Monday, August 17, 2009

Premier League Matchday One facts

Rafael Benitez complained that Liverpool were not awarded a second penalty in the 2-1 defeat at Tottenham but they have still been given more spot-kicks than any other Premier League team this year.

Chelsea 2-1 Hull
Chelsea scored an injury-time winner for the third time in 2009. Frank Lampard previously netted the winning goals at home against both Stoke (January 17) and Wigan (February 28).
Stephen Hunt scored the opening Premier League goal of the season on his debut for Hull. He was the first player to score the opening goal of the season but lose the match since Michael Ricketts in Bolton's 4-1 defeat at Fulham in 2002.

Aston Villa 0-2 Wigan
Wigan won their first opening day match in seven years, and first in the Premier League since debuting four years ago.
Wigan's Jason Koumas scored his first Premier League goal in nearly two years. His first Premier League goal was also at Villa Park - in West Brom's 2-1 defeat in December 2002.

Blackburn 0-2 Manchester City
City's starting line up had only one player who began their opening match of last season - Micah Richards.
Emmanuel Adebayor scored his ninth goal in seven Premier League matches against Blackburn goalkeeper Paul Robinson - over twice the amount he has scored against any other keeper in the division.

Bolton Wanderers 0-1 Sunderland
Sunderland's Darren Bent scored his fourth Premier League goal on the opening day of the season - he netted in 2005-06 (twice) and 2006-07.
This was Sunderland's first away league win in 2009 since a 4-1 victory at Hull in December 2008.

Portsmouth 0-1 Fulham
Fulham ended the longest run of consecutive opening day matches without a win in the division. They had not won in their last five opening day fixtures before today - more than any other Premier League side.



Stoke 2-0 Burnley
Stoke kept their 10th clean sheet in 20 Premier League matches at the Britannia Stadium since returning to the top flight last season.
Burnley had just three players on the field who were alive the last time the club played top flight football. Goalkeeper Brian Jensen was 10 months old, Graham Alexander was four years old and Robbie Blake was around seven weeks old when Burnley played their last first division match - a 3-1 home defeat by Coventry City on 24 April 1976.

Wolves 0-2 West Ham
Wolves' starting line up has an average age of 24 years and 350 days. This is over five years younger than their last starting line up in the Premier League - their average age was 30 years and 191 days old when they lost 2-0 at home to Tottenham Hotspur on the final day in May 2004.
At 17 years and 352 days old, Frank Nouble became the youngest player to feature in the Premier League for West Ham in ten years since Joe Cole was 17 years and 63 days old in their defeat at Manchester United in January 1999.

Everton 1-6 Arsenal
This was Everton's biggest home defeat in Premier League history, and biggest in the top flight in 27 years since losing 5-0 to Liverpool in old Division One in November 1982.
It equaled Arsenal's record away win in the Premier League which was 6-1 at Middlesbrough in April 1999 and was the sixth season in a row where Arsenal have fielded a side with no English players.

Manchester United 1-0 Birmingham City
Manchester United are now unbeaten in their last 26 Premier League meetings against promoted teams, winning their last 17. Their last defeat to a promoted team was 2-0 at Norwich, April 2005.
The last time all three promoted teams lost on the opening weekend was 16 years ago when Newcastle United, West Ham United and Swindon Town all lost their first matches of the 1993-94 season. This is also the only time this has happened, prior to perhaps today, in the Premier League era.

Tottenham Hotspur 2-1 Liverpool
Tottenham Hotspur won at White Hart Lane for the seventh match in succession, equalling their best Premier League home streak set in 2006. The club's best home winning streak stretched to 14 matches in 1987.
The penalty awarded to Liverpool was the club's fifth in the Premier League in 2009, more than any other club.