By Brian Sears 16 October 2015 None of the previous Premier League champions – and 23 of them since the inaugural 1992-93 breakaway season is a fair sized sample – won fewer than 14 points from their first eight games before going on to take the title. And only two managed it after winning as few as 14 points, […]
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Chelsea title hopes in ruins as City eye record defensive start
By Brian Sears 18 September 2015 Almost a month ago, we highlighted how the statistical evidence suggested Chelsea had blown their title hopes after two games. Now, five games into the season, or more than an eighth of it gone already, they’ll have to do something unprecedented to retain their crown. No Premier League title […]
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Liverpool, City and United eye fourth clean sheets … and top-three finish
By Brian Sears 28 August 2015 This is the 24th season of the Premier League and the previous 23 seasons have involved 466 teams collectively starting campaigns. That’s 22 teams for the first three seasons, then 20 for each of the past 20 seasons. Of those 466 teams, only 18 of them, or 3.9%, began […]
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From Manchester United at £1.8BN to The Cherries at £104m: What’s your club really worth?
By Dr Tom Markham 21 August 2015 Manchester United are by far the most valuable football club in England, worth £1.848 billion, and the only other club worth more than £1bn is Arsenal, at £1.118bn. By ‘worth’, the definition is market value, using a fixed set of financial criteria – hard economic data – to look at what they earn and […]
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Liverpool and City’s goal dip leads to Premier League slump
By Brian Sears 15 May 2015 As the graphic above attests, Premier League goal scoring has slumped to a six-year low, and barring a deluge in the final week of the season, we will finish with the lowest rates since 2008-09. Tthe 20 teams have scored 916 goals combined this season so far at a rate of […]
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Everton and City getting better at drawing conclusions at Arsenal and Liverpool
By Brian Sears 27 February 2015 Sunday’s two big games in the Premier League throw up contrasting challenges for the two Merseyside clubs, with Liverpool outsiders at home against a team they have a brilliant home record against (Manchester City), and Everton outsiders away against a team that history says will thump them. The history […]
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Tottenham’s long-term dominance over City washed away by Mansour money
By Brian Sears 16 October 2014 When the Premier League resumes on Saturday after the international break it will do so at the Etihad Stadium as Manchester City hope to close the gap on leaders Chelsea. City will play in the only fixture of the weekend where two current top-10 sides meet each other, against […]
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City may be ‘Richer than God’ but are their fans really poorer than United’s? It matters
By Ian Herbert 3 October 2014 Are Manchester United fans wealthier than Manchester City fans? The question is not part of an attempt to demonstrate a new flank of red superiority but to resolve a debate which has turned into a serious preoccupation this week. It began on Tuesday night, when City attracted a crowd […]
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Chelsea best against Manchester clubs … and winning start points to title push
By Brian Sears 19 September 2014 Chelsea’s four wins from four Premier League games so far give them the only 100 per cent record this season. In winning their first four games, they become only the 16th team in 23 PL seasons to do so. On four of the 15 previous occasions, it has been […]
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Manchester divided: young and English versus older and foreign, so far
By Brian Sears 12 September 2014 It may all change when Louis Van Gaal finally unleashes his new-look starting XI against QPR at Old Trafford on Sunday but his starting XIs so far in this nascent Premier League season have been among the youngest in the division and among those with the most English players […]
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