Stats of the Season

Tyler looks back over another thrilling campaign

 

August

•  Manchester United (24yrs, 5months) fielded the youngest side in the Premier League on the opening day. 
• Swansea did not score in their opening four Premier League games of the season, the third side in history to do so after Newcastle (2005/06) and Sheffield Wednesday (1993/94). No side has ever gone five Premier League games at the start of a season without scoring.
• Man City striker Edin Dzeko became the seventh player to score four goals in a Premier League away game when he got four at Tottenham. The others were Efan Ekoku (Everton 1-5 Norwich), Gianluca Vialli (Barnsley 0-6 Chelsea), Jurgen Kilnsmann (Wimbledon 2-6 Tottenham), Ole Gunnar Solskjaer (Nottingham Forest 1-8 Man Utd), Michael Owen (West Brom 0-6 Liverpool) and Andrei Arshavin (Liverpool 4-4 Arsenal)
• Wolves won their opening two matches and were briefly top in August. However, they won just three of their final 36 fixtures and finished bottom.

September

• In September, Peter Crouch became the sixth player to score Premier League goals for six clubs, (he has scored for Aston Villa, Liverpool, Southampton, Tottenham, Portsmouth and Stoke). The others are Nick Barmby, Craig Bellamy, Marcus Bent, Andy Cole and Les Ferdinand.
• Aston Villa defender Richard Dunne scored his ninth Premier League own goal against QPR in September, more than any other player in the history of the competition.
• Manchester United lost to Basel after being two goals ahead. The last time that happened was December 8, 1984 when they lost 3-2 at Nottingham Forest in the league. A Gordon Strachan brace gave the away side a two-goal lead, but goals from Gary Mills, John Metgod and Steve Hodge saw Forest come back to win. 
• Manchester United set a new record for goals scored in the first four games of the season. The 18 goals they netted in the opening four matches beat the 17 that Chelsea scored in the first four games of last season.
• Wayne Rooney became the fifth player to score a hat-trick in back-to-back Premier League games. The other four men were Les Ferdinand, Ian Wright, Thierry Henry and Didier Drogba.

October

• When Manchester United beat Norwich they set a new club record of 19 consecutive home league wins. Their record was previously set 107 years ago when they played at Bank Street in Clayton; a ground less than half a mile from Manchester City's current ground.
• Manchester United's 6-1 loss to Manchester City was the first time they'd conceded six at home since a 4-7 loss to Newcastle in 1930.
• City have scored six or more in an away game on four occasions since 1998/99, which is more than any other side in England's top four tiers during that spell. Arsenal, Manchester United and Rotherham have all managed it three times.
• Steven Gerrard's free-kick against Manchester United was the Reds' first Premier League goal direct from a free-kick since September 2010 - also by Gerrard against Manchester United. The last time Liverpool scored a direct free-kick against a side other than Manchester United in the league was Xabi Alonso's strike against Derby, all the way back in September 2007.
• Chelsea scored their 6,000th league goal in October becoming the 31st team to get 6,000 English league goals - and the third in London after Arsenal and Tottenham.
• Arsenal's 5-3 win at Stamford Bridge was the first time Chelsea have conceded five at home in the Premier League and the first time since Liverpool's 5-2 win there in 1989.

 

November

• Steve Bruce was sacked by Sunderland in November, but this was not the longest we've had to wait for a managerial sacking in the Premier League. Back in 1992/93, the first and only managerial departure did not come until February when Chelsea's Ian Porterfield lost his job.
• A 2-1 win at Stamford Bridge saw Kenny Dalglish continue his remarkable record as a Liverpool manager against Chelsea; he had still never lost to them in 12 matches as Liverpool boss, winning nine and drawing three. That run only ended in May in the FA Cup Final.
• Chelsea lost back-to-back home games for the first time since May 2002 following their defeats to both Liverpool and Arsenal.
• Robin van Persie scored 13 goals in his first 12 games of the season, a record only bettered by Les Ferdinand of Newcastle, who scored 14 in his first 12 games back in 1995/96.
• England's 1-0 win against Sweden at Wembley ended a 12-game streak without a victory, stretching back to a 3-1 Wembley win in May 1968. England's longest winless run is now the eight games they have played against Brazil without winning.

 

December

• West Brom midfielder James Morrison scored the 1,000th Premier League goal of 2011 when he opened the scoring against Blackburn on December 17.
• The 20,000th Premier League goal was scored by Aston Villa's Marc Albrighton against Arsenal.
• Blackburn striker Yakubu became only the second player to score four goals for two different clubs after his quadruple against Swansea in December (after one he scored for Portsmouth against Middlesbrough in May 2004). The first was Dimitar Berbatov, who scored four for Tottenham against Reading in 2007/08 and then hit five for Manchester United against Blackburn in 2010/11.
• Everton went for two entire matches in a row in December without having a single shot on target in the defeats to Stoke and Arsenal. However, they put that right by scoring against Norwich.
• Anders Lindegaard didn't let in a goal in his opening five Premier League outings against Norwich, Sunderland, Aston Villa, Fulham and Wigan. He fell one short of the record of six opening clean sheets set by former Arsenal stopper Alex Manninger.

 

January

• Djibril Cisse (Liverpool, Sunderland and QPR) became the sixth player to score on his debut for three different Premier League clubs. The others are Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink (Leeds, Chelsea and Middlesbrough), Mido (Tottenham, Middlesbrough and Wigan), Teddy Sheringham (Nottingham Forest, Portsmouth and West Ham) and Darren Bent (Charlton, Sunderland and Aston Villa).
• Danny Welbeck became the third Manchester United player to score home and away against Arsenal in the same Premier League season after Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo.
• Swansea inflicted Arsene Wenger's 100th defeat as a manager in the Premier League.
• Steven Fletcher's goal for Wolves against Spurs was the 1,000th goal that Tottenham have conceded in the Premier League years.
• Manchester United only conceded three away goals in the Premier League before January 1 - then conceded three in their first away game of 2012 against Newcastle.

 

February

• Emmanuel Adebayor became the second player to score for both teams in the north London derby after Jimmy Robertson in the 1960s
• Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes scored in Man Utd's win over Norwich - the first time the duo have scored in a single game since February 2007. Manchester United have won all of their 16 Premier League games when both Giggs and Scholes have scored.
• Frank Lampard became the first player to score at least 10 goals in nine consecutive Premier League seasons.

 

March

• Man City's draw with Sunderland meant that Martin O'Neill's side became the only side that the eventual champions failed to beat in the Premier League this season. Only two teams (Man Utd 2010/11 and Chelsea 2005/06) have beaten all 19 of their opponents in a 20-team season.
• Pavel Pogrebnyak became the fastest player in Premier League history to reach five goals. He reached that tally in his third game for Fulham.
• Kieran Gibbs and Theo Walcott both netted in a 3-0 win for Arsenal over Aston Villa. The last time Arsenal had two English goalscorers in the same Premier League was October 4 1997 against Barnsley, when Ray Parlour, David Platt and Ian Wright all scored in a 5-0 home win (Dennis Bergkamp also got a brace).
• Manchester United lost twice to Athletic Bilbao in the Europa League; only the fourth occasion in their proud history that they have been beaten in both the home and away legs of a European knock-out tie.
• Arsenal became the first side ever to win four consecutive Premier League games after going behind in each. Their comeback wins came against Sunderland, Tottenham, Liverpool and Newcastle.
• Didier Drogba became the first African player to score 100 Premier League goals.

 

April

• Everton drew 4-4 at Old Trafford, becoming the became the first side to score four in a Premier League game against Man United and not win the game!
• The last time Man Utd scored 4+ in a league game and didn't win was on December 7 1974 - when they drew 4-4 away at Sheffield Wednesday.
• Manchester City became only the third side in Premier League history to score seven times against Manchester United in a single Premier League season after Southampton in 1996/97 and Chelsea in 1999/00.
• Man Utd's loss at the Etihad Stadium was only the third time they have lost a Premier League game on a Monday in 49 fixtures. Vincent Kompany's goal was the first they'd conceded on a Monday since a 2-2 draw at Newcastle in January 2007.
• Before this season, Wigan had never won at Liverpool, had never taken a point off Manchester United and had lost all nine away games they'd played at Arsenal. That all ended as Roberto Martinez's men battled their way to safety.
• Frank Lampard became the first midfielder to score 150 goals in the Premier League.

 

May

• Mario Balotelli became the first Italian player to win a Premier League medal. Vincent Kompany became the first Belgian and Edin Dzeko became the first player from Bosnia-Herzegovina.
• Gael Clichy, Carlos Tevez and Kolo Toure joined Nicolas Anelka, Ashley Cole and Henning Berg by becoming Premier League winners with two clubs.
• Djibril Cisse has scored or been sent off in every Premier League game he's played for QPR. He now has six goals and two red cards in eight games.
• Only Andrew Johnson (21 goals for Crystal Palace in 2004/05) has scored more goals in a relegated Premier League side than Yakubu managed for Blackburn this season (17).
• Bayern Munich became the fourth side to play a European Cup Final on their own ground. The last side to do so was Roma in 1984 and they also lost to an English club (Liverpool) in a penalty-shoot-out.
• No nation has produced more European Cup winning managers than Italy. Roberto Di Matteo became the seventh Italian to do so after Nereo Rocco, Giovanni Trapattoni, Arigo Sacchi, Fabio Capello, Marcello Lippi and Carlo Ancelotti. That group has now won nine European Cups between them.

source: http://www.skysports.com/opinion/story/0,,12038_7772836,00.html