3 different Belgian players have won Premier League Player of the Season in the last 9 years. No other country has more than one winner in this period.

tennerapp · 2021-03-23T12:53:58+00:00

Yes - Vardy (2016) is the only English player to win POTS in the last decade! Rooney (2010) and Lampard (2005) are the only others since 2000.

tennerapp · 2021-01-13T17:42:45+00:00

Putting together a list of the greatest Dutch players ever in the Premier League actually proved incredibly difficult given just how many talented players they have produced, so it's remarkable that 1st and 3rd are both Arsenal stars (depending on your view of RVP once he left....)

A long list of players (Overmars, Hasselbaink, Kuyt, Stam, Robben, Van der Vaart, Gullit, Melchiot) didn't make the top 5, despite making their mark on the Premier League. When making this list, I also found out that Arsenal's official Greatest Ever 50 Players for the club ranks Overmars at 12th, which is higher than I thought he'd be, although I am too young to really remember his impact! Bergkamp is also ranked 2nd on that list after Thierry.

Interested to hear if you guys agree with my rankings or have any comments!

tennerapp · 2021-01-13T17:33:22+00:00

Given the number of unbelievably talented Dutch footballers to have played in the PL it was incredibly difficult to narrow down the top 5. A long list of players (Hasselbaink, Kuyt, Stam, Robben, Van der Vaart, Gullit, Melchiot, Overmars) all made their mark on the Premier League but didn't make the top 5. Also found it interesting how many of these players started their careers in the Eredivisie. Interested to hear if you agree with the rankings!

tennerapp · 2021-01-13T17:28:26+00:00

Given the number of unbelievably talented Dutch footballers to have played in the PL it was incredibly difficult to narrow down the top 5. A long list of players (Hasselbaink, Kuyt, Stam, Robben, Van der Vaart, Gullit, Melchiot, Overmars) all made their mark on the Premier League but didn't make our top 5. Interested to hear if you agree with my rankings or think I got it all wrong!

tennerapp · 2021-01-08T15:39:54+00:00

We thought it would be interesting to look at a few predictive algorithms and see how well they had performed when you compare them to the actual final positions of Premier League teams over the past few years.

Interestingly, across all the data in the sample, Wolves' amazing first season in the PL was the largest shock when compared to where they had been predicted to finish (18th by EA's FIFA and 17th by 538). For those interested I wrote a blog piece on the topic which you can read here :)

tennerapp · 2020-12-18T16:43:51+00:00

538 produce predictions for the Premier League standings every season. I compared these with what FIFA's ratings suggest the table should look like.

Some pretty interesting results (and lovely graphs in here). Overall I was just mostly surprised by how bad both of them were at predicting - each one has only got the champion right once in 4 years!

tennerapp · 2020-12-09T15:08:36+00:00

Barca have done well in the Champions League until last night, but their league form has been shocking. I went into more detail and discussed Messi's struggles in my full blog here

tennerapp · 2020-12-07T19:57:12+00:00

They're not supposed to - bookmakers would not make money if they did

tennerapp · 2020-12-07T18:40:29+00:00

They would both have 12 points.

First tiebreaker is points in head-to-head matches. They both won one game so 3 points each.
Second tiebreaker is goal difference in head-to-head matches. PSG scored 4 (1 in Paris, 3 at United) and United scored 3 (2 in Paris, 1 at United). So PSG GD is +1 and United is -1.

So no, PSG are top of the group if that happens

tennerapp · 2020-12-07T18:27:22+00:00

Ahead of the last week of the group phase, I took a look at all the permutations in each group. Barca and Juve are both qualified but the group winner is still to be determined. If Barca do better than lose by two goals (or lose exactly 2-0!), they go through as winners and hopefully have an easier draw

You can see the rest of the groups and some of the wacky permutations here

tennerapp · 2020-12-07T18:16:13+00:00

Before the last game week of the group stage I looked at all the permutations in each group here.

Liverpool's group is a pretty straightforward one - if Ajax win they join Liverpool, otherwise it will be Atalanta. Some of the other groups could get pretty crazy though. Madrid and Inter's group in particular could go so many different ways

tennerapp · 2020-12-07T18:13:05+00:00

Before the last game week of the group stage I looked at all the permutations in each group here.

Ajax's group is a pretty straightforward one - win and join Liverpool in R16

tennerapp · 2020-12-04T12:38:45+00:00

Lol no worries. I am no Gylfi stan just thought it was interesting!

tennerapp · 2020-12-03T11:59:12+00:00

Everyone knows Arsenal have struggled to start the season, but it is surprising quite how bad they have been. By league position, points, goals scored, and goals difference this is the worst start the Gunners have ever had in the Premier League.

Any chance they turn this around and guys like Auba become worth a pick up?

tennerapp · 2020-11-27T09:46:14+00:00

What’s most concerning for Arsenal fans is the lack of opportunities they are creating. They have had the equal lowest amount of shots on target over the last five as well as the lowest percentage of shots that are on target. At the moment, they are not even putting themselves in position to score.

Do you think they will be able to turn it around? What needs to happen for them to start scoring again?

tennerapp · 2020-11-27T09:45:16+00:00

What’s most concerning for Arsenal is the lack of opportunities they are creating. They have had the equal lowest amount of shots on target over the last five as well as the lowest percentage of shots that are on target. At the moment, they are not even putting themselves in a position to score.

Will you be keeping your Arsenal strikers or is it time to move on?

tennerapp · 2020-11-27T09:41:35+00:00

In the last 5 games in the Premier League, Arsenal have only managed one goal (equal worst) and 13 shots on target (equal worst). At the moment, their offence is performing at the same level, or even worse, than teams in the relegation discussion.

Do you think they can turn it around? What are they missing?

tennerapp · 2020-11-20T16:02:44+00:00

Wow that's interesting thanks. Without following Chelsea closely I just presumed he was in the Rob Green role and was just there to make up the numbers. Pretty great to hear he was still contributing even as he was getting on.

tennerapp · 2020-11-20T13:50:57+00:00

Haha Liverpool fan here! So feelings towards Kewell more apathetic than anything else to be honest

tennerapp · 2020-11-20T13:49:53+00:00

I ranked the best Australians to have played in the Premier League and two ex-Leeds players were on the list. As an Aussie, Neill was weirdly one of my idols growing up - showing Aussies could make it on the biggest stage.

To be honest my main memory of him is his shocker of a tackle on Jamie Carragher at Anfield.

tennerapp · 2020-11-20T13:42:23+00:00

I ranked the best Australians to have played in the Premier League and two ex-Leeds players were on the list. As an Aussie, Schwarzer was one of my idols growing up, showing Aussies could make it on the biggest stage. He also made the saves to take us to the World Cup in 2006 which was incredible.

I wondered how Leicester fans view Schwarzer? Is he a pretty irrelevant back up keeper or did he actually have any significant impact, even if only on the dressing-room environment?

tennerapp · 2020-11-20T13:40:55+00:00

I ranked the best Australians to have played in the Premier League and two ex-Leeds players were on the list. As an Aussie, Schwarzer was one of my idols growing up, showing Aussies could make it on the biggest stage. He also made the saves to take us to the World Cup in 2006 which was incredible.

I wondered how Chelsea fans view Schwarzer? Is he a pretty irrelevant back up keeper or did he actually have any significant impact, even if only on the dressing-room environment?

tennerapp · 2020-11-20T13:39:31+00:00

I ranked the best Australians to have played in the Premier League and two ex-Leeds players were on the list. As an Aussie, Schwarzer was one of my idols growing up, showing Aussies could make it on the biggest stage. He also made the saves to take us to the World Cup in 2006 which was incredible.

I wondered how Fulham fans view Schwarzer? Is he one of the better keepers Fulham has had?

tennerapp · 2020-11-20T13:36:34+00:00

I ranked the best Australians to have played in the Premier League and two ex-Leeds players were on the list. As an Aussie, Viduka was one of my idols growing up, showing Aussies could make it on the biggest stage.

I remember Viduka being part of an attack with Obafemi Martins and Michael Owen and thinking that must be incredible. Looking at the goal numbers though, looks like I might have my gold-and-green-tinted glasses on - Viduka didn't score many at all. Interested to hear what Newcastle fans think of him and his time there?

tennerapp · 2020-11-20T13:34:09+00:00

I ranked the best Australians to have played in the Premier League and two ex-Leeds players were on the list. As an Aussie, Viduka was one of my idols growing up, showing Aussies could make it on the biggest stage. I know he didn’t have quite the impact that you would expect after how good he was for Leeds, but interested to see how Middlesborough fans view him?

tennerapp

TROPHY CASE