Archive for September 2009
Rubin Kazan hold Inter
The result left the Serie A champions with two points from two matches after drawing the first match against Barcelona.
Barcelona went to the top of the group table after beating Dynamo Kiev 2-1 at the Nou Camp.
In other results Lyon, Arsenal and Sevilla maintained their 100% percent records.
Sevilla and Lyon were the only two away teams to win and both scored four goals in a day when a total of 21 goals were scored.
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Head-to-head for leagues
For a start this will be for the A-League, English Premiership and the Spanish La Liga.
The Champions League will be drafted in the latter stages because at the moment the teams have just played a single match and therefore there isn't much to show for that.
For this weekend, in the A-League the head-to-head will be for the Adelaide/Newcastle Jets match and for the English Premiership it will be the Chelsea/Liverpool match.
For the Spanish Primera Division it will be the Seville/Real Madrid match.
Man Utd go top as Chelsea slips
Chelsea's lost meant that every team in the English Premier League has now lost at least one match.
However, Portsmouth's loss to Everton means that Pompey remains the only team without a win.
The next match for Portsmouth is away to Wolverhampton.
The biggest results for the weekend were Tottenham's 5-nil win over Burnley and Liverpool's 6-1 win over Hull City and so this week we will take a look at the winning margin and the number of matches with that margin.
| Goal Margin | Frequency |
|---|---|
| 0 | 4 |
| 1 | 32 |
| 2 | 16 |
| 3 | 6 |
| 4 | 4 |
| 5 | 4 |
With just four draws after seven rounds, the most popular winning margin is winning by an goal.
Interestingly four matches have finished with a five goal margin already and they were two in round 7 alone.
Back to back away wins for Glory
That win took the Perth based side to second on the ladder which is rare sight for the team that has never reached the finals.
Gold Coast still lead the ladder on goal difference after losing 3-2 to defending champions Melbourne Victory.
Sydney FC slipped to third after losing 1-nil to the Brisbane Roar and Central Coast Mariners lost a chance to go top after being held to a goalless draw by Wellington Phoenix.
Only eight goals were scored in this round making it the second least scoring round so far in the league.
of those eight goals home teams only scored three goals and so this week we take a look at the ladder focusing on the home matches only.
| Team | Played | Won | Draw | Lost | For | Against | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sydney | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 9 |
| Central Coast Mariners | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 2 | 4 | 8 |
| Perth Glory | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 3 | 3 | 7 |
| Brisbane Roar | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 6 | 8 | -2 | 7 |
| Adelaide Utd | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 7 | -2 | 7 |
| Gold Coast | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 9 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
| Wellington Phoenix | 4 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 6 |
| Newcastle Jets | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 6 | -2 | 6 |
| Melbourne Victory | 4 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 7 | -2 | 3 |
| NQ Fury | 4 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 7 | -4 | 1 |
And so at the moment Sydney has the best home record and on the bottom is North Queensland Fury.
Home teams dominate in round 6
West Ham and Hull were the only two home teams to register a point in round a point after losses to Liverpool and Birmingham City respectively.
The tenth result was a draw which saw Stoke City become the first team to have two draws under its belt in a season of very few draws.
This week we take a look at the second half ladder after showing the first half ladder last week. The second half considers only results from the second half of the match.
| Team | Played | Goal Diff | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chelsea | 6 | 10 | 18 |
| Manchester United | 6 | 9 | 14 |
| Liverpool | 6 | 6 | 14 |
| Tottenham | 6 | 1 | 10 |
| Arsenal | 5 | 4 | 9 |
| Manchester City | 5 | 1 | 8 |
| Aston Villa | 5 | 1 | 8 |
| Birmingham City | 6 | 0 | 8 |
| Sunderland | 6 | -1 | 8 |
| Everton | 5 | -1 | 7 |
| Wigan | 6 | -7 | 7 |
| Wolverhampton Wanderers | 6 | -1 | 6 |
| Burnley | 6 | -2 | 6 |
| Fulham | 5 | 0 | 5 |
| West Ham | 5 | -2 | 4 |
| Blackburn | 5 | -3 | 4 |
| Portsmouth | 6 | -3 | 4 |
| Stoke City | 6 | -3 | 4 |
| Bolton | 5 | -2 | 3 |
| Hull City | 6 | -7 | 3 |
So Chelsea so far have impressive second halves having won all of them and in second place is Manchester United.
On the bottom of the ladder is Hull with just three points.
Glory gets first away win
Before the match, the Glory were the only team to have zero points from away matches.
Wellington Phoenix, Adelaide and Newcastle Jets are now the only teams without an away win.
Gold Coast United managed to hang on to top despite a 3-nil loss to the Mariners because they have superior goal difference.
This week we take a look at the second half scorelines. These are the scorelines for just the second half without considering the first half.
| Scoreline | Frequency |
|---|---|
| 0 - 0 | 9 |
| 0 - 1 | 8 |
| 0 - 2 | 1 |
| 1 - 0 | 6 |
| 1 - 1 | 4 |
| 1 - 2 | 2 |
| 2 - 0 | 3 |
| 2 - 2 | 1 |
| 4 - 0 | 1 |
So in 23 matches one or less goals has been scored in a match.
Its also worth pointing out that so far in the A-League no team trailing at half time have won a match and that could explain the few second half goals.
Inter, Barca in stalemate
The two teams who are favourites to come out of this group F which also includes Dynamo Kiev and Rubin Kazan.
The draw leaves Dynamo Kiev on top of the ladder after beating Kazan 3-1.
The only other draw of the day was between Stuttgart and Rangers.
In that same group Seville had the biggest win beating Unirea Urziceni at home.
So no big surprises in match day one but I think the picture will be clearer after match day 2.
Real off to a great start
At half time Real were already 3-nil up but the scores came close when the home team scored two goals but Real scored a further two goals to put the match beyond doubt.
Other winners on day one were Chelsea, Manchester United, AC Milan, Bayern Munich and Wolfburg.
Juventus could only draw against Bordeaux and also Atletico failed to scored against Apoel Nicosia for a goalless draw.
Third round without a draw
There were also no draws in rounds 1 and 2 and in rounds 3 and 4 there were one and two draws respectively.
So with only three draws in the season so far only Birmingham City, Blackburn, Hull City, Stoke, Wolves and West Ham have had drawn matches.
Of three draws, two of them were goalless and one was a one-all draw.
In other developments in round five, Tottenham Hotspurs lost at home to Manchester United leaving only Manchester City and Chelsea as the unbeaten sides going into round six.
Fulham became the third team this season to win a match after trailing at half time. Fulham went to the break trailing Everton by 1 goal to nil but came back to win the match 2-1 in the second half.
This week we take a look at the first half ladder. This considers only results up to half time and next week we will have a second half ladder.
| Team | Played | Goal Diff | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| Manchester City | 4 | 4 | 12 |
| Arsenal | 4 | 4 | 9 |
| Tottenham | 5 | 2 | 8 |
| Chelsea | 5 | 1 | 8 |
| Stoke City | 5 | 1 | 8 |
| Sunderland | 5 | 1 | 8 |
| Aston Villa | 4 | 2 | 7 |
| Liverpool | 5 | 1 | 7 |
| Manchester United | 5 | 0 | 7 |
| West Ham | 4 | 1 | 6 |
| Wigan | 5 | 0 | 6 |
| Hull City | 5 | -1 | 6 |
| Burnley | 5 | -3 | 6 |
| Bolton | 4 | 0 | 5 |
| Blackburn | 4 | 0 | 5 |
| Birmingham City | 5 | -1 | 4 |
| Everton | 4 | -3 | 4 |
| Fulham | 4 | -2 | 3 |
| Wolverhampton Wanderers | 5 | -3 | 3 |
| Portsmouth | 5 | -4 | 1 |
So Manchester City has gone into half time leading in all its matches so far whilst the best Portsmouth has done going into half time has been a draw.
Fury gets first win
The Fury were the only team without a win and they won in a round which saw three matches finish as draws.
The Fury still anchor the ladder with five and a win in their next match could take them as high as fourth depending on other results.
Gold Coast United maintained its top position after coming from 2-nil down at half time to get an unlikely draw.
This week we take a look at the different half-time scorelines so far this season and next week we will look at the different second half scorelines.
| Scoreline | Frequency |
|---|---|
| 0 - 0 | 5 |
| 0 - 1 | 3 |
| 0 - 2 | 2 |
| 1 - 0 | 11 |
| 1 - 1 | 4 |
| 1 - 2 | 1 |
| 1 - 3 | 1 |
| 2 - 0 | 1 |
| 2 - 1 | 1 |
| 2 - 2 | 1 |
Its interesting to see that so far the most popular scoreline going into half time is the home
team leading by an odd goal.
Also four is the highest number of goals in the first half.
Gold Coast regain top spot
After the Gold Coast lost to the Central Coast Mariners in round 4, Sydney FC were the only unbeaten side in the league and so after round 5 every team has suffered a loss.
Its interesting to see that there were just two different scorelines in round 5 scores, 1-1 and 2-1 with three matches finishing as a draw.
This week we take a look at the different scorelines so far this season:
| Scoreline | Frequency |
|---|---|
| 0 - 0 | 1 |
| 0 - 1 | 1 |
| 0 - 2 | 2 |
| 1 - 0 | 4 |
| 1 - 1 | 5 |
| 1 - 3 | 1 |
| 2 - 0 | 2 |
| 2 - 1 | 4 |
| 2 - 3 | 1 |
| 3 - 2 | 1 |
| 3 - 3 | 2 |
| 5 - 0 | 1 |
At this stage of the season 1-all is the most popular result followed by 2-1 and 1-0.
Its interesting to see that after 25 matches already there have been two three-all draws and just one goalless draw.
Spanish La Liga tipping competition
There has been so much interest in La Liga following the overhaul at Real Madrid which saw the arrival of Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaka among others and therefore it should be very interesting trying to predict what happens in La Liga each round.
Although Barcelona and Real Madrid stand out as the strongest teams in La Liga, the Spanish Premier League is a very competitive league with lots of surprises each season.
From time to time there will be goal comparisons on this blog between La Liga and the English Premiership.
