Clout of Africa

Martin Tyler on the Premier League's leading African imports and much more...

Martin Tyler's stats and facts column is back for another season here on skysports.com! 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. It could be on a side in the Premier League or Football League, international scene or European competitions - or it could be about an individual player or manager. If you have spotted something from a game or have been stumped by a pub quiz question, simply Email here and Martin will do his best to answer.

Tyler's starting stat

I was at Craven Cottage on Sunday to see David James record his 146th clean sheet - which is the Premier League record - in his 50th game for Portsmouth and his 140th consecutive top-flight appearance. That is the best run of any current player and in further testimony to James's longevity, he us one of six players who has played in all 15 Premier League seasons to date: the others are Gary Speed, Ian Pearce, Nicky Butt, Ryan Giggs and his Pompey colleague Sol Campbell. With England coming up - and I will be in Russia for Sky Sports next week - it seems like the right time to mention that by coming on for the second half against Germany, he became the first Portsmouth keeper to represent England and their first player since Mark Hateley in 1984 to do so. It remains to be seen if Sol Campbell will become the second over the course of the next seven days...

The African kings

After reading your column last week I managed to stump all of my mates with the South American goal scorer question. As a result we started to think of the highest goal scoring African player. My guess is Kanu but Fredi Kanoute could be a good shout. Also the highest appearances by an African would be a good question, Lucas Radebe, Bruce Grobbelaar? Stuart Marshall
MARTIN SAYS: Well Stuart, it look we might have a theme going here and, given the lure of the Premier League these days, one that could possibly run all season long! Both your guesses are good, but wrong I'm afraid, because neither Lucas Radebe nor Bruce Grobbelaar have made the most appearances and neither Kanu or Fredi Kanoute are the highest scoring Africans to have graced our league. That honour goes to Everton striker Yakubu, who has scored 55 times in 144 games for Portsmouth, Middlesbrough and now the Toffees. You might be surprised to see Benni McCarthy and Emmanuel Adebayor not in the top 10, but they are closing in, having netted 19 and 17 goals respectively. As for the most appearances, that is indeed Kanu. The Nigeria international is the only African to have made more than 200 appearances, although I have to say more than a third have been as substitute. Former Leeds and South Africa skipper Radebe is second in the list, injury ending his career just three Premier League appearances short of the double century.

GOALS			APPEARANCES
Pos	Player	Number	Pos	Player	Number
1	Yakubu	55	1	Kanu	214
2	Efan Ekoku	52	2	Lucas Radebe	197
3	Kanu	50	3	Celestine Babayaro	179
4	Didier Drogba	43	4	Kolo Toure	173
4=	Fredi Kanoute	43	5	Lauren	172
6	Peter Ndlovu	35	6	Efan Ekoku	160
7	Henri Camara	29	7	Peter Ndlovu	154
8	Lomana LuaLua	24	8	Joseph Yobo 153	146
8=	Tony Yeboah	24	9=	Lomana LuaLua	144
10	El Hadji Diouf	24	9=	Yakubu	144

Latics lose the lot

Martin - I read somwhere that Wigan have played the big four of Arsenal Manchester United Liverpool and Chelsea and not picked up a single point? Is this true? I thought I remmeber them beating Arsenal... Lee Newman
MARTIN SAYS: Lee, I am afraid it is completely true! Saturday's 4-0 reverse at Old Trafford was the 18th time Wigan have played one of the big four since their Premier League debut - and they 18th time they have been beaten. That was their fifth clash with Manchester United and their record against them now reads P5 L5 F3 A16. Against Chelsea they did give them a scare on their very first game in the top flight, but Hernan Crespo's late winner started a sequence that now stands at P4 L 4 F2 A9. Chris Hutchings side did give a very good account of themselves against Liverpool recently as well, but their record is even worse as in five league meetings thay have not managed a single goal and have a record of P5 L5 F0 A11. As for Arsenal, Wigan have fared better against them and have scored in three of their four meetings, but still have a record that reads P4 L4 F5 A10. The game you were thinking of Lee was the Carling Cup semi-final in 2006 when they beat the Gunners 1-0 in the first leg at the JJB and then lost 2-1 at Highbury but, thanks to the away goals rule, went on to the final (where, funnily enough they were beaten 4-0 by United!). I remember it well because I was called up to cover that second leg for a sick colleague and you might well recall that at the end, even the Wigan players weren't sure they were through!

Foreigners from the off

Dear Martin, with all of the speculation regarding the possibility of imposing quotas on foreign players in Premier League starting lineups there is one fact which I keep hearing: On the opening day of the Premier League (15 August 1992) there were only 11 'foreign players' in Premier League starting lineups. What nobody seems to be telling me is who these 11 were! With a little memory recall (me and my sister used to spend many an hour quizzing each other on squads from our Sky Premier League book) I have come up with 11 possible names but I'm sure they're not all correct. They are: Eric Cantona, Anders Limpar, Peter Schmeichel, Bruce Grobbelaar, Erik Thorstvedt, Ludek Miklosko, Ken Monkou, John Jensen, Nayim, Henning Berg and Michel Vonk with Robert Warzycha, Erland Johnson and Stig Inge Bjornebye as possibles. I would love to know the real list. Jack, Swindon
MARTIN SAYS: Your memory serves you fairly well Jack, but there were in fact 12 'foreign players' - and we are not including players from Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland or the Republic - who played in that first round of Premier League fixtures way back in 1992. Those dozen players were spread between 10 clubs with Anders Limpar and John Jensen playing for Arsenal and Peter Schmeichel and Andrei Kanchelskis appearing for Manchester United. Elsewhere Pole Robet Warzycha came on as a sub for Everton; Canada's Craig Forrest played in goal for Ipswich Town; Eric Cantona was in the Leeds line-up; Israel's Ronnie Rosenthal came off the bench for Liverpool; Dutchman Michel Vonk played for Manchester City, Norweigan Gunnar Halle was in the Oldham side; the Swede Roland Nilsson played for Sheffield Wednesday and last but by no means least, Dutchman Hans Segers was in goal for Wimbledon. By my reckoning that makes four goalkeepers, three wingers, two midfielders, two defenders and one striker.

Cleanest sheets

Hi Martin. I was just wondering, who, out of Pepe Reina, Petr Cech and Edwin Van Der Saar has kept the most clean sheets in the Premiership and which of them has the highest percentage of clean sheets from the games they've played. Adam, Reading
MARTIN SAYS: Well Adam, I can tell you that Edwin van der Sar has kept 76 clean sheets in 205 Premier League games for Fulham and Manchester United, but I suppose the true comparison would be how many he has recorded since he moved to Old Trafford. Just for the record, as you probably read earlier, David James is the division's record holder with 146 shut-outs in his 483 games, which equates at 30.2 per cent to be precise. But as for the other three, here's how they compare when it comes to keeping the opposition at bay - and it makes very good reading for Petr Cech.

Keeper	Played	Clean Sheets	Percentage
Petr Cech	98	57	58.1
Pepe Reina	76	44	57.8
Edwin van der Sar	78	34	44.7

Kitson's club-by-club quest

Hi Martin, I'm a Reading fan and I read somewhere recently that Dave Kitson would love to score against all 92 league clubs. I'm a big fan of his and know that he scored a lot of goals in League Two for Cambridge and would like to know exactly how many clubs he has notched against so far. Can he really pull this off? Thanks, Jack, Basingstoke
MARTIN SAYS: Hi Jack, Well, Kitson certainly was prolific for Cambridge United before joining Reading, but according to our calculations here at skysports.com, has scored against 55 of the 92 league clubs. But to complete that feat would be an amazing achievement - one which I can't imagine any player doing in the game today as Kitson is a prime example of a player coming through the leagues - something we don't see too much of these days. He scored 40 league goals in 103 appearances for Cambridge and has so far managed an impressive 47 in 107 league matches for the Royals, although it took him eight games to get off the mark for Reading. Here is a list of each and every club Kitson has scored against: Swansea, Notts County, Bournemouth, Cardiff, Blackpool, QPR, Northampton, Oldham, Brighton, Reading, Chesterfield, Darlington, Leyton Orient, Rushden & Diamonds, Hull, York, Boston Utd, Kidderminster, Exeter, Macclesfield, Bristol Rovers, Millwall, Brentford, Shrewsbury, Bristol City, Rochdale, Carlisle, Scunthorpe, Huddersfield, Cheltenham, Doncaster, Yeovil, West Ham, Bradford, Crewe, Rotherham, Preston, Gillingham, Ipswich, Coventry, Plymouth, Stoke, Sunderland, Sheffield United, Sheffield Wednesday, Luton, Wolves, Burnley, Middlesbrough, Birmingham, Man Utd, Newcastle, Wigan, Portsmouth. Only another 38 to go Dave!

11-carrot gold

Martin, myself and some colleagues at work were having a debate on whether it is possible to field 11 players from Premiership history with ginger hair? Can you please help with this. Ross
MARTIN SAYS: Ross, this is normally something I would steer clear of, but as luck would have it, our good friends at Soccer AM ran a feature on this very same thing when former Arsenal man Perry Groves was one of their guests. Groves of course, makes it on the left-hand side of midfield, but credit - and indeed any complaints - should go to the Soccer AM team, and not me and my researchers. In goal they had Mike Hooper of Liverpool and Newcastle, the right-back was Steve Watson (Everton and Newcastle), the left-back John Arne Riise (Liverpool), with Colin Hendry (Blackburn and Coventry) and Danny Collins (West Ham) the two central defenders. Former Arsenal midfielders Groves and Ray Parlour were joined by Paul Scholes (Man Utd) and Neil Lennon (Leicester) with John Hartson (West Brom) and Dave Kitson (Reading) the two strikers. Just for the record, Soccer AM also went as far as selecting a manager in David Moyes and five subs in Steve Sidwell, Paul McShane, Tommy Johnson, Gordon Strachan and David May, who I must admit I always had down as being blond. Got a question for Martin? Then fill in the form below, or send an email in HERE