ANALYSIS: What the yawning gap between Manchester United and Everton says about the Premier League’s seven ‘ever presents’
By Brian Sears 10 September 2010 The first Premier League match of the weekend, tomorrow lunchtime, features two of the teams ‘ever present’ in the League since it began in 1992, with Everton hosting Manchester United. Only seven sides have been 'ever present', that pair plus Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Aston Villa and Tottenham. Thus 42 of the 380 games this season will be between those seven clubs, at the rate of just over one game per round of matches on average. And this week’s game is at Goodison. Our statistical analysis today (see table below) considers what a table would look like if you considered solely the results between the magnificent seven. The clear leaders would be United, with 121 wins from 216 games played, and 416 points. At the bottom of the pile are Everton, with 34 wins from 217 games so far, and 169 points. And when it comes to games just between Everton and United, United have gained more points from Everton than from any other Premier League club, and that makes it the most productive fixture for any club so far in Premier League history. Just. By a single point. United have taken 86 points from Everton so far, and 85 from Tottenham (details in table below). United have the third highest haul too: 81 points from Aston Villa. The next highest collection of points by an individual club against another is 75; Arsenal have gained that number from Everton, and Chelsea have also gained them from Tottenham. It says a great deal for Everton's tenacity that they have gained sufficient rewards from the clubs having more temporary Premier League residency to keep their place at the top table ,in spite of only averaging 9.4 points a season from their 12 games against ever-present colleagues. Manchester United have averaged 23 points a season from their 12 games. . More Brian Sears Sportingintelligence home page .
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