From a dearth of home wins in England to Michael Carrick’s standard-setting points-per-game ratio this season, here’s what caught my eye over the weekend.
1. Tuchel picks from shallow pool
The man sitting in the stands in a baseball cap poring over a Premier League team sheet in a desperate search for English players is Thomas Tuchel. Each of his predecessors who picked a World Cup squad did so after a top-flight season where at least 31 per cent of starting places were given to Englishmen, yet that figure is only 24.3 per cent this campaign.
Sir Bobby Robson faced a top division that was 71.9 per cent English in advance of Italia ’90, the proportion having ranged from 66 to 75 per cent in World Cup years since the national team first attended the tournament in 1950. That had dropped to 31.0, 31.8 and 31.4 per cent in advance of the past three editions — and, including non-World Cup seasons, to a low of 28.2 per cent in 2018-19 — but this season has hit new depths.
2. Home discomfort at historic high
The sight of miserable home fans at Stamford Bridge, St James’ Park and the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium was the tip of a record-breaking iceberg on Saturday: there were only seven home wins in 36 matches in the four league divisions. Of the 2,935 days to have contained at least 36 league games since the League’s expansion in 1921, Saturday’s home-win rate of 19.4 per cent was the 2,935th and lowest. For good measure, only three of the 12 home sides won in the fifth-tier National League.
3. Spurs wait and wait
A Tottenham relegation would be a calamity to cap decades of frustration. Their unbroken run of 48 seasons in the top division is the longest any team has ever recorded in one of Europe’s “big five” top flights without becoming champions in that period. The title has been elusive since their promotion in 1978, a sequence that beats Bayer Leverkusen’s 44 seasons before their German title in 2023-24 and Athletic Bilbao’s present run of 42 seasons in Spain. The next longest in England has been Everton’s present stretch of 39 years and Sheffield United’s 37 seasons up to their relegation in 1934.
4. English Blues get the blues
Foreign managers at Chelsea? Champions League-level. Englishmen? Mid-table. In the past ten seasons the club’s non-English managers have gathered the equivalent of 72 points per Premier League campaign (which, on average, earns fourth place) but their English trio (Liam Rosenior, Graham Potter and Frank Lampard) have managed a rate of only 55 per season (ninth). Chelsea, who beat Port Vale 7-0 in the FA Cup, are the first top-flight team since Leicester City in 1931-32 to record a run of seven games that featured six defeats but also a win by at least seven goals.
5. Forest’s potential dense schedule
Arsenal’s 70 games played in 1979-80, a record for a League club, seemed unbeatable when all cup replays were scrapped but it is just conceivable that Nottingham Forest could match that. If the Europa League semi-finalists win that competition but are relegated, then next season could pan out as follows: Championship play-off final (49 league/play-off games), Champions League mid-table finish and play-off round win (12), FA Cup quarter-finals (four) and League Cup semi-finals (five).
6. Almost a ton of fixtures
While we are at it, a bit of fun. How many competitive fixtures could a League club play, theoretically, in one season? Two short of 100, it seems. Imagine they are relegated from the top flight while winning the Champions League, then drop from the Championship while lifting the FA Cup and retaining the Champions League. In League One their schedule could be: play-off final (49 games), FA Cup first round to final (eight), League Cup third round to final (six), EFL Trophy final (eight), Champions League final (17), Community Shield (one), Uefa Super Cup (one), Club World Cup (seven), Intercontinental Cup (one).
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7. Bycroft continues glove story
Bycroft’s stoppage-time equaliser for Exeter was the 98th League goal scored by a goalkeeperTom Sandberg/Shutterstock Editorial
Exeter City’s Jack Bycroft scored the 98th League goal by a goalkeeper and the 13th by one when up for a corner. The others? Penalties (46), a shot from their own half (19), when injured and moved outfield (12) and when, despite being a goalkeeper by trade, starting as an outfielder (eight).
8. Leading teams keep order
Sunderland’s fall to 11th in the Premier League means every team in the top ten has a name with an initial in the first half of the alphabet: that has never occurred in a final top-flight table since the League’s formation in 1888.
9. Carrick gets high rating
Manchester United’s Michael Carrick has the best points-per-game rate of any Premier League head coach or manager this season, including Mikel Arteta and Pep Guardiola. Bournemouth’s biggest league goal tally this season did not bring a victory (they drew 4-4 with United) — and neither did Fulham’s (lost 5-4 to Manchester City).
10. Noah by the numbers
Leeds United, starting 19 points ahead of opponents Wolverhampton Wanderers, scored through their No19, Noah Okafor, after 19 minutes, 19 seconds.