SPAOTP's Advent Calendar: Day 20

It's Day 20 of our Advent Calendar and behind today's door is another of our famous Christmas graphs (famous in our tiny imaginations at least).

It shows the proportion of penalties scored by the home and away teams in all Premier League matches so far in the 2009/10 season (including the two scored today in the match between West Ham and Chelsea).

And before you ask, Man United's two at home this season make up only 4% of the 45 tucked away by all teams home and away thus far.

SPAOTP's Advent Calendar: Day 13

For Day 13 of the almost-certainly-by-now-famous SPAOTP Advent Calendar, we give you a pictorial representation of the Premier League teams that have received the most yellow cards so far this season (prior to December 13th 2009).

If you have any ideas for items you'd like us to feature in the calendar, you're more than welcome to send them to us. Either drop us a line at info@spaotp.com or else leave your message on a comment if you're not fussed about the rest of the world knowing about it before their time.

SPAOTP's Advent Calendar: Day 10

For Day 10 of the SPAOTP Advent Calendar, it's a welcome return to some old friends that helped us convey our 12 Graphs of Christmas last year.

This year, they're back to illustrate how many American players are currently plying their trade in the top flight of five of the big European leagues...

(click image for a larger version)

SPAOTP's Advent Calendar: Day 2

It's Day 2 of our Advent Calendar and today, in a nod towards last year's 'Twelve Graphs of Christmas' series, we bring you a graph showing the number of hat-tricks scored in the Premier League since its inception.

As you can see, there have already been seven hat-tricks scored this season (up to December 2nd 2009*) and strangely the same teams keep cropping up - Hull twice, Liverpool twice, Portsmouth twice, Tottenham three times (and Defoe twice), Burnley twice, Wigan twice... definitely a pattern emerging if you ask us...



Hat-tricks so far during 2009/10 Premier League season:

1) Jermain Defoe, Spurs (v Hull City, 1-5)
2) Yossi Benayoun, Liverpool (v Burnley, 4-0)
3) Robbie Keane, Spurs (4 v Burnley, 5-0)
4) Fernando Torres, Liverpool (v Hull, 6-1)
5) Aruna Dindane, Portsmouth (v Wigan, 4-0)
6) Jermain Defoe, Spurs (5 vWigan, 9-1)
7) Wayne Rooney, Man United (v Portsmouth, 1-4)

The Premier League Title Chase 2008/09

By way of a pictorial representation of Man United and Liverpool's title chase this season, we give you below a graph showing the number of points attained by both clubs during the course of the current Premier League campaign.

On it we've marked various notable events in the timeline which of course you can add to by way of a comment left on this article. We think it's interesting to see just how far Liverpool's red line remained higher than Man U's black one back in the days when some of us thought this might just be Rafa's year...




Key:
1 - Man United get off to what seems now a weak start with a 1-1 draw against Newcastle.
2 - Liverpool beat Man United 2-1 at Anfield.
3 - It's the end of October 2008 and Liverpool have an 8-point lead over Fergie's men.
4 - Liverpool suffer their first defeat - 2-1 away to Tottenham.
5 - Man United lose 2-1 away to Arsenal.
6 - Man United begin a run of 11 straight wins.
7 - The end of January 2009 approaches and Man United are in front of Liverpool for the first time.
8 - Liverpool lose 2-0 away to Middlesbrough.
9 - Man United now have a 7-point lead over Liverpool.
10 - Liverpool beat Man United 4-1 at Old Trafford.
11 - Man United lose 2-0 at Fulham.
12 - Man United are crowned 2008/09 Premier League champions with a game to spare.

The 12 Graphs of Christmas: Day 12

# "On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me...

...A chart that uses mince pies to show how well World Cup winning teams did in their first match after winning the World Cup." #



And that completes our Twelve Graphs of Christmas series. We hope you've enjoyed it and that you enjoy your Christmas holiday even more so. From all of us at Some People Are On The Pitch, have fun, enjoy yourselves but above all, be peaceful to one another. See you on the other side...

The 12 Graphs of Christmas: Day 11

# "On the eleventh day of Christmas, my true love sent to me...

...A chart showing the number of times certain swear words were mentioned by Joe Kinnear in his first press conference as manager of Newcastle United." #

The 12 Graphs of Christmas: Day 10

# "On the tenth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me...

...A graph showing the six lowest points totals for teams finishing bottom of the Premier League during the last ten seasons." #

The 12 Graphs of Christmas: Day 9

# "On the ninth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me...

...A graph showing Spain's position in the FIFA World Rankings between January 2007 and the present day." #

The 12 Graphs of Christmas: Day 7

# "On the seventh day of Christmas, my true love sent to me...

...A range of Christmas stockings depicting several Premier League football teams and the number of managers they've had since 1980 (not including caretaker managers)." #

The 12 Graphs of Christmas: Day 6

# "On the sixth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me...

...A series of Christmas crackers showing the proportion of matches won by Sven-Goran Eriksson at the last six teams he's managed." #



(and before anybody repeats the gag, Sp3ktor's already asked when we're going to do a Sven Diagram...)

The 12 Graphs of Christmas: Day 5

# "On the fifth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me...

...A graph showing the number of top-flight teams based in the capital cities of various European countries." #

The 12 Graphs of Christmas: Day 4

# "On the fourth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me...

...A graph showing the progress made (in terms of points won) by Sunderland prior to Roy Keane's dismissal on December 4th 2008 compared to that leading up to the same date in 2007." #

The 12 Graphs of Christmas: Day 3

# "On the third day of Christmas, my true love sent to me...

...An illustration featuring different sized Christmas trees to show the number of points dropped at home by Premier League teams on their way to winning the league title." #

The 12 Graphs of Christmas: Day 2

# "On the second day of Christmas, my true love sent to me...

...A Christmas pudding showing the proportion of matches Newcastle United have won in the captial (i.e. London) during 2008." #

The 12 Graphs of Christmas: Day 1

If there's one thing this blog site's been lacking recently, it's graphs and charts. So let's rectify that by leading you into the festive season with a daily football graph that hopefully makes you feel Christmassy in a very special way.

Altogether now then - one, two, three... # "On the first day of Christmas, my true love sent to me...

...A yule log depicting the representation of clubs among the 1966 England World Cup squad." #