Football Special Report: EPL- Statistics and Figures from the 2nd weekend (Part 2)
Blackburn Rovers had a disappointing weekend as they lost their match against Birmingham City and this can be realized by the fact that Mame Biram Diouf, their on-loan striker from Manchester United only completed twenty five percent of his total passes in the match. Phil Jones and Paul Robinson, who started the game for Blackburn Rovers, were surprisingly their only English players in the starting eleven. Rovers have not had a happy history at the St. Andrew’s stadium, which is Birmingham’s home ground as they have lost all five of their visits there.
New comers Blackpool got a mighty welcome to the English Premier League by the former English Champions Arsenal, as the Seasiders lost by a score line of six goals to nil at the Emirates stadium. Blackpool were dire in the match and their only one shot on target against Arsenal came in the tenth minute of the match from the striker David Vaughan. The Tangerine’s had a fantastic pass completion rate of around eighty percent against Arsenal, despite having less of the ball during the match.
On the other hand, Bolton Wanderers had a much happier outing at Upton Park in London, as they won their match against West Ham United by three goals to one. It has been a bright side to the Wanderer’s season this time around as in the last English Premier League season, they needed five games to reach the total of four points that they have after two games in the current league season.
It was also an enjoyable day for Bolton’s striker John Elmander, who scored a brace against West Ham to give his team the win. The last time, he had scored two goals in an English league match was for Bolton against Sunderland, two years ago in November of 2008. Bolton’s goal keeper, Jussi Jaaskelainen kept his team in the game throughout the match as he was attributed with making seven fine saves against the West Ham attack.
Conversely, Everton dropped points in their draw against Wolverhampton Wanderers at the weekend. Cahill, who scored his first league goal for Everton during the encounter, has now managed to net a goal against twenty one of the thirty Premier League sides that he has played against in his career.
Despite dominating the game, Everton could not get the winner and only four players from their line up did not have an attempt on goal, those four players were defenders, Hibbert, Jagielka and Distin along with the striker Beckford. Everton’s midfield’s creative man, Mikel Arteta was impervious on the night as he had an 87 percent pass completion rate in the match.
For Fulham, who held Manchester United to a draw, David Stockdale performed brilliantly. So far, in the on-going English Premier League season, Stockdale has been endorsed with twelve saves, which is more than any other goal keeper in the league. With good reason Fulham’s new manager, Mark Hughes has been termed as a “drawer”, as he has drawn last ten of his thirteen matches in the English league.
Newcastle United announced their arrival to the big stage with a big six goal win over Aston Villa at the weekend. For The Magpies, their striker Andy Carroll scored a hatrick, which was his first of his young professional career so far. It was also a welcome goal extravaganza for Newcastle, as this hatrick was first by a Newcastle United player since Michael Owen’s hatrick for them in the 2005 English Premier League season.
Newcastle’s Tyneside neighbours, Sunderland lost to Birmingham at the Saint Andrew’s stadium on the weekend and in doing so they have now lost five of their last six away matches in the English Premier League. Another thing to be noted for the men in red and white is that, their midfielder Ahmed Al-Muhammadi only managed to complete 44 percent of his passes. Sunderland also failed to get a shot on target until Richardson’s free kick in the 76th minute of the match.
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