Random Facts About The 2009/2010 Premier League Season

West Ham and Portsmouth failed me, but my prediction of Chelsea to win the title a few weeks ago did (albeit luckily) come true. So without further adieu, here are some final interesting and random facts about the 2009/2010 EPL season as compared to the 2008/2009 season:

15 Possibly Interesting and Random Facts About the 2009/2010 Premier League Season in Comparison to the 2008/2009 Season:

1. For the first time in six seasons, England has a potential new face in the Champions League. Although they still have to go through qualifying, Tottenham will replace Liverpool as the fourth team to make it into Europe this season.
2. Chelsea won the title with 27 wins and 86 points this season, edging out runners up Manchester United by a single point. Last season, United won by a margin of four points, beating out Liverpool for the top spot with 90 points.
3. Liverpool had won the title of most goals scored with 77. Chelsea smashed that this season with 103. Liverpool also had the best goal differential last season at +50. Again, Chelsea smashed that this season by scoring 71 more goals than their opponents.
4. Newcastle, Middlesborough and West Brom were all relegated with totals of 34, 32 and 32 points, respectively. This season, Burnley (30 points), Hull (30 points) and Portsmouth (28 points) go down with significantly less points. For all West Ham fans out there, had this season’s West Ham (35 points) been playing in last season (perhaps through use of a TARDIS), they still would have stayed up on goal differential. Then again, last season’s West Ham (51 points) was much better.
5. West Brom had the worst back line last year allowing 67 goals. That seems excellent when you look at this season’s worst defence, Burnley, who allowed a whopping 82 goals.
6. The winner of the league in each of the past two seasons has been the team that has failed to score the least amount of times. Last season, Manchester United failed to score 4 times, less than any other team, and won the league. This season, Chelsea were shutout only once.
7. Newcastle split the points on 13 draws last season. This season, Stoke was the most sharing with 14 draws.
8. Versus top half opponents, Chelsea and Manchester United were tops, snatching 33 points from the opposition (Chelsea takes top spot on goal differential). Last season, Liverpool took 37 points off of top half opposition.
9. Manchester City managed to score a season high 6 goals in one game last season (against Portsmouth). This year, 6 goals were scored four times (twice by Arsenal, once by City, once by Liverpool), 7 goals were scored on three occasions (all by Chelsea), 8 goals on one occassion (by Chelsea) and 9 goals on one occassion (Tottenham). Let’s hope for double digits next year.
10. Birmingham had the streak of the season, going 12 games unbeaten. Last year, Arsenal went 21 matches without a loss. Arsenal also had the longest winning streak of the season, winning 6 straight at one point. This is dwarfed in comparison to Manchester United last season, who took maximum points from 11 games straight.
11. Of the 380 total games played this season, the home team won 193 (51%), the away team won 91 (24%) and there were 96 draws (25%). Last season, the home team won 173 (46%), the away team won 110 (29%), and there were 97 draws (26%).
12. The top five goalscorers this season were: Didier Drogba (29 goals), Wayne Rooney (26 goals), Darren Bent (23 goals plus 1 beach ball), Carlos Tevez (23), and Frank Lampard (22). Last season, the top five consisted of Nicolas Anelka (19), Cristiano Ronaldo (18), Steven Gerrard (16), Fernando Torres (14) and Robinho (14). Put in perspective, last year’s golden boot winner Nicolas Anelka would have finished sixth in scoring with his 08/09 total.
13. Frank Lampard was the most giving of all players, with 14 assists, compared to Frank Lampard being the most giving last year with 10 assists (tied with Robin Van Persie). Conclusion? He likes to pass.
14. Lee Cattermole had the worst discipline in the league last season with 10 yellow cards and 2 reds. Javier Mascherano followed in his footsteps this year, seeing yellow 9 times and red twice.
15. The average attendance at premier league matches was down this season from 35,560 to 34,150.

There you have it. 15 possibly interesting and random facts about the 2009/2010 season. It’s been a good season, and although West Ham and Portsmouth helped make my predictions at the beginning of the season a failure, it was fun doing this over the course of the season. Look out for more silly things like this when the World Cup rolls around.

Zan Rathore also plies his trade on the Zan Rathore Sports Blog