Stan's Statistical Wonderland Vol. 9

In this edition, there will be some reaction to the reshuffle within the title race, a round up of action from the Premiership and Coca Cola leagues, and as usual, the weekly segments.

We'll start off with the game of the weekend, Manchester United vs Liverpool. Liverpool started brightly, or Man U started slowly, either way, a Fernando Torres free header saw the Scousers take the lead inside 10 minutes. Rooney earned his 33rd goal of the campaign with his second attempt after seeing his penalty saved. Mascherano had hold of Valencia's arm for a while until the latter went down to rightly be awarded a penalty. Ji Sung Park won the match with a terrific diving header. Like a few united players, I feel he is underrated. I would compare him to Dirk Kuyt in his work rate and resilience, but between them, there was only one winner here as Man U move clear at the top of the table.

For the reason for this, look no further than the Blackburn Vs Chelsea game played later on Sunday. Chelsea came out of the blocks fast with Drogba scoring his 28th of the season, but an El Hadj Diouf header saw Blackburn equalise, and Sam Allardyce gift his good friend Sir Alex a helping hand in the title race. I didnt watch the game, but I hear Phil Jones (Blackburn) had a very John Terry-esque performance on his debut at the back for Rovers. Only 3 teams in the Premier League have lost at home less times than Blackburn (both Manchesters and Chelsea).

Arsenal moved into 2nd place after beating West Ham 2-0 with 10 men for much of the game. Thomas Vermaelen became the 1st Gunners player this season to be sent off. It didnt hinder them too much though as Alessandro Diamanti's penalty was saved by Almunia. Alex Song gave a superb performance filling in at centre-half (another unsung player by the way). 6th win on the bounce for Arsenal, their best for 2 and a half years.

Tottenham achieved a hard-fought and crucial win at Stoke. Eidur Gudjohnsen scored his 1st goal in England for over 4 years to help Harry's boys move clear in 4th spot.

That was until Carlos Tevez scored his 22nd goal in all competitions a day later to brush off a weary Fulham side. Amazingly, Tevez's 16 Premier League goals have come in 10 matches for City. 9 of those 10 were wins and the other was a draw.

Aston Villa and Wolves battled it out to earn a 2-2 draw in the Midlands derby. You would have to say the point was more important for relegation threatened Wolves rather than Villa who are pushing for 4th. Still all to play for in the race for 4th as theres only 5 points separating Spurs, Man City, Liverpool and Villa.

Mikel Arteta was the star of the show as Everton's good form continued with a 2-0 win over Bolton. Arteta has 3 goals in his last 2 home games. David Moyes is the 3rd longest serving manager in the Premier League, behind Arsene Wenger and Sir Alex Ferguson.

Brief mention for Portsmouth who have no pressure and seemingly nothing to lose now they have been docked 9 points after going into administration. Avram Grant said he didnt care about winning anymore but the players obviously do, showing their determination with a fantastic fight back against Hull, winning 3-2.

Time for the weekly segments.

Players of the week:

Ji Sung Park (Man Utd) - As mentioned before, the unsung hero for United. Absolutely vital goal for Man U's title challenge and the way he took it was an example of his commitment.

Craig Gordon (Sunderland) - Birmingham had 9 shots on target but scored only 1 as they came up against this in-form keeper. Darren Bent at the other end scored twice to take his tally up to 21 for the season.

Goals of the week:

Cameron Jerome (Birmingham) - The goal that did get past Gordon. Fantastic right foot curler into the corner from the edge of the area. His 8th league goal since mid December.

Fernando Torres (Liverpool) - Unmarked for Kuyt's cross, he pin-points his header beyond the dive of Van Der Sar with power.

Save of the week:

Manuel Almunia (Arsenal) - Fantastic penalty save going down to his left to keep out Diamanti, crucially for Arsenal's title push.

Tossers of the week:

A Burnley fan - Someone threw a coin which hit Wigan keeper Chris Kirkland on the head. Kirkland got the last laugh though when they got a last minute winner and he celebrated like a nutcase in front of the Burnley fans. Very brave.

Lucas and Mascherano (Liverpool) - For some reason, they are not very good against the big teams. They both certainly have the spirit and are brilliant holding midfielders with bags of passing ability, but sometimes, they are simply anonymous, or give away a stupid penalty.

Coca Cola Championship now and it looks to be Newcastle and West Brom who will occupy the automatic promotion places at the end of the season. Newcastle relied on Andy Carroll again to equalise against Bristol City. The big striker made it 2-2 with his 15th of the season, 9 in his last 10 matches.

West Brom beat Preston 3-2 thanks in part to an inspired performance by Scotsman Graham Dorrans. He scored a superb free kick from 35 yards and a few individual pieces of skill further added to the Ronaldo comparissons. WBA have scored in every game in 2010, the only Championship side to have done so.

Nottingham Forest's "Jekyll and Hyde" recent form continued with a 1-0 win against Peterborough. They have won their last 11 at home and have incredibly lost their last 6 away. 3rd place looks to be perhaps the highest they'll get.

Coventry equalised late against Leicester, meaning the midlands derby ended 2-2. Leicester stay in 4th. Swansea and Cardiff currently hold the remaining 2 playoff spots.

Going downstairs to League One now and Norwich suffered a minor blip thanks to Swindon's late equaliser. That was only Norwich's 7th draw in 37 games.

Perhaps the indivdual stand-out performance was seen at MK Dons. Richie Lambert, who i mentioned last week, scored a second half hat-trick in a 3-0 win for impressive Southampton. His 3rd was a wonder strike over the keeper from 35 yards. He now has 30 in all competitions after signing from Bristol Rovers at the start of the season.

Leeds lost on Monday night at home to high flying Millwall. The 2-0 win saw Millwall leap to 3rd, only 3 points behind Leeds. Manager Simon Grayson needs to stop the rot somehow, and soon.

Brighton beat Oldham 2-0 to continue their resurgence under manager Gus Poyet. Impressively, they are now unbeaten in their last 8 away games.

Its now 6 losses in a row for bottom placed Stockport after a 1-0 defeat against Brentford. They have failed to score in all of those last 6 defeats.

Bowing into league 2 now and Rochdale seem to have the title in the bag after a 4-2 away win against Accrington.

My tip, Notts County have charged into 2nd with a 1-0 win against Crewe. They have many ex-premiership players in their squad and I can't look passed them for an automatic spot. Forgot to mention they have 2-3 games in hand over the teams around them. Thats why they are my tip really.

One of the performances of the day saw Grimsby (23rd) beat Bournemouth (3rd) 3-2. Ashley Chambers scoring a last minute winner. Grimsby's 2nd goal was a blatent "Maradona" into the net though.

Darlington look to be down and out. They sacked manager Steve Staunton at the weekend after their most recent loss. They have only won 4 out of 34 this season and are now 19 points from safety.

Final point now. There's been a big rumour circulating recently that P Diddy may buy Crystal Palace, presumably to add to his bling. Ive heard its because Palace haven't got 50 cent, boom boom.

Thanks again for reading, sorry its a day late.

Stan