Downing's drought, losing leads, Blackburn's bosses and Tartan troubles... it's Martin Tyler.
Martin brings you an international teaser from Montenegro!
Martin Tyler's stats and facts column is back!
Every week he will be here to offer you statistical gems to make your day, impress your mates and, on occasion, to settle the odd bet.
Sky Sports' voice of football and his back-up team of experts are here to answer your questions and queries on all things statistical and historical from the beautiful game.
If you have spotted something from a game or have been stumped by a pub quiz question, simply email skysportsclub@bskyb.com and he will do his best to help.Tyler's Starting Stat - Montenegro matters
I was in Montenegro to see Darren Bent score in his fourth consecutive away international game. That accounts for all four of his England goals in his 11 appearances so far. Meanwhile, Ashley Young has four goals in his 18 caps, but his four have come in his last seven appearances.
The game was England's 900th international and they need two more goals to reach 2,000 - they are currently on 1998. It was their 90th European qualifier and Fabio Capello's 40th game. We also witnessed the 13th red card in England's history and Wayne Rooney joined David Beckham as the only player to have been sent off twice.
It was also the first time Montenegro have scored against England at any level. They have only been in existence as a football nation for four-and-a-half years, but have played England at U19, U20 and U21 level (three times) and this was the second full international the two nations they have contested.
LETTING IT SLIP
Dear Martin. How often have England let a two-goal lead slip? I can't imagine it has happened very often? Andrew (Liverpool fan)
MARTIN SAYS: The game against Montenegro was only the 11th time since the Second World War that England have led by two goals in a match and failed to win it. The last time it happened was a World Cup qualifier in Vienna in September 2004 when England drew 2-2 with Austria.
In the post-war years, England have only lost from two-goals up on two occasions - and both were in major tournaments. They lost 3-2 to Portugal at Euro 2000 and they lost 3-2 to West Germany at the 1970 World Cup, although extra time was required on that occasion.
England failing to win after being two goals ahead in a game (since the Second World War):
07/10/2011, Euro 2012 qualifier: Montenegro 2-2 England (Zverotic 45', Delibasic 90'; Young 11', Bent 31')
04/09/2004, World Cup qualifier: Austria 2-2 England (Kollmann 71', Ivanschitz 72'; Lampard 24', Gerrard 65')
12/06/2000, Euro 2000: Portugal 3-2 England (Figo 22', Pinto 37', Nuno Gomes 59'; Scholes 3', McManaman 17')
28/04/1993, World Cup qualifier: England 2-2 Netherlands (Barnes 2', Platt 23'; Bergkamp 34', van Vossen 85')
24/05/1991, England Challenge Cup: England 2-2 Argentina (Lineker 15', Platt 50'; García 66', Franco 70')
22/05/1974, Friendly: England 2-2 Argentina, (Channon 45', Worthington 54'; Kempes 58', 89')
14/06/1970, World Cup: West Germany 3-2 (AET) England (Mullery 31', Peters 49'; Beckenbauer 68', Seeler 76', Müller 108')
10/04/1965, British Home Championship: England 2-2 Scotland (Charlton 24', Greaves 34'; Law 40', St John 59')
06/05/1959, Friendly: England 2-2 Italy (Charlton 26', Bradley 38'; Brighenti 56', Mariani 61')
17/06/1954, World Cup: England 4-4 Belgium (Broadis 26', 63', Lofthouse 36', 91'; Anoul 5', 71', Coppens 67', Dickinson og 94')
22/11/1950, Friendly: England 2-2 Yugoslavia (Lofthouse 29', 34'; Compton og 40', Zinanovic 72').
GOAL-SHY STEW
Dear Martin. I heard you mention on commentary that Stewart Downing has played 30 times for England without scoring a goal. Can you tell us which other midfielders/forwards have played that many times without scoring? Chris (England fan)
MARTIN SAYS: Stewart Downing is now in the top 100 England appearance-makers of all time and is 20th on the list of most-capped outfield players who have never scored for their country. Of that list, only four - David Batty, Owen Hargreaves, Nicky Butt and Kieron Dyer - would be classed as midfielders. So you could suggest that Downing is the fifth most-capped midfielder to have never scored for his country. However, he is more of an attacking player - Hargreaves, Butt and Batty played in a defensive role and Dyer was used in various positions.
Most-capped outfield players to have never scored for England:
| Player |
Number of caps |
Position |
| Ashley Cole |
92 |
Defender |
| Gary Neville |
85 |
Defender |
| Ray Wilson |
63 |
Defender |
| Phil Neville |
59 |
Defender |
| Des Walker |
59 |
Defender |
| James Dickinson |
48 |
Defender |
| Gary Stevens |
46 |
Defender |
| Jimmy Armfield |
43 |
Defender |
| David Batty |
42 |
Midfielder |
| Owen Hargreaves |
42 |
Midfielder |
| Mick Mills |
42 |
Defender |
| Robert Crompton |
41 |
Defender |
| Nicky Butt |
39 |
Midfielder |
| Jamie Carragher |
38 |
Defender |
| Gerorge Cohen |
37 |
Defender |
| Ronnie Clayton |
35 |
Defender |
| Roger Byrne |
33 |
Defender |
| Kieron Dyer |
33 |
Midfielder |
| Edris Hapgood |
30 |
Defender |
| Stewart Downing |
30 |
Midfielder |
WHERE DO WE START?
Dear Martin. Seeing the likes of Phil Jones and Chris Smalling in the England team has made me wonder if you are more likely to get an England debut if you play for a top club. Can you tell us which club all of England's debutants under Fabio Capello played for and how this compares with other managers? I guess Man Utd would have more than anyone else. Jill Peters.
MARTIN SAYS: Jones became the 23rd debutant of the Fabio Capello era, but only the second Manchester United player to win his first cap under the Italian after Smalling. We would list Danny Welbeck under Sunderland because he was on loan there when he played his first game for England. As you can see, Capello has drawn debutants from 14 different clubs:
Debuts under Fabio Capello (23):
Man Utd: Phil Jones, Chris Smalling
Arsenal: Jack Wilshere, Kieran Gibbs
Aston Villa: James Milner, Gabriel Agbonlahor
Bolton: Kevin Davies, Gary Cahill
Everton: Phil Jagielka, Leighton Baines
Man City: Adam Johnson, Joe Hart
Sunderland: Jordan Henderson, Danny Welbeck*
Tottenham: Michael Dawson, Tom Huddlestone
West Ham: Carlton Cole, Dean Ashton
Blackburn: Stephen Warnock
Cardiff: Jay Bothroyd
Fulham: Bobby Zamora
Newcastle: Andy Carroll
Wolves: Matt Jarvis
*On loan from Man Utd
10 players made their debuts under Steve McClaren, who drew them from eight different teams.
Debuts under Steve McClaren (10):
Man City: Joey Barton, Micah Richards
Aston Villa: Ashley Young, Scott Carson**
Blackburn: David Bentley
Everton: Joleon Lescott
Preston: David Nugent
Reading: Nicky Shorey
Watford: Ben Foster***
Wigan: Chris Kirkland**
**On Loan from Liverpool
***On loan from Man Utd
Sven-Goran Eriksson awarded debuts to 41 players during his spell in charge of the England team and, perhaps surprisingly, Charlton provided the most. Five of their players won their first caps under Eriksson. The Swede's 41 debutants came from 23 different teams.
Debuts under Sven-Goran Eriksson:
Charlton: Darren Bent, Luke Young, Scott Parker, Paul Konchesky, Chris Powell
Leeds: Paul Robinson, Lee Bowyer, Danny Mills, Alan Smith
Tottenham: Aaron Lennon, Anthony Gardner, Jermain Defoe, Ledley King
Arsenal: Theo Walcott, Francis Jeffers, Ashley Cole
Southampton: Peter Crouch, Wayne Bridge, James Beattie
West Ham: Trevor Sinclair, Michael Carrick, Joe Cole
Chelsea: Glen Johnson, John Terry
Everton: Wayne Rooney, Michael Ball
Aston Villa: Darius Vassell
Bayern Munich: Owen Hargreaves
Birmingham: Matthew Upson
Blackburn: David Dunn
Bolton: Michael Ricketts
Celtic: Alan Thompson
Crystal Palace: Andrew Johnson
Fulham: Zat Knight
Liverpool: Danny Murphy
Man City: Shaun Wright-Phillips
Man Utd: Kieran Richardson
Middlesbrough: Stewart Downing
Newcastle: Jermaine Jenas
Norwich: Rob Green
Sunderland: Gavin McCann
I would say the range of clubs involved shows that if you're good enough, it doesn't matter who you play for.
HE'S SCOT A POINT
As a long-suffering Scotland fan I have a question about our record since the 1998 World Cup when we last played in a major tournament. Can you tell me if any other nation has earned more points than Scotland in World Cup Euro/qualifiers in that time and not qualified for a major tournament? I can't imagine there would be many? Doug (Hearts fan)
MARTIN SAYS: Writing ahead of the final round of midweek qualifying matches, I can confirm that of the teams to have failed to get into either a European Championship or a World Cup since the turn of the century, no team has picked up more points than Scotland.
The Scots have accrued 105 points from the last six qualifying campaigns, which is one more than Israel (104). However, Scotland have played two fewer games than their rivals - and indeed have played fewer matches than any other team inside the top 10.
UEFA teams with the most qualifying points without reaching a major tournament since the 1998 World Cup:
| Team |
Points |
Matches played |
| Scotland |
105 |
63 |
| Israel |
104 |
65 |
| Finland |
99 |
69 |
| Bosnia |
99 |
67 |
| Hungary |
91 |
67 |
| Estonia |
75 |
72 |
| Wales |
72 |
65 |
| Northern Ireland |
72 |
67 |
| Belarus |
70 |
68 |
| Lithuania |
66 |
65 |
ROVERS RESULTS
Hi Martin. My question is simple, is Steve Kean statistically the worst Blackburn manager of all time? He might not care about the stats but I think the most important one needs highlighting. Thanks, Stephen, Blackburn Rovers fan
MARTIN SAYS: The boffins at Opta haven't been able to go right back through history for you, but they have been able to look at the permanent managers that have taken charge of Blackburn in the Premier League. As it stands, Steve Kean has the second lowest win percentage of all of those managers, just ahead of Paul Ince. Kenny Dalglish, perhaps unsurprisingly, has the highest win percentage of Blackburn's managers in the Premier League.
| Manager |
Joined |
Left |
G |
W |
D |
L |
F |
A |
W% |
| Kenny Dalglish |
12/10/1991 |
25/06/1995 |
126 |
72 |
28 |
26 |
211 |
121 |
57.14 |
| Mark Hughes |
16/09/2004 |
04/06/2008 |
147 |
58 |
39 |
50 |
181 |
176 |
39.46 |
| Ray Harford |
25/06/1995 |
25/10/1996 |
48 |
18 |
11 |
19 |
67 |
61 |
37.5 |
| Roy Hodgson |
10/06/1997 |
22/11/1998 |
52 |
18 |
13 |
21 |
71 |
74 |
34.62 |
| Sam Allardyce |
17/12/2008 |
13/12/2010 |
76 |
26 |
21 |
29 |
86 |
108 |
34.21 |
| Graeme Souness |
14/03/2000 |
06/09/2004 |
118 |
40 |
32 |
46 |
162 |
161 |
33.9 |
| Brian Kidd |
04/12/1998 |
03/11/1999 |
23 |
5 |
11 |
0 |
24 |
28 |
21.74 |
| Steve Kean |
13/12/2010 |
Current |
28 |
6 |
8 |
14 |
32 |
49 |
21.43 |
| Paul Ince |
22/06/2008 |
16/12/2008 |
17 |
3 |
4 |
10 |
17 |
34 |
17.65 |
THE SQUAD GAME
Dear Martin. Arsenal seem to have used a lot more players than they normally would in the league this season. Can you tell me how many different players have been used (not including the youth team in the Carling Cup) and also if this the highest in the Premier League this season? Ken (Arsenal) fan
MARTIN SAYS: The boys at Opta have looked at these stats for you and we can tell you that Arsenal have used 27 players in the Premier League alone this term. They are:
Andre Santos, Arshavin, Arteta, Benayoun, Bendtner, Chamakh, Coquelin, Djourou, Frimpong, Gervinho, Gibbs, Jenkinson, Lansbury, Koscielny, Mertesacker, Miquel, Nasri, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Ramsey, Rosicky, Sagna, Song, Szczesny, Traore, Vermaelen, Walcott, Van Persie
Remarkably, that's the same number as Arsene Wenger used in the whole of last season. In fact, eight of last year's 20 Premier League teams used 27 or fewer players in the whole of the campaign.
However, it's only the joint highest in this year's Premier League so far, as QPR have also used 27 players. Last season, West Ham used the most players (35 in total) and we have produced a list of how many players each team has used in the Premier League this year with last year's total alongside it as a point of comparison. It's a far cry from the days when Liverpool won the league with just 14 players in a 42-game season!
| Team |
Players used in 2011/12 so far |
Players used in 2010/11 |
| Arsenal |
27 |
27 |
| Aston Villa |
19 |
32 |
| Blackburn |
23 |
29 |
| Bolton |
20 |
24 |
| Chelsea |
23 |
24 |
| Everton |
21 |
24 |
| Fulham |
20 |
29 |
| Liverpool |
21 |
30 |
| Man City |
20 |
27 |
| Man Utd |
23 |
29 |
| Newcastle |
22 |
30 |
| Norwich |
21 |
- |
| QPR |
27 |
- |
| Norwich |
19 |
25 |
| Sunderland |
20 |
31 |
| Swansea |
19 |
- |
| Tottenham |
22 |
28 |
| West Brom |
19 |
28 |
| Wigan |
21 |
25 |
| Wolves |
20 |
30 |
Tyler's teaser
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