THE FOOTBALL ASSOCIATION PROUDLY PRESENTS
A STATISTICAL REVIEW OF THE 2009/10 SEASON
It is the world’s most watched league and the most lucrative attracting the top players from all over the globe. Hard to believe then that the first ball kicked in the Premier League was as relatively recently as 15th August 1992. The 1980s saw a nadir in English football. Stadiums were crumbling and hooliganism was rife. English teams were banned from Europe following the death of 39 fans at Heysel Stadium in Belgium ahead of Liverpool’s European Cup Final against Juventus in 1985. Few of the world’s top players would even contemplate plying their trade in England.
Radical Restructing
Then in 1989 came Hillsborough and the Taylor report. 96 fans died and over 150 were injured crushed during the FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest. Lord Justice Taylor recommended a complete overhaul in the way football grounds were run and structured leading to the introduction of all-seater stadia.
A radical restructuring was needed if English clubs and the game in general were to develop and flourish.
Faced with the huge cost of implementing the recommendations and growing concern over the inability to attract quality players, there was mounting discontent among the top clubs. As early as 1988 ten clubs had threatened to break away in order to take advantage of higher television revenue.
The Founder Members Agreement was signed on 17th July 1991 establishing the basic principles for the setting up of the Premier
League. The League would have commercial independence from the Football League and FA, leaving it free to organise its own broadcast and sponsorship agreement. On the 20th February 1992 the first division clubs resigned from the Football League en masse and three months later the Premier League was established as a limited company. The League decided to take the radical step of assigning television rights to Sky TV. At the time charging fans to watch televised sport was a relatively new concept, but a combination of the quality of football on offer and Sky’s marketing strategy saw the value of the Premier League soar. The initial deal was worth £191million over five years. To televise the matches from 2007-2010, Sky and Setanta have paid a staggering £1.7billion.
Shape & Develop Sponsorship has also played an enormous role. In 1993 Carling paid £12million for four years and the competition became known as the FA Carling Premiership. They renewed for another four years paying a 300% increase. In 2001 Barclaycard became the new sponsors for £48million over three years. Barclays took over in 2004 with their renewal price for 2007 coming in at £65.8million for three seasons. Increased revenue has ensured that English clubs can compete on a global scale in terms of transfer fees and wages - an important factor which has seen some of the best overseas players grace the Barclays Premier League. In 1992 there were just 11 non-British or Irish footballers in the Premier League, by 2007 this had increased to over 250. Over the years overseas players have helped shape and develop the British game. Overseas managers, too, have
been eager to work in England, and techniques used by the likes of Arsene Wenger, Gerrard Houllier and Ruud Gullit have had an enormous impact. The Premier League was initially composed of 22 clubs but it was always the intention to reduce that number to 20 to promote development and excellence at club and international level. This was achieved at the end of the 1994/95 season when four clubs were relegated and just two promoted. Burnley won promotion in 2009 to take the total number of clubs to have played in the Premier League to 43. The most successful team in Premier League history is undoubtedly Manchester United. Sir Alex Ferguson’s side have won a remarkable 11 titles and have never finished below third since the Premier League was launched in 1992.
This season has been as remarkable from start to finish as the last eighteen seasons. We hope you enjoyed as much as we did. The league goes from strength each year and we want to introduce measures to document it and present it you. We have teamed up with Opta Sports to bring you this statistical publication. It has been developed during the off season and has now been released to allow you to relive last season in the run up to the new season starting today. The stat counter has now been reset. From all of us at the Premier League comittee and officials of The Football Association, thank you and more importantly, enjoy the game and the new season ahead!
The Premier League would not have it’s reputation of being the most exciting, atmospheric league in the world without your support. 2009/10 was another fantastic season for attendance figures. We would like to thank you for your continued support.
75,316
The biggest crowd of the season saw Manchester United beat Wigan 4-0 on the final day of the league.
92.4%
The percentage of Premier League grounds that were full this season. This is the highest spectator occupancy percentage in Europe.
13,001,616 The total number of tickets sold for Premier League matches during the season.
Goals, it’s what we go to the game to see, and the Premier League always delivers. 1,053 goals were scored this season setting a new Premier League record. Chelsea, meanwhile, scored a staggering 103 goals during the season and maintained an impressive +71 goal difference, again setting a new Premier League record.
Half Time League 09/10
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
Chelsea Manchester Unitedeq Arsenaleq Tottenham Hotspur eq Manchester City Aston Villa Liverpool Birmingham City Fulham Sunderland Everton Stoke City Blackburn Rovers Burnleyr Wolverhampton Wanderers Wigan Athletic West Ham United Bolton Wanderers Hull Cityr Portsmouthr c
Goals Scored Goals Conceeded Goal Difference
P
20 20 19 20 19 20 20 20 19 20 19 19 20 20 20 19 20 18 20 20
GD
29 27 30 20 11 11 12 2 5 -3 -6 -8 -15 -18 -19 -23 -9 -10 -22 -14
Pts
45 43 41 37 35 35 33 32 27 23 22 21 21 20 19 19 18 18 18 14
Arsenal F: 83 A: 41 GD: +42
Bolton Wanderers F: 42 A: 67 GD: -25 West Ham United F: 47 A: 66 GD: -19
Portsmouth F: 34 A: 66 GD: -32
Aston Villa F: 52 A: 39 GD: +13
Wigan Athletic F: 37 A: 79 GD: -42
Everton F: 60 A: 49 GD: +11
Manchester City F: 73 A: 45 GD: +28
Fulham F: 39 A: 46 GD: -7
Wolverhampton Wanderers F: 32 A: 56 GD: -24
Hull City F: 34 A: 75 GD: -41
Meanwhile Bolton Wanderers found themselves in the bottom three with West Ham United escaping on goal difference. Hull City and Portsmouth made up the rest of the relegation candidates.
Burnley F: 42 A: 82 GD: -40
Blackburn Rovers F: 41 A: 55 GD: -14
Stoke City F: 34 A: 48 GD: -14
Sunderland F: 48 A: 56 GD: -8
Key:- Pos: Position, P: Games Played, GD: Goal Differential, Pts: Points
At the turn of the year Chelsea were topping the league and emerging as potential title winners, stripping the crown from reigning champions Manchester United who had won three back to back titles in previous seasons. Early inidcations also showed notorious under acheivers Tottenham Hotspur in the Champions League positions in front of big spending Manchester City.
Manchester United F: 86 A: 28 GD: +58
Chelsea F: 103 A: 32 GD: +71
Birmingham City F: 38 A: 47 GD: -9
Liverpool F: 61 A: 35 GD: +26
Tottenham Hotspur F: 67 A: 41 GD: +26
Top Goal Scorers Didier Drogba Wayne Rooney Darren Bent Carlos Tevez Frank Lampard Jermain Defoe Fernando Torres Francesc Fabregas Emmanuel Adebayor Gabriel Agbonlahor Louis Saha Florent Malouda Nicolas Anelka Andrey Arshavin Craig Bellamy John Carew Carlton Cole Cameron Jerome Hugo Rodallega 20
29
26
24
23
22
18
18
15
14
13
13
12
11
10
10
10
10
10
10
Didier Drogba wins the Golden Boot for the second time with twenty nine goals.
Red Cards 1,235 Yellow Cards 68
Goals Per Game Ratios
Chelsea Manchester United Arsenal Manchester City Tottenham Hotspur Liverpool Everton Aston Villa Sunderland West Ham United Bolton Wanderers Burnley Blackburn Rovers Fulham Birmingham City Wigan Athlet0.97 ic Hull City Portsmouth Stoke City Wolverhamton Wanderers 2.71
2.26
2.18
1.92
1.76
1.61
1.58
1.37
1.26
1.24
1.11
1.11
1
1
1
0.89
0.89
0.84
0.89
.13
Sunderland had the worst disciplinary record this season with 82 bookings and 9 sent off
.15
Cards change games, and this season has been no different. Liverpool’s Javier Mascherano was the main culprit with two reds and eleven bookings. sixty eight red cards were issued this season, three more than the previous season and fourty three more bookings were issued. In particular this year referees were instructed to crack down on feigning injury, violent conduct and verbal abuse.
Disciplinary Record Reds/Yellows
Final Standings 09/10
Javier Mascherano
2 11
Gary Caldwell
2 3
George Boateng
2 11 2 11
Stephen Carr
1 2
10
Lorik Cana
1 2
1 10
Jamie Carragher
1 7
Jozy Altidore
1 4
Michael Ballack
Craig Bellamy
2 11
Michael Brown
2 5
Ricardo Rocha
Tamir Cohen
Fabrice Muamba
2 11
Titus Bramble
2 4
Abdoulaye Faye
Michael Turner
Juliano Belletti
Stiliyan Petrov
1 3
1 8 1 10
Alex Song
1 5
1.625
The average number of yellow cards issued per game this season.
0.089
Lee Cattermole
1 7
The average number of red cards issued per game this season.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
Chelsea Manchester Unitedeq Arsenaleq Tottenham Hotspur eq Manchester City Aston Villa Liverpool Everton Birmingham City Blackburn Rovers Stoke City Fulham Sunderland Bolton Wolverhampton Wanderers Wigan Athletic West Ham United Burnleyr Hull Cityr Portsmouthr c
P
38 38 38 38 38 38 38 38 38 38 38 38 38 38 38 38 38 38 38 38
W
27 27 23 21 18 17 18 16 13 13 11 12 11 10 9 9 8 8 6 7
D
5 4 6 7 13 13 9 13 11 11 14 10 11 9 11 9 11 6 12 7
L
F
6 103 7 86 9 83 10 67 7 73 8 52 11 61 9 60 14 38 14 41 13 34 16 39 16 48 19 42 18 32 20 37 19 47 24 42 20 34 24 34
A
32 28 41 41 45 39 35 49 47 55 48 46 56 67 56 79 66 82 75 66
GD
71 58 42 26 28 13 26 11 -9 -14 -14 -7 -8 -25 -24 -42 -19 -40 -41 -32
Pts
86 85 75 70 67 64 63 61 50 50 47 46 44 39 38 36 35 30 30 19
Key:- Pos: Position, P: Games Played, W: Wins, D: Ties, L: Losses, F: Goals Scored, A: Goals Against, GD: Goal Differential, Pts: Points
10
After almost eight months and thirty eight games of football this was the most important result. The race for the title went to the final day of the season with Chelsea one point ahead of Manchester United. Chelsea’s 8–0 win over Wigan Athletic was enough to secure their first title since 2006, despite Manchester United’s 4–0 defeat of Stoke City. The title win came in Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti’s first season at the club and he followed this up a week later by securing Chelsea’s first FA Cup and League double with a win over Portsmouth at Wembley. Chelsea striker Didier Drogba won the Golden Boot award as the league’s top goalscorer for the second time. In February 2010, Portsmouth became the first club to go into administration whilst a member of the Premier League. They were deducted nine points, and two months later they were the first team of the season to be relegated. Hull City and Premier League debutants Burnley were relegated alongside them. Newcastle, West Bromich Albion and Playoff winners Blackpool have all been promoted to the Premier League after their fine season performances in the Football League Championship.