West Brom benefit from a spooky coincidence, Spurs stop scoring

Five stats about this weekend’s festive football

At the end of every weekend chickendinner examines the fallout with five interesting football stats. Here is our festive offering:

1. chickendinner warned Spurs fans of a reason why West Brom would be confident of victory and our prophecy came true. West Brom recorded their first successive Premier League wins at the Hawthorns since 2005 when they won their last two home games of the year against Manchester City and Tottenham, as they have done again this year. Whether the Baggies will build on it is another question entirely: three years ago they won just one of their final nine home games after completing a festive double.

2. Tottenham have managed just one goal in their last four league games. Last season they scored more home goals than anyone in the league besides Manchester United but they have failed to score in their last three league encounters at White Hart Lane and have scored just seven in ten, a league low.

Posted: December 29th, 2008 by Michael Lintorn | Add Comment

Middlesbrough are 22/1 to win at Old Trafford tonight

Man Utd/Boro, 8pm, Setanta Sports 1, Best Odds, Free Bets

Middlesbrough are one of the clubs who have consistently taken points off Big Four clubs over the last few years but Betfair have priced them at 22/1 to win at Old Trafford tonight, while you can get just under 4/1 with Ladbrokes on the hosts not taking three points.

The champions are now in a position where they will leapfrog Chelsea and go just one point below Liverpool if they win their three games in hand, which are all at home, and it is easy to see why they are such big favourites against a Middlesbrough side who are winless in seven.

Posted: December 29th, 2008 by Michael Lintorn | Add Comment

Stats for all eight Premier League fixtures (Part Two)

Can Hodgson conquer Scolari in the West London derby?

Fulham v Chelsea
The Premier League’s second best home team meet its best away team at Craven Cottage in a West London derby. Fulham have won just one of their last thirteen home games against Chelsea but that victory came three seasons ago and last season, over the Christmas period, the Blues had to overcome a half-time deficit to win 2-1. Roy Hodgson’s side are unbeaten against the “Big Five” this season, beating Arsenal and drawing away to Liverpool and Aston Villa but it’s been fifteen months since Chelsea went two Premier League away games without winning.

Newcastle v Liverpool
Liverpool have won just three of their last nine away games against Newcastle and they haven’t won on successive trips to St James’ Park since 1998, which doesn’t bode well as they did a 3-0 double over the Magpies last season. Newcastle’s six match unbeaten run came to an end against Wigan on Boxing Day but they haven’t lost twice in a row yet under Joe Kinnear while six league games have passed since Liverpool won two straight.

West Brom v Tottenham

Posted: December 28th, 2008 by Michael Lintorn | Add Comment

Stats for all eight Premier League fixtures (Part One)

Tony Adams and Mark Hughes make returns to former clubs

Arsenal v Portsmouth
Tony Adams returns to Arsenal for the first time as a manager and will take confidence from the fact four of the last five meetings between the two sides have finished level. However, Portsmouth haven’t beaten Arsenal for over fifty years and last won away there in 1955. The South Coast have lost their last three league matches and have won two of eleven since Harry Redknapp left for Tottenham while Arsenal are unbeaten in five league games - their longest spell this season.

Blackburn v Manchester City
Manchester City have now gone eight domestic away games without winning and the fact they have lost their last four visits to Ewood Park doesn’t bode well for Mark Hughes’ first return to Blackburn. City last achieved successive wins in August while Blackburn have yet to concede under Sam Allardyce.

Bolton v Wigan

Posted: December 28th, 2008 by Michael Lintorn | Add Comment

Why being top at Christmas is a bad omen for Liverpool

There’s some good festive news for Aston Villa fans though!

Liverpool fans must be wondering whether being top of the league at Christmas is a good omen. They may look upon the fact that three of the last four teams to have led the way on December 25 have gone on to lift the title as a positive sign but it is two exceptions to the rule - Manchester United and Chelsea -  who have benefitted from a Yuletide advantage in those campaigns.

There have been nine seasons where a club other than Manchester United and Chelsea have topped the table at Christmas and on eight of those occasions that team have failed to win the league. The only exception was Blackburn in 1994-95 when they kept hold of the top spot from late November all the way through to the end of the season.

As our table below shows, the last time Liverpool were top at Christmas, they ended up finishing fourth. It also shows that on four of the nine occasions the team has finished the season in third and on three occasions fourth or lower, while just twice have they ended the season in second:

Posted: December 24th, 2008 by Michael Lintorn | Add Comment

Five reasons why Villa won’t do the double over Arsenal

Aston Villa/Arsenal, 5.15pm, Sky Sports 1, Best Odds, Free Bets

Having kept three clean sheets in four games against the Big Four this season, Aston Villa are favourites to pull six points clear of an Arsenal team missing captain Cesc Fabregas and last season’s top-scorer Emmanuel Adebayor. However, chickendinner are confident that Arsenal won’t be losing their sixth league game of the season just yet and here are five reasons why:

1. It’s been over ten years since Aston Villa last recorded a home win over the Gunners, when they triumphed 3-2 in December 1998.

2. Aston Villa haven’t won successive home league games this season and they have only done so twice in the last fourteen months.