It was almost a month ago now that I posted 40 Amazing Football Facts. If you haven’t read that yet, it’s worth a few minutes of your time. Today I bring you 50 Random Yet Amazing Facts about the English Premier League. I’m sure some you will be familiar with a few, but I’m equally sure there will be some that are sure to surprise. If you are a fan of sports facts, check out my others at Random Sports Facts.
1. Sheffield Utd’s Brian Deane scored the first goal in the English Premier League history.
2. No English manager has ever won the league title. Seriously.
3. The English Premier League started on 15th August 1992
4. Ryan Giggs’ dad played rugby for Wales
5. The Premier League was formed on 20th February 1992
6. Since 94-95 season, only Man United, City, Chelsea, Arsenal have won league
7. Sir Alex Ferguson won 12 Premier League titles
8. Sponsors: Carling 1993-2001, Barclay Card 2001-2004 and Barclays 2004 to now
9. The first Sky television rights agreement was worth £304 million over five years
10. Ryan Giggs has played in every Premier League season (until his retirement)
11. Kevin Keegan’s quote “I would love it if we beat them. Love it!” is still fondly remembered in football.
12. The highest scoring game was Man United’s 9-0 defeat of Ipswich in 94-95 season; Andy Cole scored five times.
13. Blackburn lead the red card charts with an amazing 75 red cards
14. Chelsea lead the yellow card charts with over 1200 bookings
15. In 2003-2004 Arsenal went the whole season unbeaten, thus earning the moniker “Invincibles”
16. Alan Shearer leads scoring charts with 260 Premier League goals
17. Frank Lampard has 161 goals from midfield – an unbelievable amount for a non-striker.
18. Chelsea scored a whooping 103 goals in the 2009-10 title win
19. Swindon let in 100 goals in 1993-94 season
20. Alan Shearer scored 11 Premier League hat tricks
21. Fernando Torres, at £50 million, is the highest value transfer between English clubs
22. Ledley King scored fastest goal after just 10 seconds
23. David Beckham scored that unreal halfway line goal against Wimbledon on the opening day of 1996-97 season
24. Sunderland (05-06) and Derby (07-08) both only won one home game in a season
25. The most away wins in a season was Chelsea 2004-2005
26. The most consecutive wins was 10 by Arsenal (10 Feb 2002 to 24 Aug 2002)
27. Derby went an amazing 32 games without a win in 2007-08 season
28. The highest attendance was 76,398 for Man Utd vs. Blackburn in 2007
29. The lowest attendance was 3,039 for Wimbledon vs. Everton 1993
30. The most points in a season was Chelsea with 95 points in 2004-05 season.
31. The most Premiership appearances is Ryan Giggs, who has 612 and counting
32. The oldest goal scorer was Teddy Sheringham at 40 years and 268 days
33. The most clean sheets record is held by David James, with 173
34. Kevin Davies has the most yellow cards, with 100 bookings
35. The earliest kick off was 11:15 Man City vs. Everton 2005
36. The most assists is Ryan Giggs with 127 and counting
37. The most red cards record is held by Patrick Viera, Duncan Ferguson and Richard Dunne – all with 8
38. There wasn’t a single corner in the Chelsea vs. Wigan game on 21st Aug 2013
39. Kevin Gillespie, Dave Kitson and Andreas Johansson were all sent off without touching the ball
39. Arsenal, Aston Villa, Chelsea, Everton, Liverpool, Manchester United, and Tottenham are the only teams to compete in every Premier League season
40. Around 63% of the league’s players are non-British players.
41. Eric Cantona scored the Premier League’s first hat trick playing for Leeds vs. Spurs
42. The first televised Premier League goal was scored by Teddy Sheringham
43. First keeper to score a goal was Peter Schmeichel in 2001 for Aston Villa
44. The first player to reach 100 Premier League goals was Alan Shearer
45. The first Premier League goal of the season award went to Dalian Atkinson for Villa against Wimbledon.
46. The first African player in Premier League was Peter Ndlovu for Coventry City in August 1992
47. Man United won the first Premier League title with 84 points.
48. 2003-2004 was the season Roman Abramovich took over Chelsea
49. Sir Alex Ferguson is only manager to be in charge ever since the Premier League began (until his retirement).
50. Wayne Rooney is the ugliest Premiership player ever—just joking
photo credit: vagueonthehow via photopin cc
