Premier League 2013/2014 – a graphical review

The BBC website produces match reports for all of the games every single Premier League side plays during the season. From Premier League and FA Cup, to Champions League to League Cup ties the BBC reports on them all. I thought it would be interesting to compile all of these reports for each of the twenty Premier League sides, and to produce word-clouds for each side. If a particular word is used more often, then it is shown on screen as larger than the other less used words.

I created one for Square One Football Radio, and felt I should create word clouds for all twenty clubs. I used the excellent online tool wordle.net to create the word clouds. Please feel free to use these on your blog or website, but I’d appreciate a link back.

To see a higher resolution image of the word cloud, click on it.

Arsenal

Aston Villa

Cardiff City

Chelsea

Crystal Palace

Everton

Fulham

Hull City

Liverpool

Manchester City

Manchester United

Newcastle United

Norwich City

Southampton

Stoke City

Sunderland

Swansea City

Tottenham Hotspur

West Bromwich Albion

West Ham United

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B Teams – we might not get lucky next time

I was going to write something about B Teams, but after writing a few sentences I realised just how ridiculous the idea was and gave up. I can’t help but think Shoot were rubbing their hands in glee thinking they’d be able to stretch their pre-season “Team Ladders” editions over three issues. Anyway, I just thought I’d add a few words of warning about the whole scheme.

The sad truth of this B Teams shambles is that the FA haven’t thought out their plans properly this time. They’ve got it wrong. They developed an idea that would almost certainly damage lower league and non-league football, whilst not really offering the Premier League teams a solution they were happy with. Next time, we might not be so lucky. Next time, the Football Association may come up with a plan that satisfies the majority of fans (however unpalatable), pleases the Premier League sides and also allows the FA to promote their remaining cash cow – The England National side.

As a former Cardiff City supporter, I’ve seen football fans accept changes to their club that most football fans would instinctively oppose. The vast majority of Cardiff City supporters accept the colour change. Justification, even if you don’t agree with it, was even found for Wimbledon’s move to Milton Keynes. A case can be made for anything when money is involved. Don’t get complacent.

 

 

Premier League: Doing the double over other clubs

If a club wins both the home fixture and the away fixture during a league season then they are said to have “done the double” over that side. In the Premier League during the 2012/2013 season 16 of the 20 sides did the double over a rival.

The following lists show the teams that each club in the Premier League managed to do the double against.

====

10

• Manchester United: Southampton, Sunderland, Stoke City, QPR, Newcastle United, Aston Villa, Fulham, Wigan Athletic, Reading and Liverpool.

7

• Chelsea: Sunderland, Stoke City, Aston Villa, Norwich City, Everton, Wigan Athletic and Arsenal.

6

• Arsenal: QPR, Newcastle United, West Brom, West Ham, Wigan Athletic and Reading.
• Manchester City: Newcastle United, Aston Villa, West Brom, Fulham, Wigan Athletic and Reading.
• Tottenham Hotspur: Southampton, Sunderland, Aston Villa, Swansea City, West Ham and Reading.

4

• Liverpool: QPR, Norwich City, Fulham and Wigan Athletic.
• West Brom: Southampton, Sunderland, QPR and Liverpool.

3

• Swansea City: QPR, Newcastle United and Wigan Athletic.

2

• Aston Villa: Sunderland and Reading.
• Southampton: Aston Villa and Reading.

1

• Everton: West Ham.
• Fulham: West Brom.
• Sunderland: Wigan Athletic,
• Stoke City: QPR.
• Newcastle United: QPR.
• Wigan Athletic: Reading

0

• Norwich City: None.
• QPR: None.
• Reading: None.
• West Ham: None.

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Of the three relegated sides Wigan Athletic were the only team who managed to win home and away against another club (Wigan did the double over fellow relegated side Reading).

Four sides in the Premier League did not lose home and away to another club. Those sides were Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester City and Manchester United. Nine clubs did the double over eventual FA Cup winners Wigan Athletic.

 

Alliterative Footballers in the Premier League, Championship, League One and League Two

A list of footballers who have played in the Premier League, Championship, League One or League Two this season with their first name beginning with the same letter as their surname. Please let me know if you are aware of any others.

• Adebayo Akinfenwa (Northampton Town)
• Adebayo Azeez (Wycombe Wanderers & Leyton Orient)
• Ahmed Abdulla (Barnet)
• Akwasi Asante (Shrewsbury Town)
• Ali Al Habsi (Wigan Athletic)
• Almen Abdi (Watford)
• Andreas Arestidou (Morecambe)
• Andrey Arshavin (Arsenal)
• Antolín Alcáraz (Wigan Athletic)
• Barry Bannan (Aston Villa)
• Bartosz Bialkowski (Notts County)
• Billy Bodin (Torquay United)
• Brian Barry-Murphy (Rochdale)
• Chris Cohen (Nottingham Forest)
• Christopher Chantler (Carlisle United)
• Ciaran Clark (Aston Villa)
• Clarke Carlisle (York City & Northampton Town)
• Conor Clifford (Portsmouth & Crawley Town)
• Courtney Cameron (Rotherham United)
• Craig Cathcart (Blackpool)
• Craig Clay (Chesterfield)
• Craig Conway (Cardiff Dragons)
• Craig Curran (Rochdale)
• Cyrus Christie (Coventry Dragons)
• Damien Delaney (Crystal Palace & Ipswich Town)
• Danny Drinkwater (Leicester City)
• Darryl Duffy (Cheltenham Town)
• David Davis (Wolverhampton Wanderers)
• David De Gea (Manchester United)
• David Dunn (Blackburn Rovers)
• Diego De Girolamo (Sheffield United)
• Donervon Daniels (Tranmere Rovers)
• Dorian Dervite (Charlton Athletic)
• Ethan Ebanks-Landell (Bury)
• Frank Fielding (Derby County)
• Gábor Gyepes (Portsmouth)
• Gaël Givet (Blackburn Rovers)
• Gary Gardner (Aston Villa)
• Gianluca Gracco (Dagenham & Redbridge)
• Gordon Greer (Brighton & Hove Albion)
• Harry Hooman (Cheltenham Town)
• Heidar Helguson (Cardiff Dragons)
• Jake Jervis (Portsmouth, Tranmere Rovers, Carlisle United & Birmingham City)
• Jake Jones (Walsall)
• Jamie Jones (Leyton Orient)
• Jermaine Jenas (Nottingham Forest & Queens Park Rangers)
• Jermaine Johnson (Sheffield Wednesday)
• Joe Jacobson (Shrewsbury Town)
• Johnnie Jackson (Charlton Athletic)
• Jussi Jääskeläinen (West Ham United)
• Kei Kamara (Norwich City)
• Keith Keane (Preston North End)
• Leon Legge (Gillingham & Brentford)
• Leroy Lita (Sheffield Wednesday & Birmingham City)
• Marcus Marshall (Bury)
• Mark Molesley (Exeter City & Plymouth Argyle)
• Marko Marin (Chelsea)
• Marvin Morgan (Shrewsbury Town)
• Mathieu Manset (Carlisle United)
• Matt Mitchel-King (AFC Wimbledon)
• Matthew McClure (Wycombe Wanderers)
• Matthew Mills (Bolton Wanderers)
• Michael Morrison (Charlton Athletic)
• Modibo Maïga (West Ham United)
• Nyron Nosworthy (Watford)
• Olanrewaju Oyebanjo (York City)
• Osayamen Osawe (Accrington Stanley)
• Oulwasanmi Odelusi (Bolton Wanderers)
• Paul Parry (Shrewsbury Town)
• Pavel Pogrebnyak (Reading)
• Phil Picken (Bury)
• Richard Ravenhill (Bradford City)
• Robbie Rogers (Stevenage)
• Sam Saunders (Brentford)
• Sam Slocombe (Scunthorpe United)
• Sam Sodje (Portsmouth)
• Scott Shearer (Rotherham United)
• Scott Sinclair (Manchester City)
• Sean Scannell (Huddersfield Town)
• Sean St. Ledger (Leicester City & Millwall)
• Stéphane Sessègnon (Sunderland)
• Steve Sidwell (Fulham)
• Steve Simonsen (Preston North End)
• Steven Schumacher (Bury)

 

African footballers in the Premier League, La Liga, Ligue 1, Serie A and the Bundesliga.

With the Africa Cup of Nations a fading memory and the European leagues back in full swing I thought it would be interesting to take a look at the Africans represented in five of Europe’s top leagues: Premier League, Serie A, La Liga, Ligue 1 and Bundesliga.

Despite their non qualification for the Africa Cup of Nations 2013, Senegal have the most players playing in the five European leagues mentioned in the introduction. 32 Senegalese players play in these leagues. Twenty-nine different nationalities are represented in these leagues from Morocco to Mauritania.

With much of Africa being Francophone and many French born players opting to play for the countries in the Maghreb it’s unsurprisng that Ligue 1 features so many African footballers.

Number of African players used so far in the 2012/2013 league season.

French teams dominate the list. Every single one of Ligue 1’s twenty sides have fielded an African footballer during the current 2012/2013 season. However, it’s Rennes who are the club who have used the most African players. They’ve used an impressive eleven different African players so far this season. Brilliantly this is enough to field a whole first XI of African players:

Possible Rennes first XI

 

 

Best of the Blogs: January 2013

If you’re a ground-hopping-obsessive-compulsive-disorder type football fan then you might just be interested in taking in five games over two days in beautiful Nottinghamshire.

Is it possible to stop watching the Premier League? James Longhurst investigates…

Mexico 86, panini stickers, high quality images. Have I piqued your interest, all can be viewed here.

It can happen. Sometimes the “other team” scores a goal. Narrow the Angle takes a look at the problematic area of the opposition scoring.

A beautiful and soothing video about the players who make up the elite group of the 38 Club.

If footballers were tube stations, what would the underground look like? Apart from a terrible mess? Well, probably something like this.

Here’s an amusing picture of Ally McCoist and a terrible chart and this is a beautiful Belgian ground hewn from wood, and this is Garrincha wearing a Wales shirt!

For  something non-football related this is a fantastic piece on a Russian family who didn’t realise World War II had happened .

 

Premier League table for the 2012 calendar year

Manchester United were the club who picked up the most Premier League points during 2012. They are followed by their city rivals Manchester City who despite losing the same number of games as United, couldn’t convert many of their draws to wins.

Interestingly Everton picked up more points than both Chelsea and Arsenal during 2012 though this may have something to do with the fact that Everton played more games than both Chelsea and Arsenal during the year. Additionally the contrast between Everton and their neighbours across Stanley Park is stark. Liverpool only won 11 out of their 38 games in 2012. The only two sides who weren’t relegated or promoted during 2012 with a lower points tally than Liverpool were Aston Villa and QPR.

For more statistics related to the 2012 calendar year including stats from the Football League, take a look at the ever excellent Sporting Intelligence.

 

PREMIER LEAGUE 2011/2012 WORD CLOUDS

Each of these word clouds represents the terms used within BBC match reports for each individual side during the 2011/2012 season. All twenty of the sides that competed in the Premier League during last season are represented. These word clouds give an indication as to what players were mentioned most during the season. From the clouds you can ascertain that Arsenal’s match reports often mention “van Persie” and that “Suarez” and “Dalglish” were two terms often used in Liverpool match reports. Ultimately they’re just a bit of fun and I wouldn’t read too much into them.

The word clouds were generated using the wonderful wordle.net website. It’s well worth a visit. Click on any image below to see a larger version.

Arsenal

Aston Villa

Blackburn Rovers

Bolton Wanderers

Chelsea

Everton

Fulham

Liverpool

Manchester City

Manchester United

Newcastle United

Norwich City

Queens Park Rangers

Stoke City/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2752" align="aligncenter" width="573"] Swansea City

Sunderland

Tottenham Hotspur

West Bromwich Albion

Wigan Athletic

Wolverhampton Wanderers

 

LIVERPOOL SEASON REVIEW 2011/2012

The word cloud below was generated using all of Liverpool’s match reports from the BBC website from the 2011/2012 season. The more frequently a word is used, the larger it appears on screen. The image was generated using the wonderful wordle.net.

Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish features heavily as does Uruguayan striker Luis Suarez who was “embroiled” in a race row for much of the season.

Click to make image bigger

 

WOLVERHAMPTON WANDERERS SEASON REVIEW 2011/2012

The word cloud below was generated using all of Wolverhampton Wanderers’ match reports from the BBC website from the 2011/2012 season. The more frequently a word is used, the larger it appears on screen. The image was generated using the wonderful wordle.net.

Click to make image bigger