The cold rush
Tuesday 12 January 2010 15:12, UK
The big freeze, brilliant Birmingham and Fernando Torres' goal rush... Martin Tyler has all the stats.
Man United's bitterest rivals, top-scoring Englishmen and more...
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 here and he will do his best to help.Tyler's Starting Stat - City get Rover it
I was at the City of Manchester Stadium on Monday night where Manchester City secured only their third home win against Blackburn in Premier League history. They beat Rovers 3-2 at Maine Road in the first Premier League season, having been 2-0 down and they won 3-1 in the same fixture last season. This season's result marks Blackburn's ninth game in the Premier League without a win, stretching back to their 2-0 victory at Bolton in November. Carlos Tevez's hat-trick means he has now scored 11 goals in his last eight starts and 10 goals in his last seven Premier League games. That takes his overall tally to 15 for the season, 12 in the Premier League. The result was only City's second win in seven North West derbies this season, the previous victory also coming against Blackburn on the opening day of the season. They have since lost 4-3 to Manchester United and drawn 1-1 with Wigan, 3-3 with Burnley, 2-2 with Liverpool and 3-3 with Bolton.THE BIG FREEZE
Dear Martin. Did Saturday's bad weather break the record for the most postponements in one day? Clive. MARTIN SAYS: Well, I spent the weekend sharing the frustration of many football fans who would have liked a choice about whether or not to take the risk of travelling to a game - surely it should be up to the supporters if they want to make the journeys? It is particularly frustrating when the pitches are playable. I was in London on Sunday when the West Ham v Wolves fixture was scheduled to take place and the temperature was at three degrees and there seemed no reason why game shouldn't be played. Anyway, onto your question. Here is the postponement breakdown in numbers. Only seven professional football matches were played in England on Saturday; two in the Premier League, three in the Championship and two in League One. Two further Championship games were played on Friday and Sunday and one Premier League fixture was held on Monday. In addition, five Scottish Cup games were played on Saturday and one more on Sunday. On Saturday there were five Premier League postponements, seven Championship postponements, 10 League One postponements and 12 League Two postponements. That adds up to 34 postponements in England on Saturday plus a further 14 League and Cup games off in Scotland, a total of 48 fixtures off. However, those 48 postponements do not add up to the most weather-hit day in football history. The worst day for postponements was February 9, 1963, when 57 league matches in England and Scotland were frozen off and, like this year, only seven took place. That day the entire Scottish fixture list was cancelled. That was the winter where it started snowing on Boxing Day and didn't clear until March and the season went on until June because of all the postponements. There was obviously no under-soil heating in those days and attempts were made to play games by using braziers on the pitch to melt the ice. A few got underway that way - but it soon killed the grass! However, if you're looking for the lowest percentage of games left on one day due to postponements, that came during the Second World War on February 3rd 1940 when bad weather meant only one of 56 regional league fixtures took place. Thankfully, it was a cracking game which finished Plymouth Argyle 10 Bristol City 3!
THE BLUES CAN'T LOSE
Dear Martin. Is Birmingham City's current 12-game unbeaten run the best any promoted team have ever put together in the Premier League? The only team that I can think would come close are Ipswich Town under George Burley back when they qualified for Europe? Kind regards, Richard MARTIN SAYS: Our friends at Opta have given us the stats for this one. Birmingham's 12-match spell is currently the second best unbeaten run from any promoted side in the Premier League era - and they will equal the record if they avoid defeat in their next game which, weather permitting, will be against Portsmouth on Saturday. They could then potentially break the record if they go to Stamford Bridge and avoid defeat against Chelsea on Wednesday, January 27. The current record is not held by George Burley's Ipswich, however, Richard. The best unbeaten run from a promoted side is the 13-game charge Nottingham Forest put together at the end of the 1994/95 season when they finished third in the table. The following season, when they could no longer be classed as a promoted side of course, they won a further 12 games to take the run to 25 matches in total. Here is a list of the longest runs by newly-promoted sides in the Premier League, along with the date of their last match unbeaten:
| Season | Date | Team | Run |
| 1995 | May 13, 1995 | Nottingham Forest | 13 |
| 2010 | Jan 9, 2010 | Birmingham City | 12 |
| 1999 | Dec 19, 1998 | Middlesbrough | 11 |
| 1995 | Oct 22, 1994 | Nottingham Forest | 11 |
| 1993 | Dec 28, 1992 | Ipswich Town | 10 |
| 2000 | Nov 6, 1999 | Sunderland | 10 |
| 2001 | Mar 3, 2001 | Charlton Athletic | 9 |
| 2006 | Nov 5, 2005 | Wigan Athletic | 9 |
| 2002 | Dec 12, 2001 | Fulham | 8 |
| 1993 | Sep 12, 1992 | Ipswich Town | 8 |
| 1994 | Oct 2, 1993 | Newcastle United | 8 |
| 1994 | Apr 4, 1994 | Newcastle United | 8 |
| 2004 | Sep 13, 2003 | Portsmouth | 8 |
| 2004 | May 4, 2004 | Portsmouth | 8 |
| Team | Unbeaten games | Date run ended |
| Arsenal | 49 | Oct 16, 2004 |
| Chelsea | 40 | Oct 29, 2005 |
| Arsenal | 30 | Oct 6, 2002 |
| Chelsea | 29 | Oct 18, 2008 |
| Manchester United | 29 | Sep 25, 1999 |
| Nottingham Forest | 25 | Nov 6, 1995 |
| Arsenal | 22 | Dec 5, 2007 |
| Manchester United | 22 | Feb 26, 1994 |
| Arsenal | 21 | May 2, 2009 |
| Chelsea | 21 | Jan 16, 1999 |
DON'T CHANGE A WINNING SIDE?
Hi Martin. I never miss your column around and I'm a big fan of your commentary. I have a question for you. I'm a Birmingham City fan and I think our good form is based on Alex McLeish's consistent team selection, picking the same players week-in, week out. Has there ever been another Premier League team that has been changed less than this current Birmingham side? Keep up the good work, John, Walsall. MARTIN SAYS: In Saturday's 1-1 draw with Manchester United, Alex McLeish named the same side for the ninth consecutive game. The starting XI of Joe Hart, Liam Ridgewell, Stephen Carr, Scott Dann, Roger Johnson, Lee Bowyer, Seb Larsson, Barry Ferguson, Cameron Jerome, Christian Benitez and James McFadden have set a new Premier League record. Never before have the same 11 players started nine straight Premier League games. The record was previously jointly held by Leeds and Southampton, who both named unchanged sides for eight consecutive Premier League matches. A Leeds side (consisting of John Lukic, Gary Kelly, David Wetherall, John Pemberton, Tony Dorigo, Rod Wallace, Carlton Palmer, Gary McAllister, Gary Speed, Tony Yeboah and Brian Deane ) were unchanged for eight games from April-August 1995 while Southampton didn't change their side (consisting of Paul Jones, Jason Dodd, Ken Monkou, Claus Lundekvam, Francis Benali, Carlton Palmer, Matt Oakley, Kevin Richardson, Matt Le Tissier, David Hirst and Kevin Davies ) from October to December 1997. Ironically, Birmingham's record was set as their opponents Manchester United achieved a completely contrasting record. Sir Alex Ferguson named a CHANGED line-up for the 100th consecutive match in all competitions (as discussed in this column last week). My own view is that continuity is still a vital commodity in football, even though there are pressures on the modern-day manager to keep large squads happy.
BLANKS OF ENGLAND?
Did you know that an English player has not topped the Premier League scoring charts since Kevin Phillips registered 30 for Sunderland back in 1999/2000? I find that incredible. And in most seasons since, the highest scoring Englishman is a fair way off the top scorer of the League. Martin J MARTIN SAYS: You are right with your first statement, that Phillips was the last Englishman to top the Premier League scoring charts, but it is not entirely fair to say the highest scoring Englishman has always been a "fair way" off. In seven of the nine seasons since 1999/2000 an Englishman has finished third or second in the top scorers list. The exceptions are 2007/08 when no Englishman finished inside the top 10 (Jermain Defoe and Wayne Rooney finished 11th) and 2006/07 when Rooney was joint fourth. And of course this season two Englishmen - Defoe and Rooney - are joint top of the current standings with Darren Bent in fourth. It is also worth pointing out that in every Premier League season before 2001, the Golden Boot was won by an Englishman, as you can see from the table below:
| Season | Top scoring Englishman | Top scorer |
| 1992/93 | Teddy Sheringham (22) | Teddy Sheringham (22) |
| 1993/94 | Andrew Cole (34) | Andrew Cole (34) |
| 1994/95 | Alan Shearer (34) | Alan Shearer (34) |
| 1995/96 | Alan Shearer (31) | Alan Shearer (31) |
| 1996/97 | Alan Shearer (25) | Alan Shearer (25) |
| 1997/98 | Dublin / Owen / Sutton (18) | Dublin / Owen / Sutton (18) |
| 1998/99 | Michael Owen (18) | Owen / Hasselbaink / Yorke (18) |
| 1999/2000 | Kevin Phillips (30) | Kevin Phillips (30) |
| 2000/01 | Marcus Stewart (19) | Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink (23) |
| 2001/02 | Alan Shearer (23) | Thierry Henry (24) |
| 2002/03 | James Beattie (23) | Ruud van Nistelrroy (25) |
| 2003/04 | Alan Shearer (22) | Thierry Henry (30) |
| 2004/05 | Andrew Johnson (21) | Thierry Henry (25) |
| 2005/06 | Darren Bent (18) | Thierry Henry (27) |
| 2006/07 | Wayne Rooney (14) | Didier Drogba (20) |
| 2007/08 | Jermain Defoe / Wayne Rooney (12) | Cristiano Ronaldo (31) |
| 2008/09 | Steven Gerrard (16) | Nicolas Anelka (19) |
UNITED'S TRIPLE THREAT
Dear Martin. When was the last time Manchester United were beaten by their three biggest rivals - Leeds, Liverpool and Manchester City - in the same season. Leeds and Liverpool have already done it and I'm hopeful City will win one of the two League Cup matches later this month. Craigie. MARTIN SAYS: In fact, you don't have to go back too far in time. In the 2002/03 campaign Leeds beat United 1-0 at Elland Road through a Harry Kewell goal before Manchester City won the Manchester derby 3-1 at Maine Road with goals from Nicolas Anelka and Shaun Goater (two). Later that season, Liverpool beat Unioted in the League Cup Final 2-0 (Steven Gerrard and Michael Owen were on the scoresheet) to complete the set. However, the last time all three beat United in the league was all the way back in the 1977-78 campaign when City and Liverpool recorded 2-1 home wins before Leeds won 1-0 at Old Trafford in the old Division One. It could take several years before that feat is matched again.
FERNANDO'S FIFTY
I heard reports that when Fernando Torres scored his 50th goal against Aston Villa, it was the fourth fastest in the Premier League. Who did it quicker than him? Who else has done it in less than 100 games? Thanks. Liverpool fan. MARTIN SAYS: Torres hit the 50-goal mark in his 72nd Premier league game, which as you suggest makes him the fourth fastest 50-goal man in the competitions' history. The quickest to 50 goals was Andy Cole (65 games), who just edged out Alan Shearer (66 games) and more recently Ruud van Nistelrooy (68 games). In total 13 men have scored 50 goals within their first 100 Premier League games. Those men are: 1. Andy Cole (65 games)
2. Alan Shearer (66)
3. Ruud van Nistelrooy (68)
4. Fernando Torres (72)
5. Kevin Phillips, Thierry Henry (83)
7. Ian Wright (87)
8. Robbie Fowler (88)
9. Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, Teddy Sheringham (94)
11. Les Ferdinand (96)
12. Matt Le Tissier (97)
13. Michael Owen (98) As you can see from the above list, he is the quickest Liverpool player to 50 in the Premier League era, but he in fact now holds the Liverpool all-time record for being the fastest to 50 top-flight goals. The Reds players to have hit 50 goals in less than 100 games are: 1. Fernando Torres (72 games)
2. Roger Hunt (78)
3. Sam Raybould, Albert Stubbins (80)
5. Jack Parkinson (81)
6. John Aldridge (83)
7. Ian Rush (84)
8. Robbie Fowler (88)
9. Gordon Hodgson (90)
10. Joe Hewitt (95)
11. Harry Chambers, Kenny Dalglish, Michael Owen (98)
