first leg 1-0 at Old Trafford and they won the second leg 2-1 to exact revenge on United for the 1999 Final. Before Athletic Bilbao, the last team to beat Sir Alex Ferguson's men home and away was AC Milan, who did so in the last 16 of the 2004/05 Champions League. The scoreline and scorer was the same in both legs with Hernan Crespo securing a 1-0 win for the Italians both home and away. So Athletic Bilbao became the first side to achieve the feat outside the Champions League / European Cup and also the first to do so by scoring more than once in both legs. We can also tell you that this was only the second time in Manchester United's history that they have lost three European games (excluding qualifiers) in a row with Bilbao's two wins coming on the back of a 2-1 home defeat to Ajax. The only other time this happened was between December 2004 and March 2005 when United lost 3-0 to Fenerbahce in the Champions League group stage and then lost home and away to AC Milan in the last 16.

NEVER BEEN CAPPED
Dear Martin, I was watching the Merseyside derby last Tuesday night and watching Tony Hibbert play got me thinking. Does he have the most Premier League appearances for an Englishman without having any England caps? I'd say Leon Osman is up there as well. If not who would have the most appearances without an England cap? Thanks very much and keep up the good work! Scott Emberson (Rangers fan) MARTIN SAYS: Opta have looked into this for us and given us the 10 players with the most Premier League appearances without being capped by England. Top of the list is former Wimbledon, Tottenham and Charlton centre-back Chris Perry who played in 363 Premier League games but was never called up by his country. Englishmen with the most Premier League appearances without playing for England: 1. Chris Perry (363)
2. Steve Watson (351)
3. Jason Dodd (329)
4. Kevin Campbell (325)
5. Peter Atherton (318)
6. Alan Wright (305)
7. Kevin Nolan (302)
8. Garry Flitcroft (301)
9. Graham Stuart (294)
10. Andy Impey (289) Tony Hibbert has played 244 times in the Premier League and would be 18th on the list. However, he's not the current Premier League player with the most top-flight appearances without playing internationally. That accolade goes to Sunderland defender Titus Bramble, who has 275 Premier League appearances, but no caps. There has been a clamour for Leon Osman to be called up, but with fewer friendlies these days there are fewer chances for older players. However, look at Kevin Davies. He made 382 appearances in the Premier League before his first cap, so never give up! Current top-flight Englishmen with the most Premier League appearances without playing for England: 1. Titus Bramble (275)
2. Tony Hibbert (244)
3. Leon Osman (240)
4. Matthew Etherington (238)
5. Jermaine Pennant (217) There are three players currently in the Championship, who also feature in the top 20: West Ham's Kevin Nolan (302 PL apps) and Matt Taylor (267) and Nottingham Forest's Jonathan Greening (275).

Tyler's teaser

Fill in your answers to Martin's teaser using the feedback form below - and keep those questions coming in!