Stats of the Season (so far)

There have only been 46 games so far this season but already there are some notable – or perhaps anomolous – statistics. Courtesy of Football365, here are the most salient in a club-by-club format…

Arsenal
*Tomas Rosicky’s first outing in 20 months also included a goal. Dating back to his last games in the winter of 2007/08, the midfielder has scored three goals in his last five matches.

*Arsenal have lost six of their last seven matches played in the city of Manchester. The exception was May’s draw at Old Trafford that saw United crowned as champions.

*Only Liverpool, Fulham and Manchester United produced more shots on target this weekend than Arsenal registered at Eastlands (seven) while no side had more shots off target (12). According to the Match of the Day statistics, Manuel Almunia failed to make a single save in the game while Shay Given successfully completed five.

Aston Villa
* Emile Heskey has seen just ten minutes of league action since the opening weekend of the season. Villa have also won all of their games since dropping the England forward following the defeat to Wigan.

* Sunday’s 85th-minute match-winner Gabby Agbonlahor also scored an 87th minute winner at Birmingham in the last derby Villa played at St Andrew’s.

* Both of Villa’s centre-halves against Birmingham, Richard Dunne and James Collins, were making their debuts, while left-back Stephen Warnock was making only his second appearance for his new employers.

* Villa have already used 20 players in four league games. They used only 21 in the whole of last season.

Birmingham City
* The second city derby was littered with thirty fouls – the highest such figure in the Premier League this weekend.

* Birmingham have failed to win any of their last six meetings with Villa.

* In five games, Birmingham have scored just one goal from open play – Lee Bowyer’s tap-in at Tottenham.

* 25,196 attended the first Birmingham derby in two years. St Andrew’s capacity is 30,016.

Blackburn Rovers
* Only two Blackburn players have played every minute this season: Paul Robinson and Gael Givet.

* Since Sam Allardyce’s appointment as their manager in December, Blackburn have lost just two games at Ewood Park.

Bolton Wanderers
* Gary Cahill scored the winner on his 50th start for Bolton – exactly twice as many as he made at Aston Villa.

* Bolton enjoyed just 36% of possession at Fratton Park. The next lowest figure in the league weekend was Burnley’s 39% and Man City’s 40%.

* The win at Portsmouth was the club’s first away victory in 2009.

Burnley
* Along with Birmingham, Burnley are the joint-lowest scorers in the league having scored just two goals.

* Burnley have played four of their first games against sides that finished in the top five last season.

* The replacement of Christian Kalvenes with Andre Bikey from the side that faced Stoke on the opening day of the season accounts for the only change that the Clarets have made to their starting line-up so far.

Chelsea
* Having beaten Stoke in January with an injury-time goal from Frank Lampard, both of Chelsea’s goals at the Britannia on Saturday occurred in injury time.

* Lampard is one of seven players credited with three goalscoring assists this season. The others are Didier Drogba, Robin van Persie, Cesc Fabregas, Steven Gerrard, Glen Johnson and Shaun Wright-Phillips.

* Chelsea last failed to win a league game eleven matches ago when they were held to a 0-0 draw at home to Everton on April 22.

* The Blues have trailed in three of the five games they’ve won this season.

Everton
* A scorer at Fulham from a free-kick at which he was marked by the 6ft 2 Dickson Etuhu, the 5ft 10 Tim Cahill has netted more headed goals than any other player in the Premiership since 2002.

* The defeat at Fulham was the first fixture in a run of seven games featuring three different competitions in 21 days for Everton.

* Yakubu’s appearance as a substitute was his first in the league since November.

* Everton are currently conceding at a rate of 2.5 per game having had the league’s sixth-best defence in 2008/09.

Fulham
* On the 17 occasions that Fulham and Everton have met in the Premier League, the home side has won 16 times.

* Paul Konchesky’s only other goal for the club was against West Ham in January.

Hull
* Hull have scored one goal in each of their five league outings this season.

* This time last year they were fourth in the table.

* Hull have lost ten of their last fifteen league matches, winning just one.

Liverpool
* Yossi Benayoun has scored three hat-tricks in his Liverpool career having also netted trebles in the thrashings of Besiktas and Havant and Waterloo.

* Liverpool have scored 33 goals in their last ten home matches.

* Their tally of 25 shots against Burnley was the highest of the weekend.

* Having started only 14 of Liverpool’s 38 league games last term, Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres have started all five to date this season.

Manchester City
* City have made their best start to a season since 1961 while Saturday’s attendance of 47,339 set a new stadium record for a football match.

* Despite winning all four of their games so far, City have, according to The Times, made 15 shots fewer than the combined total of their opponents in those games.

* City were credited with registering four shots on target against the Gunners by the BBC and five by The Guardian. Their total of three shots off target was also nine fewer than that of their opponents.

* Emmanuel Adebayor has scored in three of the last four meetings between City and Arsenal. He didn’t play in the other.

* Of the City team that beat Arsenal by a three-goal margin last November, Micah Richards, Shaun Wright-Phillips and Stephen Ireland were the only survivors on Saturday.

Manchester United
* United are now unbeaten in 20 games against Tottenham.

* Scholes’ red card was the ninth of his career. Of the eight that have occurred in United colours, seven have been issued in the past five years.

* United have deployed a different defence in each of their five league games so far and used four different central-midfield partnerships.

* United would be ninth in the league table if all matches ended after 45 minutes.

* Just thre players have started all of their five league games: Ben Foster, Patrice Evra and Wayne Rooney.

* Ryan Giggs’ goal ensured he remains the only player to score in every Premier League season. One more goal will take him to the 150th mark and equal the haul of Ruud van Nistelrooy, currently eighth in the club’s list of all-time scorers.

Portsmouth
* Four of Pompey’s five defeats this season have been by a single goal.

* Their fans are remaining loyal: Each of their three home games this season was watched by between 17 and 18 thousand specatators.

* From the team that faced Middlesbrough on September 13 last year, only David James featured against Bolton.

Stoke City
* With five minutes added on at the end of the first-half and eight for the second, Saturday’s game at Britannia lasted 103 minutes.

* Two of the five home defeats inflicted on Stoke since their promotion have been by Chelsea.

Sunderland
* Sunderland scored with all four of their shots on target against Hull.

* Saturday’s attendance of 38,997 was bettered at only Anfield and Eastlands.

* Lorika Cana has made more fouls than any other player so far: 17. His tally of three cautions is also unbeaten.

* Three of Darren Bent’s four goals have been scored before the 20th minute.

Tottenham Hotspur
* Jermain Defoe and Wayne Rooney are the current league topscorers with five goals apiece.

* During the last international break, Fabio Capello observed that “When Jermain Defoe plays in the second half, he scores goals.” In fact, five of Defoe’s last seven league goals have occurred before the half-time interval.

* Spurs are yet to keep a clean sheet in any of their fixtures this season.

* In his 19 league appearances for Liverpool, Robbie Keane scored five goals. In his 19 league appearances since rejoining Tottenham, Keane has scored six times.

West Ham
* Having drawn two successive blanks on their travels, the Hammers have scored just one goal in their past three games.

* Their team at Wigan included eight Englishmen.

Wigan
* Saturday’s attendance at the JJB of 17,142 was the lowest of the weekend.

Wolves
* Wolves scored 16 goals in their first five Championship matches last season. In the Premier League this term, they’ve managed just three.