Here is a great collection of numbers courtesy of the Guardian. You can see why Manchester City should keep Sven, why Arsenal kept their fans watching until the very end, how Liverpool’s defense shut down opponents, why the season was a disappointment for Tottenham, how Blackburn were really the comeback team of the season (and dirtiest?), Bolton’s good record, Aston Villa being the best ‘English’ side and why Manchester United and Chelsea finished 1-2 in the table.
I love numbers, have all my life, so this was a page I spent hours on this weekend dissecting. Some of the ones that stood out.
Manchester City taking seven points off the big four – the highest of the non-big four teams – with six coming in their derby double against United.
Arsenal scored the most goals in a game’s final 15 minutes with 27. They also had the most different nationalities that scored with 12.
Nobody allowed less shots on target than Liverpool – who gave up only 90 of them.
The most telling numbers come while talking about Tottenham. The Spurs lost the most points (33) from a winning position, hit the woodwork the most times (15) and White Hart Lane saw 80 goals scored, the most in the league, and not all of them by the Spurs.
Nobody earned more points (23) from a losing position than Blackburn, who also led the league in fouls committed with 583. They also led the league in red cards, tied with Fulham and Chelsea with six. Bolton had nobody sent off.
Aston Villa led all teams with 42 goals being scored by English players and Manchester United and Chelsea led the league with 21 clean sheets each.
There’s so much more, you really should click and read it, you won’t be disappointed.
‘What you should read’ is a (hopefully) daily post to help ‘The Other Football’ readers locate interesting reading material in the morning. brant parsons spends a lot of time reading about football and his wife can attest to that. Have a comment or question? Send e-mail to bparsons@orlandosentinel.com. You can also become his Facebook friend here.