English Premier League: Appealing Statistics and Figures
As the English Premier League resumes after the international break, there are some astounding statistics and figures that need to be taken into account. Ever since the season kicked off in the second week of August, some teams have had false dawns while others have yet to truly brace the league stage with their brilliance.
One such team is Manchester City. During the summer transfer window, City lavishly spent on players such as James Milner and David Silva. Moreover, in the 2010 January transfer window, Manchester City invested in Adam Johnson to bring him from Middlesbrough. The surprising factor - all these players are wingers.
Wingers are thought to be experts in supposedly crossing the ball. In contrast, for Manchester City in the 2010-2011 English Premier League, their wingers have attempted a total of 35 crosses from open play.
Now that Milner and Co. were expensive buys for Manchester City, one would expect them to pay the club back in terms of brilliant performances. Out of the total of 35 crosses, only “one” cross has managed to hit its intended target.
Surely, City needs to work on their crossing a bit more. So can throwing more money at the problem brining the much needed solution? Or maybe a clever thing to do for City’s management will be to hire a crossing coach for all of these costly wingers.
A team which should be commended for its defensive efforts is Newcastle United. The start of the English Premier League season has been decorated with some goal fests. Chelsea won their opening games by 6 goals and other teams also got in on the act as the Premier League maintained its standards of entertainment in terms of goals.
One team which is having none of this “entertainment” is Newcastle United. According to statistics, Newcastle United has been miserly as far as limiting the opposition’s shots on target are concerned.
In their three Premier League matches so far against Manchester United, Aston Villa and Wolverhampton Wanderers, Newcastle have allowed a mere six shots on their goal. However their goal keeper will not be happy with the fact that he has conceded four goals despite the low number of shots aimed towards his net.
Another mind boggling statistic is related to Chelsea’s Nigerian midfielder Obi Mikel. Not the most glamorous of players neither the most prolific of goal scorers, Obi Mikel isn’t a footballing celebrity like most of his team mates. Nonetheless, he is second in the English Premier League’s passing calculators.
Obi Mikel has completed 234 passes out of a total of 258 passes. Only 25 of his attempted passes have gone astray of their projected mark, something that the young midfielder duly deserves credit for.
Manchester United fans will be happy to know that their team has been involved in the “cleanest” matches in the English Premier League so far in the 2010-2011 season. United have played against Fulham, West Ham and Newcastle United so far and in these matches, they have been penalized for 22 fouls. Manchester United on the other hand has been fouled on a mere 23 times.
That brings the foul counter total to 45 in three matches. On the other hand, Wolverhampton Wanderer’s three Premier League matches so far have included an astounding number of 107 fouls. English Premier League’s top scorer last season, Didier Drogba, has been on fire once again as far as his shot accuracy is concerned.
The Ivory Coast national has taken a total of 8 shots out of which seven have been on target. Running close to Drogba is Bulgarian footballer Dimitar Berbatov, who has hit the target 7 times from a total number of 12 shots.
A final figure that is sure to surprise is regarding the English Premier League’s most fouled player. One would expect the likes of Rooney or Malouda or even Nani to be at the top of this list but again much to everyone’s shock, Liam Ridgewell is the most fouled player in the English League so far.
In Birmingham’s three matches so far, their left back Ridgewell has been fouled 12 times, making him the most fouled player in the top tier of English football.
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