Home truths

Martin Tyler reveals which strikers prefer to play on their own patch and the survival rate of play-off winners.

Martin Tyler's stats and facts column is going strong in 2008 and will be here offering you statistical gems for the remainder of the season. 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. This week you have sent in a wide selection of questions, on the Champions League quarter finals, ever-present players and a very nice little trivia teaser among others. Martin has answered the pick of them. 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:
Reina's Record

Pepe Reina played his 100th Premier League game for Liverpool in the Merseyside derby last weekend and in doing so kept his 54th clean sheet, breaking the previous club record, of 53 clean sheets in the first 100 league games, held by Ray Clemence. The pair were level on 53 prior to Sunday's derby so he broke the record in his 100th game with his 54th shut out. Ray, of course, is still around in the game as England's goalkeeping coach. It was an important clean sheet for Liverpool in the context of this season, and it is no mean feat to break the record of a player of Clemence's calibre. Fernando Torres meanwhile scored just over six minutes into his first Merseyside derby, his 28th goal in all competitions, and Liverpool's 100th goal of the season. He has scored 28 per cent of Liverpool's goals this season and when you think that Steven Gerrard has 19 per cent, their total of 47 per cent is pretty high - and another important number for the club. On the subject of Fernando Torres, let's move on to your questions this week...

HOME AND AWAY
Hi Martin, I was watching Sky Sports News on Monday and they showed a graphic about Fernando Torres goal-scoring stats for Liverpool this season, saying he has only scored two of his Premier League goals away from home. That seemed a pretty poor return to me and I wondered if it was the worst away record of the top Premier League goal-scorers and how it compares with the likes of Ronaldo and Adebayor? Jonathan McKinney, Paisley. MARTIN SAYS: Well Jonathan, as you will see from the table below - kindly compiled by Opta Stats - Torres does indeed have the 'worst away record' for goals scored in the Premier League for this season's top marksmen. Only 10 per cent of his goals, two of them, have come away from Anfield. I think though that it is only fair to mention that the fact that Torres has scored some important away goals in other competitions, such as the hat-trick at Reading in the League Cup on September 25 when Liverpool won 4-2. He also scored in the 4-0 win in Marseille, a vital away game and of course most recently he scored against Internazionale away in the Champions League. Who knows, this time next week he might have scored another important goal or two on the road with back-to-back trips to The Emirates in the Champions League and Premier League? Two more of the top scorers have only hit the back of the net twice on the road this season, Carlos Tevez and Jermain Defoe. Of course Defoe hasn't started that many away games, so he may be excused. Tevez meanwhile, like Torres, has scored some important away goals. His Premier League strikes are the winner at Liverpool on December 16 and a last minute equaliser at Tottenham. Throw in the goal at Lyon, another late equaliser, and sometimes you see what matters is not how many or where you score, but the occasion and the importance. Of all the top scorers Roque Santa Cruz, of Blackburn Rovers, has the best away record with 79 per cent of his league goals, 11 of 14, coming away from Ewood Park. PREMIER LEAGUE GOALS - HOME AND AWAY - 2007/8
Up to April 1 2008

PLAYER	TEAM	GOALS	HOME	AWAY	HOME %
Ronaldo	Man Utd	26	18	8	69%
Torres	Liverpool	21	19	2	90%
Adebayor	Arsenal	19	9	10	47%
Keane	Spurs	14	8	6	57%
Santa Cruz	Blackburn	14	3	11	21%
Berbatov	Spurs	13	9	4	69%
Yakubu	Everton	13	9	4	69%
Benjani	Portsmouth/Man City	13	7	6	54%
Tevez	Man Utd	12	10	2	83%
Defoe	Spurs/Portsmouth	12	10	2	83%
Anelka	Bolton/Chelsea	11	8	3	73%
Gerrard	Liverpool	10	6	4	60%
Lampard	Chelsea	10	6	4	60%
Rooney	Man Utd	10	4	6	40%

FOUR PLAYER
Hi Martin, I'm from Hull and was reading my local newspaper on a column on Hull City's goalkeeper Boaz Myhill stating that if Hull get promoted to the Premier League he will join an elite group of players to have played in all the English football leagues with the same team. The current group only consists of two players at this present moment in time but the newspaper didn't say who they were. Do you know who they are? If you and your expert team could find this out for me it'll be greatly appreciated. Ashley Ball, Humberside MARTIN SAYS: Well Ashley this is a very good question and I am very pleased that after a lot of thought and asking around our excellent stats team here at Sky, we have the two names you are looking for. First of all I am assuming that you are looking for players that have played in all four flights of English football including the Premier League because there are many who have play in all four divisions prior to the Premier League era. I can think of players from Northampton in the 60s, Carlisle in the 70s and Wimbledon in the 80s who will have played in four divisions... but not the Premier League. First of all there is Sean Davis of Fulham. Before joining Tottenham and Portsmouth, Davis played twice for Fulham in what is now League Two (old Division Three) in 1996/7 and he made six appearances in League One (then Division Two) in 1998/99. He established himself in the Fulham side that finished ninth in Division One, now the Championship, in 1999/2000, when he played 26 matches. He played a major part in the promotion to the Premier League the following season and played for Fulham for three seasons in the Premier League before joining Tottenham in 2004/5. Your second player is David Wetherall, who was a title winner with Leeds in 1991/2. Wetherall moved down the road from Leeds to Bradford in 1999. He played for the Bantams in the season they were relegated from the Premier League, 1999/2000, and every season since, including this one, now they are in League Two. A BIG FOUR FIRST?
Dear Martin, is this the first time that the so called 'Big Four' have all appeared in the Champions League quarter-finals? And also can you tell me which of the four - Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea - have the best record in the Champions League? Thanks, Babatunde Ikhana, Abuja, Nigeria. MARTIN SAYS: Thank you for your question Babatunde. This is the first occasion that all of the "big four" have made the quarter-finals and it is a wonderful compliment to the standard of football in the Premier League. Four of the eight teams left are from England with the other four made up with one from Spain, one from Turkey, one from Germany and one from Italy, the world champions. The second half of your question is harder to answer as really it is a matter of opinion. Manchester United and Liverpool have each won it once, Arsenal have appeared in one final and Chelsea none, so you could deduce from that that Liverpool and Manchester United are the most successful. Liverpool have appeared in two finals, so Liverpool fans might argue they have enjoyed more success but Manchester United are in the competition for the 13th season in a row and have played 135 matches in the competition, more than twice as many as Liverpool. If Manchester United or Liverpool win it this year then I think that argument would be settled but for now it is up to the reader... It must be said that we are talking about the Champions League here and not the European Cup before anyone writes in! So you take your own criteria but for me the criteria would be winning it. So Liverpool and Manchester United are equal and let's see what happens this season. Here are their overall records prior to this week's quarter-finals... ARSENAL
P 97 W 44 D 28 L 28 F 136 A 94
Win percentage: 45%
Goals Scored per game: 1.40
Goals conceded per game: 0.97 CHELSEA
P 66 W 33 D 19 L 14 F 97 A 52
Win percentage: 50%
Goals Scored per game: 1.47
Goals conceded per game: 0.78 LIVERPOOL
P 62 W 31* D 17 L 14 F 90 A 47
(*includes penalty shoot-out win in 2005 CL Final)
Win percentage: 50%
Goals conceded per game: 0.75 MANCHESTER UNITED
P 135 W 71 D 33 L 31 F 240 A 132
Win percentage: 52.5%
Goals Scored per game: 1.7
Goals conceded per game: 0.97 WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE?
Martin Hi! If Chelsea win the Premiership this year, there is a good chance they will have done it with having neither scored the most goals nor conceded the least. Has this ever happened before? Costas, Cyprus. MARTIN SAYS: It has been done before Costas, in 1997/98 when Arsene Wenger won the first of his two doubles with Arsenal. Manchester United, who finished in second, had a superior goal difference by eight goals. They scored 73 to Arsenal's 68 and conceded seven fewer - 26 compared to the Gunners' 33. The previous season Manchester United won the Premier League with an inferior goal difference to the second-placed team also. Newcastle were runners-up that season (1996/97) with a goal difference of +33 to Man Utd's +32, but Newcastle did not score more than Sir Alex Ferguson's team (76 plays 73). They did however have a better defensive record (40 compared to Man Utd's 43). At this point of the season Chelsea are five points adrift with only six games to go, so maybe they will need to increase that goal difference if they are to win the title! PLAYOFF UP AND DOWN
Hi Martin, your column is the best sport column in the world I dare to say. Keep up the great work, mate! Just wondering as Derby's relegation is confirmed now, how often do teams that get promoted via play-offs see a Championship campaign back the season after? Cheers, Sam, London. MARTIN SAYS: Thank you Sam, you are too kind I am sure. You can see below the list of teams that have won the play-off final and how they got on the following season in the Premier League. Derby are in the majority as 10 of the 16 teams that joined the Premier League after success through the Championship play-offs have been relegated in their first season. Blackburn Rovers enjoyed the best promotion of all in the first season of the Premier League, reaching fourth position in 1992/93 - two seasons before they won the Premiership title. West Ham were the last team to come up from the play-offs and stay up, reaching ninth position in 2005/6. Crystal Palace and Watford have suffered Derby's fate twice as they have won the play-offs on two occasions but have been relegated subsequently on both occasions. One point to make is that the season ends three weeks later for the club that win the play-offs compared to those winning automatic promotion. That makes it harder for them when looking to buy players as they might miss out on some they might have signed had they been in position three weeks earlier. Another disadvantage is that their players who need operations are afforded less recovery time due to the extension to their season. A play-off final is a great day but maybe there should be some pressure from Championship clubs to play the semi-finals as a one-off and the play-off final sooner so it is all done and dusted earlier and the third team is at less of a disadvantage. Three weeks is too long I believe. At least they get a trophy for winning the play-off though, the team that finishes second doesn't!

TEAM	SEASON	POSITION	TEAM	SEASON	POSTION
Survived			Relegated
Blackburn	92/93	4th	Swindon	93/94	22nd
Leicester	96/97	9th	Leicester	94/95	21st
Ipswich	00/01	5th	Bolton	95/96	20th*
Bolton	01/02	16th	Crystal Palace	97/98	20th
Birmingham	02/03	13th	Chartlon	98/99	18th
West Ham	05/06	9th	Watford	99/00	20th
			Wolves	03/04	20th
			Crystal Palace	04/05	18th
			Watford	06/07	20th
			Derby County	07/08	20th?

*20th = Last place as the Premiership was reduced to 20 teams in 1995/6. MINUTES MADE
Dear Martin, my mate who is a bluenose reckons that Stephen Kelly hasn't missed a minute's football this season in the Premier League. Is that true and can you tell me then if there are any Villa players who have done the same this season? I reckon Gareth Barry must be up there as I don't think he has missed a match. Cheers, Greg, Villa fan in London. MARTIN SAYS: Your friend is right Greg, Stephen Kelly is the only outfield player in the Premier League who has played every minute of every game this season. Gareth Barry might also have done the same but for being suspended for Villa's trip to Anfield earlier in the season as it is the only 90 minutes he missed this season. That suspension drops Barry down from first to eighth in the list of minutes played (see Opta's table below). Stewart Downing is second to Kelly because he was subbed in the 89th minute away at Derby on December 15, replaced by Adam Johnson, and also in the 89th minute at home to Wigan on January 29, replaced this time by Lee Cattermole. Gareth Southgate very kindly gave a minute off twice this season! Martin Laursen is the top Villain but he too was substituted by Martin O'Neill at Middlesbrough on November 24, Curtis Davies replaced him, and you might remember he was taken off at home to Liverpool on the first day of the season, at half-time having scored an own goal in the first half.

PLAYER	TEAM	MINUTES PLAYED
Stephen Kelly	Birmingham	2880
Stewart Downing	Middlesbrough	2878
Stephen Hunt	Reading	2866
Gael Clichy	Arsenal	2863
Joleon Lescott	Everton	2835
James Harper	Reading	2834
Martin Laursen	Aston Villa	2829
Gareth Barry	Aston Villa	2790
David Bentley	Blackburn Rovers	2782
Paul Scharner	Wigan Athletic	2775
Nicky Shorey	Reading	2771