Archive for August 2011
Man United thrash Arsenal to go top
In a match supposed to be between the top two teams of English Premier League, Man United made light work of their rivals to rocket to the top of the table.
The Gunners scored their first league goals of the season in this match but lie fourth from the bottom with just one point from three matches.
Meanwhile, Manchester City pushed Tottenham Hotspurs aside as they won 5-1 to make Spurs continue anchoring the table.
Man City now lie second on the table because of goal difference.
Swansea drew another blank in their match against Sunderland at Liberty Stadium.
The newly promoted side lost its first top flight match but then has managed to straight goalless draws at home.
Swansea is not the only one involved in goalless, its so far the most popular scoreline with six matches finishing goalless.
This week I will take a look at the different scorelines so far:
| Scoreline | Frequency |
|---|---|
| 0 - 0 | 6 |
| 0 - 1 | 4 |
| 0 - 2 | 1 |
| 0 - 4 | 1 |
| 1 - 1 | 3 |
| 1 - 2 | 2 |
| 1 - 5 | 1 |
| 2 - 0 | 2 |
| 2 - 1 | 2 |
| 2 - 3 | 1 |
| 3 - 0 | 1 |
| 3 - 1 | 3 |
| 4 - 0 | 1 |
| 8 - 2 | 1 |
delicious
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Serie A opening round cancelled
The first match was going to AC Siena play Fiorentina.
Last week the opening round for La Liga was also cancelled because of a players strike.
TipsChallenge will for the first be running a Serie A tipping competition.
Barca, AC Milan in same group
Barca were drawn in group H and will be joined by AC Milan, BATE Borisov and Viktoria Plzen.
In last season's draw the Serie A champions were drawn in the same group with Real Madrid.
Another Real Madrid/Lyon match is guaranteed after the teams were both drawn in group D. The other two teams in the group are Ajax and Dinamo Zagreb.
Elsewhere in the draw, English champions Manchester United will play Benfica, Basel and debutants Otelul Galati.
Arsenal will have Marseille, Olympiakos and the Bundesliga champions Borussia Dortmund in its group.
Below is the full draw:
Group A:
Bayern Munich, Villarreal, Manchester City, Napoli
Group B:
Inter Milan, CSKA Moscow, Lille, Trabzonspor
Group C:
Manchester United, Benfica, Basel, Otelul Galati
Group D:
Real Madrid, Lyon, Ajax, Dinamo Zagreb
Group E:
Chelsea, Valencia, Bayer Leverkusen, Genk
Group F:
Arsenal, Marseille, Olympiakos, Borussia Dortmund
Group G:
Porto, Shakhtar Donetsk, Zenit St Petersburg, APOEL Nicosia
Group H:
Barcelona, AC Milan, BATE Borisov, Viktoria Plzen
Arsenal reaches group phase
The Gunners went into the second leg leading 1-nil and they managed to score two second half goals to win 2-1 and sent Udinese to the Europa League.
Some of the teams who also won their playoffs are Bayern Munich, Benfica, Oylmpiacos and Viktoria Plzen.
Meanwhile the teams have been divided into four pots for the Champions League draw as shown below:
Pot 1 - Manchester United, Barcelona, Chelsea, Bayern Munich, Arsenal, Real Madrid, Porto, Inter Milan.
Pot 2 - Shakhtar Donetsk, Lyon, Villarreal, AC Milan, Valencia, Marseille, CSKA Moscow, Benfica.
Pot 3 - Zenit St Petersburg, Man City, Olympiakos, Ajax, Bayer Leverkusen, BATE Borisov, Basle, Lille.
Pot 4 - Borussia Dortmund, Trabzonspor, Dinamo Zagreb, Napoli, APOEL, Genk, Otelul Galati, Viktoria Plzen.
Fenerbahce out of Champions League draw
Fenerbahce had already qualified for the group phase as champions and they will now be replaced by runners-up Trabzonspor
Trabzonspor was scheduled to play in the Europa League.
The teams that remain in the draw are:
Pot 1 - Manchester United, Barcelona, Chelsea, Bayern Munich, Arsenal, Real Madrid, Porto, Inter Milan.
Pot 2 - Shakhtar Donetsk, Lyon, Villarreal, AC Milan, Valencia, Marseille, CSKA Moscow, Benfica.
Pot 3 - Zenit St Petersburg, Man City, Olympiakos, Ajax, Bayer Leverkusen, BATE Borisov, Basle, Lille.
Pot 4 - Borussia Dortmund, Trabzonspor, Dinamo Zagreb, Napoli, APOEL, Genk, Otelul Galati, Viktoria Plzen.
Man United pushes Spurs bottom
Man United won 3-nil with three second half goals and now have two wins from as many matches.
The win was not enough though to take top spot as rivals Manchester City sit at the top with a superior goal difference.
Man City followed their 4-nil win on the opening weekend against Swansea Cityto beat Bolton 3-2 at the Reebok.
All three promoted sides got something from their matches. QPR put their 4-nil loss against Bolton aside to win away to Everton 1-nil.
Norwich and Swansea both drew but Swansea are still to score a goal in the premiership.
Five teams Tottenham, Swansea, Fulham, Everton and Arsenal are still to find the back of the net this season as shown in the table below:
| Team | Goals |
|---|---|
| Tottenham | 0 |
| Swansea | 0 |
| Fulham | 0 |
| Everton | 0 |
| Arsenal | 0 |
| Wigan | 1 |
| Sunderland | 1 |
| Stoke | 1 |
| QPR | 1 |
| Newcastle | 1 |
| W Brom | 2 |
| Norwich | 2 |
| Chelsea | 2 |
| Blackburn | 2 |
| Liverpool | 3 |
| Aston Villa | 3 |
| Wolves | 4 |
| Man United | 5 |
| Bolton | 6 |
| Man City | 7 |
Total Goals Scored : 41
Man City turns on the style
The win leaves Man City second on the table behind Bolton Wanderers who beat another promoted team Queens Park Rangers 4-nil.
The third promoted team, Norwich had a reasonable start managing a one-all draw against Norwich.
The first round of the new campaign was marked by a string of goalless draws in the Newcastle/Arsenal, Fulham/Aston Villa and Stoke/Chelsea matches.
The Spurs and Everton match was postponed because of the London disturbances earlier in the week.
So in a round dominated by draws there were only three goal margins in nine matches:
| Goal Margin | Frequency |
|---|---|
| 0 | 5 |
| 1 | 2 |
| 2 | 0 |
| 3 | 0 |
| 4 | 2 |
| 5 | 0 |
Spurs/Everton match postponed
The match was postponed because of the rioting in the weekend in London and will be played at a later date.
The postponement leaves six matches on the opening day instead of seven.
2011/12 English Premiership kicks off
Last season United won its 19th title and it will become the first team to win 20 titles if it successfully defend its title.
Chelsea and Manchester City finished with the same number of points last season with City having an inferior goal difference and these two teams will be hoping to challenge the champions.
Last season only promoted side, Blackpool, went down and so the three promoted sides QPR, Swansea and Norwich will be hoping that they can both stay in the top division.
Gunners draw Udinese, Bayern Zurich
Both Udinese and the Gunners finished fourth in their leagues and the second leg will be played in Italy.
Former champions Bayern will have to navigate past FC Zurich in order to reach the group phase having finished third in the Bundesliga last season.
Elsewhere in the draw former French Ligue 1 champions Lyon will face Rubin Kazan and Villarreal will face the Odense challenge.
The rest of the draw is as follows:
Arsenal vs Udinese
Bayern Munich vs FC Zurich
Wisla Krakow vs Apoel Nicosia
Maccabi Haifa vs Genk
Dinamo Zagreb vs Malmo FF
FC Copenhagen vs Plzen
Olympique Lyon vs Rubin Kazan
FC Twente vs Benfica
BATE vs SK Sturm Graz
Odense BK vs vsillarreal
TipsChallenge will be running a tipping competition for the Champions League starting from the group phase all the way to the final.
Copa America goal summary
Paraguay and Venezuela conceded eight apiece and Colombia and hosts Argentina who each played four matches only conceded two.
Here are the number of goals scored by each team in the competition:
| Team | Goals |
|---|---|
| Mexico | 1 |
| Bolivia | 1 |
| Ecuador | 2 |
| Costa Rica | 2 |
| Colombia | 3 |
| Paraguay | 5 |
| Chile | 5 |
| Argentina | 5 |
| Brazil | 6 |
| Venezuela | 7 |
| Peru | 8 |
| Uruguay | 9 |
Total Goals Scored : 54
Goals conceded
Here is a table showing the number of goals conceded by each team:
| Team | Goals |
|---|---|
| Colombia | 2 |
| Argentina | 2 |
| Uruguay | 3 |
| Mexico | 4 |
| Costa Rica | 4 |
| Chile | 4 |
| Brazil | 4 |
| Peru | 5 |
| Ecuador | 5 |
| Bolivia | 5 |
| Venezuela | 8 |
| Paraguay | 8 |
Total Goals Conceded : 54
