Part 8 - English Premier League: Figures and Statistics
Sunderland are the next team under the radar as far as figures and statistics go. Under Steve Bruce, Sunderland have developed two faces. One face comes out when the Black cats play at the Stadium of light and the other appears
when Sunderland travel to their away games.
In all honesty, Sunderland’s home record over the past season has been absolutely phenomenal. They held Arsenal to a draw lately and then secured a goalless stalemate against Manchester United. Before that they went to Anfield
and got a two all draw there as well. But on most occasions, Sunderland do suffer as far as their away form is concerned.
At home however it is a totally difference scenario, with the crowd at their back, Sunderland can give even the biggest teams a run for their money as they have already shown in the 2010-2011 English Premier League season. Sunderland’s
main man this season has been Darren Bent. Bent was bought by Sunderland in the summer transfer window of 2009; it was somewhat of a controversial transfer especially after how Tottenham had treated the English striker. When he was at Tottenham, Harry Redknapp
ridiculed the striker after he missed an easy straight forward chance to score a goal for the Spurs. Harry compared the front man to his own wife, saying that the chance that fell Bent’s way was so easy that Mrs. Redknapp would’ve scored a goal on it.
Nonetheless, that is all in the past and now Darren is one of the most sought after strikers in the English Premier League, he has most interestingly scored this season against Arsenal as well as Liverpool. He has scored five out
of Sunderland’s total number of seven goals. This over dependency on Bent might be detrimental to Sunderland in the long term as one might ask the question that what will become of Sunderland if the ex-Spurs player suffers a long term injury. One of things
that might worry Steve Bruce is related to Sunderland’s shot accuracy ratios. Out of a total of sixty eight shots, Sunderland have only got eighteen on the target, this conversation rate is clearly not up to the mark as far as the ex-Wigan manager is concerned.
Another team which is on the high at the moment is Tottenham Hotspurs themselves, Darren Bent’s previous employers. Under Redknapp, they might have done away with the prolific Bent but their fortunes since then have informed massively.
Last season they finished 4th in the English Premier League and thus secured a UEFA Champions League position for themselves in the 2010-2011 season. Tottenham’s star player in the past three or so weeks has been their summer signing Rafael Van
Der Vaart. The ex-Real Madrid star was signed by Harry for eight million pounds on the deadline day.
Van Der Vaart has been eager to impress the North London club’s followers as he has been trigger happy in front of the goal for Spurs. He has already attempted seventeen shots in just four league games ever since he joined Tottenham
on 1st of September, 2010 on the other hand, Peter Crouch, Tottenham’s striker has had nine attempted shots in a total number of seven games he has featured in for Tottenham. A worrisome factor for Spurs will be that their defense has not been as
solid as it should be. Tottenham Hotspurs have just kept two clean sheets in the last 12 games in all competitions in the 2010-2011 season.
Conversely, West Bromwich Albion have been impressive in their start to the English League season as well. After gaining promotion to the English Premier League through their top five finish in the Championship season of 2009-2010,
West Brom have been pretty good thus far. They are still favorites to participate in a late season relegation battle but it should be taken into account that the Baggies have not lost at their home stadium i.e. the Hawthorns stadium since January of 2010 when
they were dealt a defeat by Nottingham Forest.
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