“Tottenham have currently played 30 consecutive Premier League games without drawing one,” notes Wouter van Dael. “What is the longest ever such league run?”
The short answer is that Spurs are Premier League record-breakers, Wouter, but only just. “Bolton previously held this title with a run of 28 games between March and December 2011,” writes James Clarke. “But in the wider context of English league history, Spurs have a long way to go yet. Twenty-nine clubs have had longer streaks without a draw at some point – and seven have gone more than 40 consecutive league games without a stalemate: Birmingham (43 games), Walsall (44), Leicester (44), Bradford Park Avenue (44), Stoke (46), Sunderland (46) and Aston Villa (51). Although it is probably worth noting that Sunderland’s is the most recent of these, coming comparatively recently in 1908-09. The slightly interesting quirk here is that five of these seven draw-less clubs are midlands teams.
Season 2017-18
30 Apr Spurs 2-0 Watford
5 May West Brom 1-0 Spurs
9 May Spurs 1-0 Newcastle
13 May Spurs 5-4 Leicester
Season 2018-19
11 Aug Newcastle 1-2 Spurs
18 Aug Spurs 3-1 Fulham
27 Aug Man Utd 0-3 Spurs
2 Sep Watford 2-1 Spurs
15 Sep Spurs 1-2 Liverpool
22 Sep Brighton 1-2 Spurs
29 Sep Huddersfield 0-2 Spurs
6 Oct Spurs 1-0 Cardiff
20 Oct West Ham 0-1 Spurs
29 Oct Spurs 0-1 Man City
3 Nov Wolves 2-3 Spurs
10 Nov C Palace 0-1 Spurs
24 Nov Spurs 3-1 Chelsea
2 Dec Arsenal 4-2 Spurs
5 Dec Spurs 3-1 Southampton
8 Dec Leicester 0-2 Spurs
15 Dec Spurs 1-0 Burnley
23 Dec Everton 2-6 Spurs
26 Dec Spurs 5-0 Bournemouth
29 Dec Spurs 1-3 Wolves
1 Jan Cardiff 0-3 Spurs
13 Jan Spurs 0-1 Man Utd
20 Jan Fulham 1-2 Spurs
30 Jan Spurs 2-1 Watford
2 Feb Spurs 1-0 Newcastle
10 Feb Spurs 3-1 Leicester
“Aston Villa’s epic 51-game run spanned three seasons, and is rather nice since it started on New Year’s Day in 1891, with a 5-0 win over Everton. Villa then went the whole of 1891 without a league draw, and almost made it through 1892 as well – until Bolton ended the streak with a 1-1 draw on Christmas Eve.
“And because I was bored I also looked into the most consecutive league draws. Turns out this is a hotly contested title with seven teams tied on eight draws: Birmingham, Chesterfield, Middlesbrough, Southampton, Swansea, Torquay and Peterborough.”
Old Trafford’s FA Cup semi-final snub
“Is there a specific reason Old Trafford hosted so few FA Cup semis prior to 1996?” inquires Patrick Walton. “For such a historically large ground to only be first pick three times in 50 years seems odd.”
“I suspect the reason Old Trafford became a regular semi-final host was a mixture of an increasingly commercial attitude at clubs and the FA, combined with the growth in the capacity at Old Trafford to vastly outstrip the competition,” writes Dave Boyle.
“Until 1996, Old Trafford’s capacity was around 40,000, before the enormous North Stand opened taking capacity to 56,000. At the same time, the post-Taylor report conversion of grounds to all-seater at most clubs led to a decline in capacities, so that by 1996, Old Trafford had a capacity around 17,000 seats bigger than any other ground in England. That made it a banker for a semi-final, allowing more fans in (and more money for the FA, obviously). That explains why it was chosen after this time, but doesn’t explain why it was host for so few times before.
“Prior to 1996, most English grounds were roughly comparable – the biggest divergence between capacities in 1988, for example, among regular semi-final venues was between Arsenal at 57,000 and Villa Park at 48,000. As the semi-final venues were chosen after the draw for that round had taken place, the FA would contact eligible clubs, who would have a few weeks to get things ready. If a club couldn’t be bothered, they’d simply not volunteer; conversely, if a club hosted a semi-final and the FA or the competing clubs found fault, they’d be less likely to be invited. So my suspicion would be a general feeling at Manchester United that they couldn’t be bothered, perhaps matched by a feeling from the FA (a smashing lunch, perhaps?) that there was some reason they preferred other clubs.”
Missing back-to-back penalties (2)
Last week we detailed occurrences of penalties being awarded straight after a penalty had been taken – and here we have a couple more examples …
Rob Kaye points us in the direction of Fulham, where Hull’s Abel Hernández put on a horror show from the spot on 29 January 2017, missing back-to-back penalties in the 4-1 defeat in the FA Cup fourth round. First, Hernández stepped up and produced a ridiculously tame effort from 12 yards that was saved by Marcus Bettinelli, who then felled the in-rushing Hernández to give away another spot-kick. Hernández brazenly argued his case to take the second penalty only to wallop it down the middle and watch Bettinelli save it again. You can watch his misery here.
Heracles’s Paul Gladon joined the ill-starred club a few months earlier, in August 2016, in an Eredivisie match against Willem II when he sidefooted a spot-kick straight down the middle, only to see it tipped over. About 30 seconds after the corner was taken, Heracles were awarded another penalty as Brahim Darri was tripped inside the area, giving Gladon another go. He missed again, smashing the ball against an upright. At least Heracles won, 3-1.
Knowledge archive
“Who holds the record for the most unused substitute appearances in the Premier League?” tweeted John Briggs, in January 2015.
“Second-choice keepers are usually unused so I thought it must be a goalkeeper,” begins Jozef Brodala. “Having established that there was surely only one man, everyone’s favourite second keeper: Steve Harper. He spent 20 years at Newcastle and was nearly always second choice, he made only 112 Premier League appearances out of a possible 684 (he spent some time out on loan.) Having dug around, I found stats for Harper from 2001 onwards which shows him as an unused sub an amazing 367 times in the Premier League for Hull and Newcastle. Considering that is since 2001 and he has been on Newcastle’s books since 1992 I cannot see anyone beating that.”
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Antoni Bohdanowicz
(@AntBohdanowicz)I have one for next week… Play offs 2013 had 4 teams:
Palace, Watford, Leicester, Brighton now all playing in the Premier League (got promoted almost one season after another). Now all established teams in the league. Has there ever been a stronger “Play-off” quartet?
“Tammy Abraham is on course to become Aston Villa’s first striker to hit 20 goals in a season since 1981,” notes Paul Hawkins. “Which team has gone longest without someone scoring 20-plus goals in a season? And which team has the longest streak of at least one player hitting 20 or more?”
Chris Bull
(@chrisbull67)Players who have scored a hat-trick and got sent off during the same match.
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