65,000
The fine in pounds given to the Serbian FA for racist abuse during the Under-21 game against England.
7,712 and counting :
The number of tweets posted by Joey Barton in 2012. The most controversial tweet was about ex Newcastle Striker Alan Shearer :
1,955 :
The cost in pounds of the Premier League’s most expensive season ticket. Yes, it has to be Arsenal.
1,410 : The number of pieces of chewing gum West Ham’s Sam Allardyce has chewed throughout 2012 (matchdays only). Working on his claim that he gets through six packets a game, he has now officially taken the crown of “Mr Chewing Gum” from Sir Alex Ferguson.
608 : The number of appearances by Ryan Giggs in the EPL. This was not a new record but just an extension of his own record. The 39 year old Welshman will just not retire and one would not be surprised to see him again the next season.
310 : Tottenham goalkeeper Brad Friedel made 310 consecutive Premier League appearances – a competition record – between August 2004 and October 2012. The run ended when he was dropped to the bench for the game against Villa. But he returned, in December, against Panathinaikos to set another record: a Spurs club record by becoming their oldest ever player at the age of 41 years and 162 days.
272 : Amount in minutes of ‘Fergie-Time’ played in 2012. Games involving Manchester United have had 272 extra minutes this year. That is an additional four hours and 32 minutes. In other words an extra three full games.
130 :
Frank Lampard became Chelsea’s highest goalscorer in England’s top division with his 130th goal in the rout of Aston Villa, overtaking Bobby Tambling (129). And Lampard scored on his 500th Premier League start, with his 100th Premier League goal in London.
102 :
When Everton’s Tim Howard became only the fourth goalkeeper in Premier League history to score (for his own side), against Bolton in January, he did it in style. The goal came from 102 yards (that’s 93 metres), a record for the longest-range goal in the competition. Shame Everton lost.
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52 :
No fewer than 52 managers, in the four divisions, left their jobs in 2012. At Chelsea, Roberto Di Matteo won the Champions League and still got sacked. And just this week, Henning Berg was jettisoned by Blackburn after just 57 days and 10 games in charge at Ewood Park.
24 : No fewer than 24 of Manchester United’s 46 league points this season (52 per cent) have come in games in which they have been behind. Injuries and growing age may have made their defence one of the weakest ever under Ferguson era but their strike force is definitely one of the strongest of all times.
18 :
Not a record to be proud of for Arsenal. In early December they suffered their worst start to a season for 18 years and Arsène Wenger’s worst in his 16 years at the club.
17 :
Early in the year,Robin van Persie equaled a Premier League record in the 2011-12 season while still a Gunner. The Dutchman scored against 17 different teams in the previous campaign, equaling the record set by another former Arsenal striker, Ian Wright.
16 : The number of games QPR lost in a row since the start of the 2012-13 EPL season. This is a record for the worst ever start to a Premier League season and they also sacked a manager on the way. New manager Harry Redknapp finally won a game in their 17th attempt.
11 :
In February Chris Smalling set a record for shortest appearance when, in the Premier League game at Norwich, the defender replaced Ryan Giggs just 11 seconds before referee Andre Marriner blew the final whistle.
9 :
Frank Lampard created history when he scored for the 10th time earlier this year. The record is ‘scoring 10 goals in consecutive seasons’. He has achieved it nine years in a row. He currently has 4 goals for this season and is 6 away from making it 10 in 10.
8 : Chelsea beat Villa, earlier in December, 8-0 to become the first team in the Premier League to win by that scoreline TWICE.A Premier League game has only been won by an eight-goal margin five times and Chelsea hold the honour of completing it on two occasions, firstly in May 2010 against Wigan and then on Dec 23, 2012.
7 : In that same game, SEVEN different goalscorers had netted for one team in a Premier League game. It could have been 8 different players had debutante Lucas Piazon netted in his missed penalty.
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Major non-EPL stats:
91 : The biggest and the most talked about stat has to be the number of goals scored by Lionel Messi in one single calender year. He beat Gerd Muller’s record of 86 goals in one year which was set 40 years ago. Though this record has been debatable and questioned when the Zambian Football Association claimed Godfrey Chitalu had scored 107 goals for club and country in 1972, FIFA chose not to comment.
49 : Juventus set a new Italian record of going on a 49-game unbeaten run, which was ended by Inter Milan in November.