By John Roberts 4 March 2010 Michael Foot, the former leader of the Labour Party who died yesterday at the age of 96, was famously a lifelong fan of Plymouth Argyle, but perhaps less well known is the affection he developed for Everton when he was a resident of Liverpool in the early 1930s. Foot […]

By Nick Harris 2 March 2010 England face Egypt tomorrow at Wembley in a fixture with only two previous meetings – a 4-0 friendly win for England in 1986 in Cairo and a 1-0 World Cup victory at Italia 90. But the Anglo-Egyptian football relationship goes further back than Howard Carter’s discovery of the tomb […]

By Brian Sears 26 February 2010 Never before in Premier League history have there been so many “big cushion” wins, and by that I mean wins by three clear goals or more. Already this season there have been 50 of them altogether among 196 wins by all teams combined. In the whole of last season […]

* JOHN ROBERTS wrote for the Daily Express, The Guardian, the Daily Mail and The Independent, where he was the tennis correspondent for 20 years. He collaborated with Bill Shankly on the Liverpool manager’s autobiography, ghosted Kevin Keegan’s first book, and has written books on George Best, Manchester United’s Busby Babes (The Team That Wouldn’t Die) and Everton (The Official […]

By Brian Sears 19 February 2010 Occasionally in this life as a statistician, you unearth a statistical gem so lovely that you want to pop it into your anorak pocket, go for a stroll around town in the splendid late-winter sunshine, and share it with everyone you meet. Today, dear readers, is such a day. […]

. Premier League: concise guide to the clubs (last updated 9 Oct 2012) . NB i: This page includes club details for all clubs who have been in the Premier League since 2009-10. NB ii: ‘Latest total wages’ in the club profiles below is club’s bill for ALL employees (many hundreds), not just the players’ […]

By Brian Sears 30 January 2010 . A feature of the domination of the Premier League in recent years by England’s “big four” clubs – Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool – has been how rarely any of that quartet have lost at home to “other” sides from outside their elite group. This is the […]

JOHN ROBERTS wrote for the Daily Express, The Guardian, the Daily Mail and The Independent, where he was the tennis correspondent for 20 years. He collaborated with Bill Shankly on the Liverpool manager’s autobiography, ghosted Kevin Keegan’s first book, and has written books on George Best, Manchester United’s Busby Babes (The Team That Wouldn’t Die) and Everton (The Official […]

By Brian Sears 28 January 2010 Heaven forfend that a humble statistician should put the Heebie-jeebies on any club, but it has occured to us after this midweek’s games that Rochdale are currently sitting at the top of League Two, 11 points above the play-off zone and therefore, one must conclude, be in with a […]

By Brian Sears 20 January 2010 . Nine top-flight clubs are in danger this weekend of becoming the 101st Premier League giants to be slain in the FA Cup by lower-division opponents. Since the English top flight was revamped in 1992, there have been 100 such “slayings”, with Liverpool the 100th and most recent victims […]