By Brian Sears 30 November 2012 Last weekend, we predicted in these pages why West Brom might enjoy their match at ‘soft touch’ Sunderland, and they duly won 4-2 to continue their Champions League qualification form. A week on and with a midweek hiccup against Swansea behind them, the Baggies face a barometer of their […]

* In the first instalment of a new weekly Monday column, Tell Me Why, the Independent’s brilliant man in the north-west, Ian Herbert, asks why Manchester United needed to unveil a statue of their remarkable manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, even before Fergie has left the building. What does it tell us about Sir Alex, and […]

By Brian Sears 23 November 2012  West Bromwich Albion’s remarkable start to the season has earned them 23 points from their first 12 Premier League games – the best start they have ever had in the revamped top division by far. In six previous seasons in the Prem, their best tally after 12 games before […]

Exclusive By Alex Miller 16 November 2012 Liverpool’s communications director Jen Chang has left the club, an LFC spokesman has confirmed to Sportingintelligence. Chang was recently involved in a controversial meeting with a Liverpool fan who had run a spoof Twitter account. That incident led to the fan, Sean Cummins, receiving an apology (link here). […]

By Brian Sears SI chief statistician (94.86% of the time) 16 November 2012 The team that scores first in the Premier League wins almost 70 per cent of the time. That’s what this season’s statistics tells us, but the rule is turned on its head if we’re talking about Manchester United, Manchester City or Everton. […]

By Brian Sears 16 November 2012 If Manchester City can avoid defeat at home to Aston Villa this weekend they will stretch their season’s unbeaten record to 12 games, and stretch their unbeaten home record to 36 games – the second-best unbeaten home league run in the 21-year history of the Premier League. Only Chelsea […]

* England haven’t won a series in India for 27 years. The last time they won one was thanks to double centuries scored by Graeme Fowler and Mike Gatting in the midst of a series marred by political turmoil following the assassination of Indira Ghandi and then the British Deputy High Commissioner. England have only […]

By Nick Harris SJA Internet Sports Writer of the Year 12 November 2012 Since the stunning success of the London 2012 Olympic Games, English football has faced an inevitable backlash. The Olympics united large swathes of the country to the extent that Londoners were even speaking to each other on the Tube. Freaky. British Olympians […]

By Brian Sears 9 November 2012 Fulham’s away record in London derbies in the Premier League era is woefully bad: they have won just four out of 50, and not one of those at Arsenal, where they play this weekend. Their wins on the road within the capital are so infrequent we can quickly list […]

By Nick Harris SJA Internet Sports Writer of the Year 6 November 2012 The Premier League is home to the oldest and the youngest football managers within Europe’s ‘Big 5’ football divisions, and England’s top division also has the most diverse range of nationalities in its managerial ranks, according to new analysis by Sportingintelligence. At […]