Football Update: EPL- Statistics and Figures from the 2nd weekend (Part 3)
Liverpool had a completely disastrous second weekend as they lost away to Manchester City in a crucial match for both the teams. The match which took place at the City of Manchester Stadium also known as the Eastland’s Stadium was dominated by Manchester City from start to finish. What was astonishing was that Liverpool were totally outplayed by Roberto Mancini’s men.
Despite investing in their team over the summer transfer weekend, Liverpool looked second best for most parts of the game and their striker Fernando Torres looked way off the mark and unfit for the match. Torres failed to score in the match and in doing so, the Spanish centre forward is now facing goal drought which extends to ten matches for both his club side and the Spanish national team.
Steven Gerrard, who was Liverpool’s captain on the night, had a total of seven attempted shots on target at the weekend against City, which is more than the sum total of shots by Fernando Torres and David Ngog put together. Liverpool’s goal keeper, Jose Reina was not credit with even a single save in the match at the Eastland’s, which goes onto show how prolific Manchester City were with all of their goal scoring chances.
Alternatively, Liverpool’s opponents on the night Manchester City are now the only team in the English Premier League along with Chelsea to have not conceded a goal yet in the 2010-2011 league season. Yaya Toure and Nigel De Jong, who played for City as central midfielders in their match against Liverpool were successful in making 94 percent of their total attempted passes. This was also Manchester City’s first more-than-three goal win over Liverpool in well over 70 years, as City last defeated Liverpool by five goals to one in 1937.
City’s rivals for a fourth placed spot; Tottenham Hotspurs won in their away match against Stoke City at the Britannia Stadium. During the match, Spurs’s striker Peter Crouch, winger Gareth Bale and midfielder Jermaine Jenas were the only players to attempt any kinds of shots towards the goal against Stoke City. Bale, who was one of the scorers for Tottenham has now netted five goals in his last eight Premier League matches for the Hotspurs. Another thing that Tottenham should be applauded for is that ten out of their eighteen man squad were of English nationality.
Unlike City and Tottenham, West Ham United did not have a happy weekend in the English Premier League, as they lost their home match against Bolton Wanderers. In doing so, West Ham have now let in a total number of six goals in their first two league matches of the season, which is their worst ever start to an English Premier League season. In their last seven matches against Bolton, West Ham have failed to even gain a single point. In the match at Upton Park, the Hammer’s striker Carlton Cole attempted six shots on goal without scoring one.
Quite alike, West Ham, Wigan also saw defeat at the DW Stadium at the weekend in their match against Chelsea. Surprisingly in a match filled with goals, there was not even a single corner awarded to either of the two sides competing. Despite losing the match, Wigan had a good passing percentage success rate of around 82. They also dominated possession but failed to make most of it as they had the ball for 52 percent of the total time of the match. Unlike Tottenham, Wigan only started with a single English national in their match against Chelsea and that was their goal keeper, Chris Kirkland.
Wolves, who managed to achieve a draw against Everton in the second round of the English Premier League matches just had a 60 percent pass completion rate in a game which was dominated by Everton at the Goodison Park. Sylvain Ebanks, who led the line for Wolves got their first shot on target in the 74th minute of a highly dull match.
Tags: