Archive for March 2009
Good round for Liverpool
Not only did Liverpool win their match against Aston Villa 5-nil, both their rivals for the title Manchester United and Chelsea lost.
Liverpool has now scored 11 goals in the league in the last three matches and now have the best goal difference which could become handy on the last day.
Liverpool gained 7 goals over Man U and 6 over Chelsea in terms of goals after the teams lost 2-nil and 1-nil respectively.
Newcastle United joined the relegation zone following a 3-1 loss at home to Arsenal.
Arsenal are tightening their grip on fourth place after yet another loss for Villa.
Liverpool led 3-nil at half time and so this this week we take the scorelines at half time so far this season:
| Scoreline | Frequency |
|---|---|
| 0 - 0 | 116 |
| 0 - 1 | 41 |
| 0 - 2 | 14 |
| 0 - 3 | 1 |
| 1 - 0 | 51 |
| 1 - 1 | 30 |
| 1 - 2 | 6 |
| 1 - 3 | 3 |
| 2 - 0 | 19 |
| 2 - 1 | 6 |
| 2 - 2 | 2 |
| 3 - 0 | 8 |
| 3 - 1 | 1 |
| 4 - 0 | 1 |
Its not surprising that a goalless draw is the most popular score line going into half time.
Its interesting to see that only one team has trailed 3-nil at half time whilst in eight matches home teams have led 3-nil at half time.
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Barca paired with Bayern
Barca and Bayern have each scored 24 goals in the competition so far which is the highest any team has scored this season and so there must goals galore in this tie.
Liverpool's reward for beating Real Madrid in the group of 16 will be facing fellow English premier league team Chelsea. Liverpool has met Chelsea twice in the league and in both times Liverpool have come tops and now its the time for Chelsea to correct that.
Arsenal will meet Villareal whilst defending champions Manchester United will face FC Porto.
The Gunners leapfrog Villa
Arsenal are in fourth place on goal difference as Villa's goal difference is less by seven goals.
But the biggest match of the weekend is undoubtedly the match at Old Trafford between Manchester United and Liverpool.
Liverpool won 4-1 to make sure that they are the only team still unbeaten at home in the league.
Before this match Manchester United had not lost at home this season.
The win also benefitted Chelsea who retained second place after beating Manchester City by an odd goal.
Only Spurs managed to get maximum points from the teams in the bottom half of the ladder.
West Bromwich Albion is still to play West Ham United on Monday to complete the round.
Following Man U's 4-1 loss to Liverpool lets take a look at every scoreline so far this season and see how many times that has occurred:
| Scoreline | Frequency |
|---|---|
| 0 - 0 | 32 |
| 0 - 1 | 25 |
| 0 - 2 | 10 |
| 0 - 3 | 6 |
| 0 - 4 | 2 |
| 0 - 5 | 3 |
| 1 - 0 | 27 |
| 1 - 1 | 27 |
| 1 - 2 | 21 |
| 1 - 3 | 9 |
| 1 - 4 | 4 |
| 1 - 5 | 1 |
| 2 - 0 | 24 |
| 2 - 1 | 32 |
| 2 - 2 | 17 |
| 2 - 3 | 6 |
| 3 - 0 | 15 |
| 3 - 1 | 7 |
| 3 - 2 | 6 |
| 4 - 0 | 5 |
| 4 - 1 | 1 |
| 4 - 2 | 2 |
| 4 - 3 | 1 |
| 4 - 4 | 1 |
| 5 - 0 | 2 |
| 5 - 1 | 1 |
| 6 - 0 | 1 |
And so it was the fourth time this season when an away team has 4-1. Interestingly there has been only one match ending 4-1 in favour of the home team.
Tied for the most popular scoreline is 0-0 and 2-1 and a total of 64 matches have ended with these two results.
Its also a tie for the second most popular with 1-1 and 1-0 sharing that.
Bayern rampage continues
Bayern have now equalled Barcelona in the number of goals scored so far in the competition with 24 goals. Interestingly both teams have scored 11 goals in the first half and then 13 in the second.
Barcelona also managed to overcome Lyon 5-2 for a 6-3 aggregate win.
The battle between the English Premiership sides against the Serie A sides was won 3-0 in favour of the English sides.
Inter Milan came the worst failing to score a single goal against Manchester United after losing 2-nil away at Old Trafford.
Juventus managed a 2-all draw at home against Chelsea whilst Roma came closest losing 6-7 on penalties to Arsenal. At least they can claim that Arsenal failed to score against them in open play.
Liverpool also easily dispatched the Spanish champions Real Madrid after scoring four unanswered goals at home for a 5-nil aggregate score.
Villarreal accounted for Panathinaikos after winning 2-1 away from home. The first leg in Spain was drawn one-all.
Lastly but not least, Porto's goalless draw was enough to make the Portuguese team advanced to the quarter final stage on goal difference. Porto was the only team to advance on goal difference.
So lets see what the quarter-final will bring.
City spoil Villa's Champions League hopes
The only draw occurred in the goalless draw between Everton and Blackburn.
Whilst the draw was probably good for Blackburn who are now beginning to pick up points at this important part of the season, it wasn't not so good for Everton who now trail fifth placed Arsenal by four points.
Villa's loss to City means that Villa now trails Liverpool and Chelsea by six points after both teams won their matches against Sunderland and Portsmouth respectively.
Stokes win saw the Midlands team out of the relegation zone but Portsmouth and Newcastle are sitting above it and could be in it depending on other results in round 29.
There were four home wins and five away wins. This is only the fifth time this season when there have been five or more away wins in a round.
The highest number of away wins so far this season is six and this happened twice in rounds 6 and 12.
So after round 28 we will take a look at ladder that only looks at the away matches:
| Team | Played | Goal Diff | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chelsea | 14 | 17 | 32 |
| Aston Villa | 14 | 8 | 30 |
| Liverpool | 14 | 11 | 28 |
| Manchester United | 14 | 11 | 28 |
| Everton | 14 | 4 | 25 |
| Arsenal | 14 | 8 | 23 |
| Hull City | 14 | -2 | 20 |
| West Ham | 14 | -2 | 17 |
| Sunderland | 14 | -8 | 14 |
| Wigan | 14 | -1 | 13 |
| Blackburn | 13 | -7 | 13 |
| Bolton | 14 | -9 | 13 |
| Tottenham | 13 | -6 | 11 |
| Portsmouth | 13 | -11 | 11 |
| Newcastle | 14 | -9 | 10 |
| Manchester City | 14 | -9 | 8 |
| Middlesbrough | 14 | -17 | 8 |
| Fulham | 14 | -10 | 7 |
| West Bromwich Albion | 14 | -21 | 5 |
| Stoke City | 14 | -21 | 4 |
So Chelsea top this ladder after their early season away form but Villa are close by.
If Villa had won their match against City then they would have been top of this particular table.
Blackburn, Middlesbrough win
Blackburn won away to Hull City who continue to fall down the ladder whilst Middlesbrough won its match against Liverpool.
Middlesbrough's win meant that Liverpool slipped to third place on the ladder and in second place now is Chelsea.
In the two weeks Guus Hiddink has been at Stamford Bridge he has seen his team move from fourth to second on the ladder. Chelsea and Liverpool both trail Manchester United who did not play because of the Carling Cup by seven points.
Aston Villa failed to move further away from fifth placed Arsenal after drawing at home against Stoke City. Arsenal were involved in yet another goalless draw at home against Fulham.
Villa still lead the Gunners by six points but now trail Liverpool by three points.
Everton reduced the gap between itself and Arsenal to just two points after a win against cellar dwellars West Bromwich Albion.
This week we take a look at all the team's last six matches and this is shown in the table below:
| Team | Recent Form |
|---|---|
| Arsenal | WDDDDD |
| Aston Villa | WWDWLD |
| Blackburn | WDDLLW |
| Bolton | DDWLWW |
| Chelsea | WWLDWW |
| Everton | DDLWDW |
| Fulham | LWDLWD |
| Hull City | LLDDLL |
| Liverpool | DDWWDL |
| Manchester City | WLWLDL |
| Manchester United | WWWWWW |
| Middlesbrough | LLDLDW |
| Newcastle | LLDWDL |
| Portsmouth | DLLLWD |
| Stoke City | LLWLDD |
| Sunderland | DLWDWD |
| Tottenham | LDWLDW |
| West Bromwich Albion | WLDLLL |
| West Ham | WWDLLW |
| Wigan | LDDDDL |
A quick glance shows that whilst Arsenal has not lost a match in the last six matches, it has only managed to win just one match.
On the other hand, Man Utd is the only to have won its last six matches.
Hull and Wigan are the only teams without a win in the last six matches.
Victory claim first treble
Victory won the A-League pre-season cup and also the premiership after topping the league ladder on goal difference.
This was Melbourne's second championship making it the most successful club in the competition so far.
Adelaide and Victory join the Central Coast Mariners in the group of clubs that have reached the grand final twice.
This was the A-League's fourth grand final and the third one to be decided by an odd goal. The losing teams have never scored in a grand final.
The win capped Victory's 15th win of the season for Adelaide it was the eighth loss of the season. Victory lost seven games in the season.
Next season there will be ten teams in the league.
This week we take a look at the match scores for the 2008/9 season and their frequency.
| Scoreline | Frequency |
|---|---|
| 0 - 0 | 4 |
| 0 - 1 | 7 |
| 0 - 2 | 4 |
| 0 - 3 | 1 |
| 1 - 0 | 11 |
| 1 - 1 | 9 |
| 1 - 2 | 4 |
| 1 - 4 | 1 |
| 2 - 0 | 7 |
| 2 - 1 | 10 |
| 2 - 2 | 4 |
| 2 - 3 | 2 |
| 2 - 4 | 2 |
| 3 - 0 | 5 |
| 3 - 1 | 2 |
| 3 - 2 | 3 |
| 3 - 3 | 3 |
| 3 - 4 | 1 |
| 4 - 0 | 3 |
| 4 - 1 | 2 |
| 4 - 2 | 2 |
| 5 - 0 | 1 |
| 5 - 2 | 1 |
| 6 - 1 | 1 |
So in 90 matches the most popular scoreline was 1-nil with eleven occurrences followed by 2-1 with ten. So both scorelines have the home teams winning.
However, in third place is the one-all draw with nine matches finishing with that scoreline.
If you combine 1-0 and 0-1 then in total 18 matches were decided by an odd goal.
Away teams were therefore more likely to win 0-1 than any other scoreline.
