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Martin Tyler's stats: Liverpool letting two-goal leads slip

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Martin Tyler brought you his latest teaser ahead of Leicester's clash with Swansea.

Do Liverpool let two-goal leads slip often? Does the Premier League's top scorer regularly win the title? Martin Tyler answers those questions and more in this week's stats column...

Plus don't forget to have a go at this week's tricky teaser from the King Power Stadium.

How to send your questions to Martin:

1: Email your posers to [email protected]

2. Tweet @SkyFootball using the hashtag #TylersTeasers

Martin's Starting Stats

I was at Leicester on Sunday to see them go 14 matches unbeaten at home - their best run in the top division since December 1932 to September 1933.

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Opponents Swansea haven't won away at Leicester since 1950. In 12 visits, they have had three draws and nine defeats. They have lost every game they have played away to Leicester since 1980, when they got a draw, and they have lost all five of their visits to the King Power Stadium.

It was Wes Morgan's 600th career game, while Marc Albrighton scored his fourth Leicester goal, all at home, and his first since the opening day, when the Foxes also scored four. Leonardo Ulloa made his sixth Premier League start of the season. His previous one was on January 2, at home to Bournemouth.

Fifty-three years ago in 1963, when Leicester were last in contention for the title, they failed to win any of their last five games, losing the last four which were all away because of the bad winter. They finished fourth with Spurs in second. They have never finished as high since.

The champions in 1962/63 were Everton, who will be the opponents for Leicester on their final home game a week on Saturday - where the Premier League trophy could be decided, presented or both.

One further stat for you - in the last 12 meetings of Spurs and West Brom (home and away) there has only been one home win (Spurs winning 1-0 in January 2012), so maybe it was no surprise that Tottenham fluffed their lines on Monday night!

Heavy back-to-back losses

Stoke have conceded four goals in three Premier League games in a row. Has that ever happened before? James, Crewe

Stoke have conceded four goals in three consecutive games following Saturday's 4-0 defeat at Manchester City
Image: Stoke have conceded four goals in three consecutive games following Saturday's 4-0 defeat at Manchester City

MARTIN SAYS: Stoke have indeed shipped four goals against Liverpool, Tottenham and Manchester City but they are not the first to do so.

The first week or so of March 2008 was a bad one for West Ham as they suffered a trio of 4-0 defeats at home to Chelsea then away to Liverpool and Tottenham.

Should Stoke leak four against Sunderland on Saturday they would be the first team to concede four in four Premier League games in a row.

For the record, Wigan's run of defeats at the end of 2009/10 and beginning of 2010/11 was even more spectacular than that.

They finished the 2009/10 season with an 8-0 defeat to Chelsea at Stamford Bridge and followed it up with a poor start to the following campaign.

Under Roberto Martinez, they began with home games against Blackpool and Chelsea but were beaten 4-0 and 6-0 before following up with just one loss in their next seven league matches.

Do goals mean prizes?

With Harry Kane leading the scoring charts and Jamie Vardy banned for another game, it looks like the Premier League's top scorer won't win the title. How often has that happened? Arif, Sheffield

Tottenham's Harry Kane scores his side's first goal against Stoke
Image: Harry Kane is the Premier League's leading scorer - but it looks increasingly like he won't win the title this season

MARTIN SAYS: It is actually a more common occurrence than you might think and the Premier League's leading scorer in each of the last two seasons has played for the team which finished second.

In 2013/14, Luis Suarez scored 31 times for Liverpool and last year Sergio Aguero's 26 goals for Manchester City could only help them finish as runners-up.

Robin van Persie was the last leading scorer in the Premier League to play for the side which finished top as he got 26 during Manchester United's title-winning campaign in 2012/13.

He is one of eight men to have finished top or joint-top of the scoring charts and also won the title in the same season.

Of those, Thierry Henry did it twice with Arsenal as he scored 24 goals in 2001/02 then went six better with 30 in 2003/04.

Thierry Henry
Image: Thierry Henry was the Premier League's leading scorer on both occasions as Arsenal won the title in 2002 and 2004

The others are Alan Shearer (34 with Blackburn in 1994/95), Dwight Yorke (18 with Manchester United in 1998/99), Ruud van Nistelrooy (25 with Manchester United in 2002/03), Cristiano Ronaldo (31 with Manchester United in 2007/08), Didier Drogba (29 with Chelsea in 2009/10) and Dimitar Berbatov (20 with Manchester United in (2010/11).

That means in 23 complete Premier League seasons so far, there have only been nine occasions when the top scorer has played for the champions.

Indeed, the leading scorer doesn't always necessarily ply his trade for one of the clubs at the top end of the league. Dion Dublin was joint-top scorer with 18 while playing for 11th-placed Coventry in 1997/98.

Low-scoring champions

Leicester haven't scored five goals in a Premier League game this season but look set to win the title. When did a team last do that? Allan, Golders Green

Riyad Mahrez celebrates with his team-mates after opening the Swansea
Image: Leicester recorded their biggest win of the season against Swansea - but they've yet to score five goals this term in a Premier League game

MARTIN SAYS: You have to go to 2004/05 when Chelsea won their first Premier League under Jose Mourinho to find the last time the Premier League was won without the champions scoring five in a game.

With that said, they did score four goals in seven different wins on their way to their first title in 50 years so they were handsome victors on a regular basis.

Leicester, of course, defeated Swansea 4-0 at the weekend and that result goes down as their biggest win of the season. The only other time they have scored four in a Premier League match in 2015/16 was on the opening day, when they defeated Sunderland 4-2.

It is also worth noting no team has ever won the Premier League without scoring five in a game but having conceded five in a match.

Leicester did that in September when they lost 5-2 to Arsenal, one of just three defeats in their 35 matches so far.

Unlucky 13 for Liverpool

How often do Liverpool fail to win when they are two goals ahead? Joe, St Helens

Jack Colback scores an equaliser for Newcastle against Liverpool
Image: Liverpool let a two-goal lead slip for the second time this season in a Premier League match on Saturday

MARTIN SAYS: Liverpool let a two-goal lead slip against Newcastle on Saturday, something that has happened on just 15 occasions in total in the Premier League.

Amazingly, three of those 15 occasions have come in the last three months as they surrendered two-goal leads to Sunderland (2-2), Southampton (3-2) and Newcastle (2-2).

There was a period of nine-and-a-half years when Liverpool never let a two-goal advantage go in the league between September 2002 and March 2012.

Since then, they have done it a total of eight times including against Leicester last season when they drew 2-2 and famously against Crystal Palace the season before when they let a THREE goal lead slip - the only time they have done so in Premier League history.

They have lost on three occasions after being two goals ahead. Before Southampton this season, they lost 3-2 to QPR in 2012 as they conceded all of their goals in the final 13 minutes at Loftus Road and there was a famous 4-3 loss to Leeds United at Elland Road in 2000 when Mark Viduka scored all of the home side's goals.

Saturday was only the fifth occasion when they have let a two-goal lead slip at Anfield in the Premier League. Three of those have come in the last two seasons (Leicester last season; Sunderland and Newcastle this season).

Remarkably, the other two occasions were back-to-back home matches in September 2002 when they let a 2-0 lead slip against Birmingham on a Monday night and then it happened again nine days later against Newcastle. The Toon are no strangers to big comebacks against Liverpool!

Liverpool letting two-goal leads slip in the Premier League

Date Opponent Final score
18/10/1992 Man Utd (a) 2-2
18/12/1993 Tottenham (a) 3-3
05/05/1996 Man City (a) 2-2
26/08/2000 Southampton (a) 3-3
04/11/2000 Leeds (a) 4-3
02/09/2002 Newcastle (h) 2-2
11/09/2002 Birmingham (h) 2-2
21/03/2012 QPR (a) 3-2
28/10/2012 Everton (a) 2-2
30/01/2013 Arsenal (a) 2-2
05/05/2014 Crystal Palace (a) 3-3
01/01/2015 Leicester (h) 2-2
06/02/2016 Sunderland (h) 2-2
20/03/2016 Southampton (a) 3-2
23/04/2016 Newcastle (h) 2-2

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