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The Premier League's foreign legion, English goalscorers, awayday blues and much more from Martin Tyler.

Foreign legion, Fulham failings and forgotten men

Martin Tyler's stats and facts column is back 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. 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 he will do his best to help.

Tyler's Starting Stat - Scholes' goal

I was at Old Trafford on Wednesday night to see Manchester United stretch their lead at the top of the table to five points and Paul Scholes end a long Premier League goal drought. His strike against Fulham was in fact his first in the league since way back in August 2007, away at Portsmouth. It was also his first against the Cottagers in 14 games in all competitions. As for Wayne Rooney, it may have taken him two minutes but he scored with his first touch to bag his 90th goal for Manchester United. He has scored 90 goals for United, with 60 coming in the Premier League to take his total in that competition to 75. At the other end Edwin van der Sar stretched his clean-sheet run to an incredible 14 games and 1,302 - and is closing in on the European record. ENGLISH LESSON
Hi Martin, I was watching the England-Spain game on Wednesday night and got to wondering about English strikers. I heard a stat once about Darren Bent being the highest-scoring English striker in the Premier League in recent times, but then I thought about Agbonlahor, who seems to have had a good goal-scoring record in the last few seasons. So my question is this - Who is the highest scoring Englishman in the Premier League for the last three years? Iain (Aston Villa fan)
MARTIN SAYS: Hi Iain, I have all the stats you need and although it is very tight at the top, the top-scoring Englishman in the past three seasons is none other than Manchester United's Wayne Rooney who has netted a total of 32 league goals in the previous two full seasons plus the current campaign so far. Just one goal shy of the United striker in the pecking order is Jermain Defoe with 31 goals followed by Aston Villa's Gabriel Agbonlahor and Chelsea's Frank Lampard, the highest scoring non-striker in the list. In total, 10 players have scored more than 20 goals in the last three seasons combined. They are as follows:

Player	Team	08/09	07/08	06/07	Total
Wayne Rooney	Manchester United	7	12	14	33
Jermain Defoe	Tottenham/ Portsmouth	9	12	10	31
Gabriel Agbonlahor	Aston Villa	10	11	9	30
Frank Lampard	Chelsea	9	10	11	30
Darren Bent	Tottenham	9	6	13	28
Steven Gerrard	Liverpool	9	11	7	27
Peter Crouch	Liverpool	8	5	9	22
Andy Johnson	Fulham/Everton	5	6	11	22
Gareth Barry	Aston Villa	4	9	8	21
Kevin Davies	Bolton	9	3	8	20

FORGOTTEN MEN
Love the column Martin, a great way of coming up with questions to stump my mates! While watching Everton against Man Utd a couple of weeks ago, myself and some friends were debating which current player has made the most Premier League appearances without receiving a full international cap. The initial thought was that Tony Hibbert must be in the running but we soon had suggestions of Kevin Davies and Titus Bramble amongst others. Can you clear it up for us? Also, who has made the most appearances without a cap since the inauguration of the Premiership? I've got a feeling it might be Jason Dodd. Cheers. Will Jordan
MARTIN SAYS: A good question Will! My back-up team has gone through the records and it appears that one of your friends was right. Bolton's Kevin Davies is the current uncapped player with the most Premier League appearances to his name. The Bolton striker has made 303 Premier League appearances, but has never earned international recognition. As for your second question, the player who has made the most Premier League appearances without winning a full international cap is Chris Perry. The former Wimbledon, Tottenham and Charlton player has played 362 times in the Premier League, yet he has never been capped by England.LEAGUE OF NATIONS
Hi Martin, I have a question really bugging me. Which Premier League side has the most amount of separate international players? My guess is, its Man Utd.. they have Serbians, Bazilians, a Bulgarian and even an Angolan amongst others. Wasim
MARTIN SAYS: I've been through all of the Premier League squad lists and counted up all of the different nationalities and the teams with the most different nationalities are Arsenal and West Brom. Arsene Wenger's and Tony Mowbray's squads boast players from 19 different nations. Manchester United have 15 different nationalities in their current first-team squad, while Stoke City are the only Premier League team not in double figures, boasting just nine different nationalities. I've detailed the nationalities at each club below. Please note I've included all players who have a first-team squad number, but not players currently out on loan. So the Angolan you mention, Manucho, is listed under Hull City not Manchester United.
ARSENAL - 19 (Spain, France, Ivory Coast, Czech Republic, Croatia, Holland, Mexico, Brazil, England, Wales, Cameroon, Switzerland, Poland, Russia, Italy, Togo, Denmark, Portugal, Norway)
WEST BROM - 19 (Rep Ireland, Belgium, England, Slovakia, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Northern Ireland, Scotland, South Korea, Cape Verde, Portugal, Argentina, Holland, Ivory Coast, Netherlands Antilles, Sweden, Spain, DR Congo, France)
BLACKBURN ROVERS - 18 (England, Holland, DR Congo, Turkey, New Zealand, Australia, Paraguay, Norway, Georgia, Switzerland, South Africa, Rep Ireland, Senegal, Chile, France, Sweden, Grenada, Wales)
NEWCASTLE - 17 (Argentina, England, Brazil, Nigeria, Rep Ireland, France, Uruguay, Spain, Cameroon, Senegal, Denmark, Hungary, Canada, Holland, Sweden, Australia, DR Congo)
BOLTON - 15 (Hungary, England, Rep Ireland, Sweden, Poland, Jamaica, Iceland, Holland, France, Portugal, Finland, Nigeria, Israel, Oman, Slovakia)
EVERTON - 15 (England, Nigeria, Holland, Ecuador, France, Spain, Brazil, Scotland, Denmark, Australia, Portugal, South Africa, USA, Belgium, Rep Ireland)
MAN CITY - 15 (England, Argentina, Rep Ireland, Bulgaria, Brazil, Spain, Denmark, Switzerland, Ecuador, Germany, Wales, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Belgium, Holland)
MAN UTD - 15 (Holland, England, France, Portugal, Brazil, Bulgaria, Wales, South Korea, Serbia, Rep Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Poland, Argentina, Italy)
TOTTENHAM - 15 (Brazil, Scotland, Wales, Ivory Coast, England, Russia, Honduras, Croatia, Rep Ireland, Mexico, Morocco, France, Italy, Cameroon, Portugal)
FULHAM - 14 (Australia, England, Ghana, Norway, Hungary, Senegal, France, Northern Ireland, Switzerland, Nigeria, Sweden, USA, Wales, Finland)
PORTSMOUTH - 14 (England, France, Cameroon, Iceland, Senegal, France, Nigeria, Croatia, Scotland, Portugal, Greece, Canada, Rep Ireland, Algeria)
WEST HAM - 14 (England, Australia, DR Congo, Wales, Uruguay, Germany, Portugal, Czech Republic, USA, Switzerland, Spain, Italy, Iceland, Jamaica)
CHELSEA - 13 (Czech Republic, Serbia, England, Ghana, Portugal, Argentina, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Germany, France, Brazil, Wales, Slovakia)
HULL CITY - 13 (Wales, England, Brazil, Australia, France, Hungary, Rep Ireland, Holland, Guinea, Gabon, Trinidad and Tobago, Angola, Scotland)
LIVERPOOL - 13 (Brazil, Italy, Finland, Denmark, England, Spain, Israel, Holland, Argentina, France, Switzerland, Morocco, Slovakia)
WIGAN - 13 (England, Sweden, France, Austria, Egypt, Wales, Ecuador, Barbados, Holland, Colombia, Poland, Ghana, Honduras)
SUNDERLAND - 12 (Scotland, England, Northern Ireland, Finland, Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago, Israel, Wales, Rep Ireland, France, Hungary, Sweden)
ASTON VILLA - 11 (USA, England, Holland, Denmark, Norway, Togo, Bulgaria, Spain, Rep Ireland, Scotland, Australia)
MIDDLESBROUGH - 11 (England, Austria, France, Holland, Brazil, Germany, Egypt, Jamaica, Turkey, Argentina, Australia)
STOKE CITY - 9 (England, Nigeria, Rep Ireland, Jamaica, Mali, Cameroon, Scotland, Senegal, Denmark) ROAD TO NOWHERE
Hi Martin. I had tickets to go and see my beloved Fulham play at Old Trafford on Wednesday night, but I'm not sure why I bothered. We haven't won a single away game this year and that didn't change at Man United. It got me wondering, has a team ever gone through an entire season without winning an away game and still avoided relegation? I reckon we could be the first. Thanks, Doug
MARTIN SAYS: In the history of the Premier League, only five teams have gone through the whole campaign without winning at least once on their travels. The last three to do so were Derby County in 2007/08, Norwich City in 2004/05 and Wolves in 2003/04 - and all of those sides were relegated. However, the other two teams did manage to beat the drop despite their poor away records. Coventry finished as high as 14th in 1999/00 despite no wins on their travels. And in the very first season, when there were 22 teams in the division, Leeds United failed to win any of their 21 away matches, but still managed to beat the drop, finishing in 17th place. It must be added that Howard Wilkinson's side were also the defending league champions, having won the last old First Division title the season before! MEDAL WORK
Hi Martin, great column. As we all know, only four teams has ever won the Premier League. However, I've been wondering, which team or teams have had the highest number of players with a Premier League medal, apart from Manchester United, Blackburn, Arsenal, and Chelsea? Trond, Norway
MARTIN SAYS: An interesting question, but we have trawled through the Premier League squad lists and we think we have an answer for you. There are a number of teams with a pair of Premier League winners: Everton (Phil Neville and Louis Saha), Man City (Shaun Wright-Phillips and Wayne Bridge), Middlesbrough (Jeremie Aliadiere and Robert Huth), Sunderland (Dwight Yorke and Kieran Richardson) and West Ham (Luis Boa Morte and Matthew Upson). Also Portsmouth have a trio of Premier League winners in Sol Campbell, Lauren and Kanu, while Aston Villa have one (goalkeeper Stuart Taylor). But aside from Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal, I believe the team with the most players with Premier League medals is Newcastle. They boast Nicky Butt, Damien Duff, Alan Smith and Geremi amongst their ranks. Please feel free to email in if you can add to this list, although be aware that the likes of Tim Howard, Justin Hoyte, Glen Johnson, Carlo Cudicini, Celestine Babayaro and Jonathan Greening did not play enough games for their title-winning clubs to pick up medals. THEY'VE BEEN FRAMED!
After reading the woodwork lesson, it came to mind which player has hit the woodwork the most times this season, being a sunderland fan I can think of Kieran Richardson on five times - three in one shot but is anyone else actually as unlucky as Kieran Richardson for the woodwork? Karl Allison (Sunderland fan)
MARTIN SAYS: This is another one I have handed over to the boffins at Opta although before we go any further I should confirm that they count that incredible effort against Fulham as only hitting the post once! So, although you are technically right, we have to take their ruling into account and say that Kieran has only struck the woodwork three times. Had it been five, he would have drawn level with Marouane Fellaini, Steven Gerrard and Robin van Persie, who have all been denied by the frame of the goal the same amount of times. So Keiran may well be unlucky Karl, but he is not the only one! MEANEST IN THE LAND
Hi Martin. I'm an Everton fan and I'm very proud of our defensive partnership in Jagielka and Lescott at the moment. What I would like to know though is which of these defensive partnerships are statistically doing the best in the Premier League this season (eg goals conceded, tackles made). Thanks in advance, Adam, The Wirral
MARTIN SAYS: Well Adam, as I am sure you are aware I do not have such statistical delights at my beck and call but luckily the good people at Opta are always on hand to help out - and this is right up their street. They have kindly given me the stats based on goals conceded and as good as they have been this season, Phil Jagielka and Joleon Lescott are way down in 11th place overall in terms of minutes per goal. As for the other top four clubs, despite Manchester United's excellent clean sheet run, John Terry and Alex at Chelsea are the meanest of the centre-back pairings. But in defence (pardon the pun) of Everton's two, they are the most regular pairing in the Premier League having played 2,205 minutes together, which might explain why their record is not as impressive. Here are the stats for the top four plus Everton:

Team	Pairing	Mins together	Gls conceded	Mins per goal
Chelsea	Alex & Terry	922	4	230.5
Man Utd	Ferdinand & Vidic	1,599	9	177.7
Liverpool	Carragher & Skrtrel	1,000	8	125.0
Aston Villa	Laursen & Davies	1,404	17	82.6
Everton	Jagielka & Lescott	2,205	27	81.7

Tyler's Teaser

Love the section and have asked you a few questions before! Now a quick teaser for you... There are only four players who have played for four different clubs that have won the European Cup, yet they have never won a European Cup winners medal themselves - who are they? (In other words they weren't playing for each club at a time when the club won the European Cup). Best regards, James O'Reilly, Dublin, Ireland
MARTIN SAYS: Another good teaser - but I can tell you James, there actually FIVE players that meet your criteria!. They are as follows: Laurent Blanc - Barcelona, Marseille, Inter Milan, Manchester United
Ronaldo - PSV Eindhoven, Barcelona, Inter Milan, Real Madrid, AC Milan
Dean Saunders - Liverpool, Nottingham Forest, Aston Villa and Benfica
Pierre Van Hooijdonk - Celtic, Forest, Benfica, Feyenoord
Boudewijn Zenden - PSV, Barcelona, Liverpool, Marseille
Of course, Ronaldo is an even more special case than the others, as he has played for FIVE European Cup winning sides, despite never having won Europe's biggest trophy himself. Got a question for Martin? Use the feedback form below or email in here he will do his best to help.