Jose Mourinho falls short and Fulham lose at home again

Five stats about Wednesday night’s football

1. Roberto Mancini had no problem winning Serie A so the main reason Jose Mourinho was brought in to replace him as Inter boss was to achieve European success. However, Mourinho went out last night at the same stage the Italian champions fell in each of Mancini’s last two seasons.

2. And there has been no domestic improvement either. Inter are a point worse off than they were at this stage last season, despite last year’s runners-up Roma struggling down in sixth.

3. Fulham have gone from losing just one home game in ten-and-a-half months to being beaten three times in the space of eight days at Craven Cottage.

Posted: March 13th, 2009 by Michael Lintorn | Add Comment

The form side of the Football League continue their run

Five stats about last night’s Football League action

1. While Wolves, Leicester and Wycombe, the teams who led the three divisions at Christmas, have all endured blips since, the team with the best form in the Football League were bottom of the Championship on December 25. Doncaster won just four of their first 24 games in the division but since Yuletide have won seven and drawn one of their eight league games. That run has seen them climb to 15th, where they are eight points clear of the relegation zone.

2. Of course Leicester’s blip has been very minor, with the Foxes still sixteen points clear of Peterborough in third despite three successive draws. Nigel Pearson’s side endured a trio of ties earlier this season before losing away to Brighton which bodes well for in-form Bristol Rovers, who the league leaders visit on Saturday.

Posted: February 18th, 2009 by Michael Lintorn | Add Comment

Shocking statistics about how often clubs change managers

It’s almost unheard of for a coach to spend five years at one club

Roman Abramovich’s decision to axe Chelsea boss Luiz Felipe Scolari this week means that he has sacked just one less manager over the last five years than fellow Londoners West Ham have in their entire history. It also means that Guus Hiddink will become the fourth man to coach the Blues in just eighteen months. Over that period they have lost just six league matches, which is the same number as Manchester United have lost during the same spell. Here are more crazy statistics about managerial casualties:

» Just seven of the 92 clubs in the top four tiers of English football have kept their current manager for a period of over five years.

» The clubs of the four longest serving Premier League managers - Sir Alex Ferguson, Arsene Wenger, David Moyes and Rafael Benitez - are all in the top six. Martin O’Neill has spent the sixth longest spell in charge of a top-flight club and Aston Villa are currently reaping the rewards for that continuity.

Posted: February 12th, 2009 by Michael Lintorn | 1 Comment

Stoke go down fighting while Boro need to recover in style

Five stats about this weekend’s football

1. Stoke have lost just two of their thirteen games (15%) against top-half sides by more than one goal. Derby lost 60% of their clashes with top ten teams by two or more goals last season.

2. Middlesbrough’s last ten match Premier League winless run came in the first half of last season and they followed that by ending Arsenal’s 22 match unbeaten streak. Their next league match is away to Chelsea.

3. The last time Hull lost five straight league matches was in 1998 when they plummeted to the bottom of the Football League.

Posted: January 19th, 2009 by Michael Lintorn | Add Comment