Tottenham Out To Avoid Unwanted Record in North London Derby

Stat, Viz, Quiz is the Opta Analyst football newsletter. This week’s edition includes numbers on Tottenham’s slip-ups in north London derbies, Harry Kane’s caps for England, and La Liga’s biggest thrashings.

One week of international football down, just one more to go. It’s hard to look at the international break as anything other than a speed bump along the highway of club football, but it does occasionally throw up some very interesting data stories.

And we like love data stories here at Opta Analyst. 

Our viz of the week covers one such tale, as Harry Kane eyes up his 100th England cap. We look at previous centurions and ask whether the current England captain can break the all-time record. 

Elsewhere, we go through a very #Spursy stat ahead of the north London derby, and after Barcelona’s rout of Real Valladolid earlier this month, we’ve got an Ask Opta question around big La Liga victories

There’s also a quiz for you to have a go at. Or don’t, suit yourself.

Let’s get into it

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STAT – Spursy Slip-Ups

We may have had to go a weekend without Premier League football, but we are so back this week and with a real treat to look forward to on Sunday.

That’s right, taking place at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, it’s the first north London derby of the season. A Premier League staple, arguably second only to Liverpool vs Manchester United in the English football calendar, it’s a game that rarely disappoints.

Well, strictly speaking, it’s actually disappointed quite regularly over the years if you’re Tottenham fan, and the stat we’re focusing on here does a darn good job of highlighting why that might be.

So, Spurs have dropped 45 points from winning positions in north London derby encounters with Arsenal in the Premier League – no side in the competition’s history have a poorer record against a single team (Newcastle also 45 vs Liverpool).

For Spurs supporters, it’s a grim reminder (so yeah, apologies about that…) of a fragility that’s so often cost them dear in this, the grandest of fixtures. For us neutrals, it’s a reminder to make sure we’re tuning this weekend because this game so regularly produces thrills and spills.

But there’s more to that fact than meets the eye because it would seem Spurs have found a way to break this habit in recent seasons.

You see, you can’t drop points from winning positions if you don’t take the lead, and Spurs haven’t led for a single minute across their last four league games against Arsenal – very shrewd.

*Now for our very best Lampardian transition*

No, but seriously, the north London derby is always one of the most hotly anticipated fixtures of the Premier League season, and there is obviously far more to it than just Tottenham struggling to hold a lead.

For starters, somewhat linked to the previous stat, the NLD has seen more instances of the team to score first in a match then fail to win more often than any other Premier League fixture (29 – D19 L10).

Granted, Tottenham account for 17 of those, but there’s also been 12 times Arsenal couldn’t get the job done after scoring first. 

Furthermore, with 43 occasions of both teams scoring, the north London derby has seen more meetings in which each side got on the scoresheet than any other fixture.

And no, we’re not taking the blame for the inevitable 0-0 now incoming this weekend…

*Grits teeth*

VIZ – Raise Your Cap, Harry Kane

Harry Kane looks set to join an exclusive group of England men’s players on Tuesday night. The Three Lions’ captain and all-time top scorer could win his 100th cap in the meeting with Finland at Wembley Stadium, becoming just the 10th male player to do so.

Aged 31 years and 44 days old when they take on Finland on Tuesday, Kane has time on his side to break the all-time record for the England men’s side, too. That record is currently held by former goalkeeper Peter Shilton, who won 125 caps. The outfielder with the most caps is Wayne Rooney (120), with England’s former all-time top scorer the last to reach the century of caps for the men’s side back in November 2014.

Rooney is the youngest (29 years, 22 days old) to reach 100 England caps for the men’s side, hitting the landmark 10 years ago. His final cap came exactly four years later – he won just 20 more across that time – and Kane will surely eclipse his total if he stays fit. 

The first England player to reach 100 caps was Billy Wright, who did so in April 1959, followed by Bobby Charlton in April 1970 and Bobby Moore in February 1973. After Shilton’s accomplishment in June 1988, the next five players all won their 100th cap between 2008 and 2014 – David Beckham (March 2008), Steven Gerrard (November 2012), Ashley Cole (February 2013), Frank Lampard (September 2013) and Rooney (November 2014).

The increase in international fixtures in the modern era has helped make it a more common occurrence for players to reach a century of caps. In the 1950s, England averaged eight games a year, while in the 60s and 70s, that average went up to 10 a year. 

The post-Covid era has seen that tally of games increase, especially in tournament years. England played 19 games in 2021 – two more than in any other year in history – while it was 13 in 2022, 10 in 2023 and is already at 12 in 2024 with five more scheduled to be played.

QUIZ – The Premier League’s Back, Baby

Premier League action returns this weekend, and we’ve got five trivia questions to see how much you know about it. Answers at the bottom of the page.

1. Since the start of last season, which defender has the most assists in the Premier League?

2. Only six Premier League managers have won their first four league games in charge. Arne Slot could become the seventh, but who is the most recent example of a manager doing this?

3. Tottenham’s Son Heung-min has scored eight goals against Arsenal in all competitions. In the history of the fixture, only three players have scored more goals than that. Name them.

4. With his goal against Tottenham on Matchday 1, Jamie Vardy became the 16th oldest player to score in the Premier League. But who is the oldest?

5. Who has created the most chances in the Premier League so far in 2024-25?

Ask Opta

This week’s question comes to us from from Dylan Santoyo, who asks: “After watching Barcelona win earlier this month, I was wondering when the last time Barcelona beat a team 7-0 in La Liga was. Also, how many teams in La Liga have been able to score 7 unanswered goals?”

Do you have a stats-based football question you want to Ask Opta? If so, send it to editors@theanalyst.com and we’ll do our best to provide you with the answer in a future edition of SVQ.

Answer:

Hansi Flick has got off to a good start at Barcelona, hasn’t he? Barça entered this international break on the back of a 7-0 win against Real Valladolid, in which Raphinha scored a hat-trick. They are top of the table having won all four of their games and are already four points clear.

It was their first 7-0 win in over 10 years, last winning by that scoreline back in March 2014, when they beat Osasuna under Gerardo Martino. Lionel Messi obviously scored a hat-trick in that win.

 They’ve enjoyed bigger wins more recently than that, though, beating both Córdoba (May 2015) and Deportivo La Coruña (April 2016) 8-0 under Luis Enrique.

Overall in La Liga, Barcelona’s biggest margin of victory is nine. That’s come in 9-0 wins against Sporting Gijón (1952), Real Oviedo (1954) and Rayo Vallecano (1979), as well as a 10-1 win over Gimnàstic Tarragona in 1949. 

The last time a team in La Liga scored seven goals without reply came on the final day of last season. Surprise packages Girona rounded off their superb campaign in style beating Granada 7-0. Artem Dovbyk scored three times in what turned out to be his final game for the club, moving to Roma in the summer of 2024. 

Ironically, the biggest win in La Liga history was actually at Barcelona’s expense. They were demolished 12-1 by Athletic Club in February 1931, who remain the only side to win a game by an 11-goal margin. 

In the 12-1 win, Bata scored seven goals – a record that has only been equalled once in the competition since, by László Kubala in 1952.

What Are We Up to at Opta Analyst?

Here’s some of the latest data-driven offerings you can find on our website:

Quiz Answers

1. Kieran Trippier (10).

2. Maurizio Sarri, who won his first five Premier League games in charge at Chelsea in 2018-19.

3. Harry Kane (14), Emmanuel Adebayor (10) and Bobby Smith (10). 

4. Teddy Sheringham who scored for West Ham against Portsmouth on Boxing Day 2006, aged 40 years and 268 days old.

5. Andreas Pereira currently leads the way with 14 chances created for Fulham. 

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