Wednesday 30 September 2015 12:08, UK
Have the defending champions ever been as low in the league as Chelsea? Are Aston Villa about to equal an unwanted record? Read on for the latest Premier League stats from Martin Tyler...
How to send your questions to Martin:
1: Email your posers to sk[email protected]
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Martin's starting stats
Jose Mourinho is still waiting for his 200th win in charge of Chelsea. After losing to Porto, he has played 307 games with his record reading: W199 D63 L45 and he is on 149 clean sheets. He might get to 200 wins and 150 shut-outs live on Sky Sports on Saturday against Southampton.
I was at St James' on Saturday where Mourinho has still never won in the Premier League (D3 L3), but people forget he has twice won there in the League Cup in 2004 and 2006.
Kevin Mbabu became the 200th player to represent Newcastle in the Premier League on Saturday and he was followed by substitute Ivan Toney as the 201st. Ramires marked his 150th Premier League appearance with his 16th Premier League goal. Newcastle have won only four of 30 league games since beating Chelsea in December 2014.
Chelsea flew back from Newcastle, which is not unusual these days, but Chelsea are known as the first team ever to have flown to a league fixture and back. They did it when they played Newcastle in 1957, well before Roman Abramovich's financial backing!
The Premier League Goals Allocation Panel (the dubious goals panel to you and me) ruled last Wednesday that Eden Hazard had not scored against Arsenal and it was a Callum Chambers own goal. Later that evening he scored another own goal for Tottenham in the League Cup. So for me, he became the first player to score two own goals on the same day against different opponents. Ha ha! That's a tricky trivia question for the future.
Not so champion
Chelsea are 15th in the Premier League. Is this the lowest a defending champion has been in the table outside August? James
MARTIN SAYS: In fact, James, Chelsea were as low as 17th on September 13 - and that equalled the Premier League lowest position for a defending champion. They would have dropped into the bottom three had Newcastle won against West Ham on the Monday Night Football, which would have set a new low.
Blackburn were 17th in September 1995 having won the title just four months earlier, while Leeds United were 17th in February 1993, a far cry from their old First Division title celebrations the previous season - although there were 22 teams in the Premier League that season.
Chelsea's start is their worst in the Roman Abramovich era (since 2003/04), and only once since the start of the Premier League have they registered less than eight points after seven games.
It came in 2000/01, and it saw Gianluca Vialli replaced by Claudio Ranieri after just one win from their opening five games, eventually finishing sixth and earning a UEFA Cup spot.
Top two troubles
Manchester City and Chelsea have lost five games between them already. Have the Premier League top two ever started this badly before? Freddie, Newcastle
MARTIN SAYS: Chelsea took just five games to lose for the third time, the same number they lost in the entire 2014/15 season, while Manchester City's perfect start to the season has been forgotten after two straight defeats.
They have matched the record for the highest number of defeats for the previous season's top two in their opening seven matches of the next season.
You do not have to look too far back for the last instance of the previous year's top two losing five of their combined opening 14 games. In 2013/14, Manchester United and Manchester City lost five games between them, three of which were down to David Moyes' new side.
It also happened in 1995/96, but the five losses were entirely down to then-champions Blackburn Rovers, who lost eight of their opening 17 games on their way to a seventh-place finish.
Last season, Manchester City and Liverpool lost a combined four matches in their first seven games, but back in 2004/05 the previous year's top two - Arsenal and Chelsea - did not lose any of their first seven games; the only time that has happened.
Losing by one
Aston Villa have now lost all five of their games by one goal. What is the longest streak of losing by a margin of 1? Kieran
MARTIN SAYS: All five of Aston Villa's defeats this season - against Liverpool, West Brom, Leicester, Crystal Palace and Man Utd - have been by a single goal - and they also lost the last game of last season 1-0 to Burnley. Their last six league defeats have been by a one-goal margin.
When it comes to a run of Premier League defeats by a single goal, punctuated by other results, Villa are still some way off the record of 15 set by Liverpool between December 5, 1998 and January 3, 2000. In that time they never lost a league game by more than one goal. The streak was eventually ended by a 2-0 defeat to Chelsea on April 29, 2000.
Aston Villa have lost each of their last three Premier League matches by a single goal - and they are close to matching the record for losing consecutive games in that fashion.
In Premier League history, 18 sides have lost four games in a row by a single goal, but none of them went on to lose their fifth game by a single goal as well.
Bolton achieved the feat on three separate occasions in December 2004, April 2006 and August 2009 while QPR, Norwich and Southampton have all done it twice. Villa would match the record if they lose at home to Stoke by one goal on Saturday and would break it with a single goal defeat at Chelsea.
I'll throw in a stat I really like here. In that run, Villa lost 1-0 to West Brom. All of West Brom's last 15 wins have come when they have kept a clean sheet - including all nine under Tony Pulis. Once Everton scored to make it 2-1 on Monday night, West Brom's chances of winning diminished considerably. They haven't won when they have conceded since March 2014 and a 2-1 loss to Swansea.
Starting with three
Alexis Sanchez's hat-trick were his first league goals of the season. Has any other player scored their first goal of the season as part of a hat-trick? Michael
MARTIN SAYS: According to our friends at Opta, Sanchez is the 40th player to start his scoring for a Premier League season with a hat-trick. He is only the 22nd player to open his account with a hat-trick outside of August, though.
Jermaine Pennant achieved the feat at the latest time in the season as he netted his first three goals on the penultimate day of the 2002/03 campaign for Arsenal against Southampton. The winger had been on loan with Watford earlier in the campaign and returned to Arsenal in February.
Ray Parlour scored his first goals of the 2000/01 season with a hat-trick against Newcastle as late as December 9 while several players have done it in November including Jordi Gomez (2012), Marc Overmars (1999), Paul Kitson (2001) and Andy Booth (1997).
Incredibly, one player opened his account for the season by scoring FOUR goals in a game. That was Gianluca Vialli, who netted four times in Chelsea's 6-0 win over Barnsley in their second game of the 1997/98 campaign.
Vicarage lows
There have been just two goals scored in four league games at Vicarage Road this season. What's the lowest number scored at one ground in a Premier League season? Dan
MARTIN SAYS: If goals continue to be this sparse at Vicarage Road then Watford will be well on track to break the record for the lowest in a season. There are currently just 0.5 goals per game being scored there after two 0-0 draws a 1-0 win and a 1-0 defeat. Odion Ighalo and Yohan Cabaye (penalty) are the only names to get on the scoresheet there.
Manchester City hold the record after just 26 goals were scored at the City of Manchester Stadium in the 2006/07 season at an average of 1.37 per game.
Leeds' Elland Road also saw a shortage of goals in 1996/97 as only 28 were scored in 19 matches while 31 goals were netted at Tottenham's White Hart Lane in 2008/09.
There were 32 scored at St Andrew's, home of Birmingham City, in 2009/10 and 34 at Everton, Aston Villa and Sunderland in 1998/99, 2006/07 and 2001/02 respectively.
It's worth noting Arsenal fans have been used to seeing goals at the Emirates in recent years but so far there have been just four in three games at an average of 1.33 per game.
