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England’s top flight which underwent its restructure in 1992 is considered as one of the most exciting and fast paced football leagues. Football is a sport which has a lot of facets - dribbles, tackles, interceptions - but, at the end of the day it's the goals which matter.
In every season, a lot of players are purchased and sold. Some of them go on to become the legends of their respective clubs and some become big flops. So many new records are created and broken & in between, some of the unwanted records are made.
Quickly, let's delve through such records, we've seen in the EPL:
1. Richard Dunne - 12 own goals
Richard Dunne is an Irish footballer, who last played for Queens Park Rangers. He has the worst luck when it comes to own goals, having scored the most number of goals in his own net. Dunne has played for four teams in the Premier League – Everton, Manchester City, Aston Villa and QPR.
Dunne’s proficiency in scoring own goals came to the fore in the game against Liverpool. In that game, he scored an own goal and played a part in another one. Despite leading 2-1 at one stage, QPR went on lose the game 2-3.
Of the 12 own goals scored by the Irishman, six were bundled into the back of his own net during his time with the club he spent nine years at, Manchester City. Perhaps the most infamous of all the own goals scored by the Irishman was his first; playing against West Brom in 2004, a long ball down field cannoned of Dunne’s shin and past the calamitous David James and into the City net. Oh dear!
To be fair, Dunne was a good defender, having won the ‘Player of the year’ award at Manchester City four times. He was also a part of the Irish squad at the 2002 FIFA World Cup.
2. Arsenal - Most shots on goal in a defeat
West Ham's 1-0 win at the Emirates in their 2007 Great Escape under Alan Curbishley was the perfect encapsulation of Arsenal's early years in their new home. They peppered West Ham's goal with 35 shots, but Bobby Zamora's looping effort secured the perfect smash-and-grab three points. "It's difficult to say we had a bad game because we should have scored 10 and yet we lost the game," Arsene Wenger said post. Arsenal are also the only team to let a four-goal lead slip, when they collapsed away at Newcastle in 2011.
3. Shortest Premier League career: Joe Sheerin (60 seconds)
To go a whole Premier League season having played fewer than ten games would be miserable and embarrassing for most top flight talents, putting into perspective the absurdity of this statistic.
With just minutes to go in the game against the Dons, Italian Gianfranco Zola was brought off, with Sheerin the substitute to go on and make his debut – a debut which would last just sixty seconds. Despite remaining with the Blues until 2000, that would be Sheerin’s last appearance for the club, rendering his Premier League tenure the shortest of all time.
4. Biggest Defeat - Ipswich Town (9-0)
Manchester United defeated George Burley’s Ipswich Town 9-0 on March 4, 1995. This still stands as a record today, as does Andy Cole’s 5 goals scored for United on the day. Mark Hughes netted a brace, while Paul Ince and Roy Keane also got on the scoresheet. The result was United’s best in 103 years, though they could still only finish second that season to Blackburn Rovers. As you might expect, Ipswich were relegated that year.
Their goalkeeper that day, Craig Forrest, went on to concede another seven in a game against United five years later, as his new club West Ham crashed to a 7-1 defeat.
5. Reading - Losing the highest scoring games
Reading occupy the unwanted place in the record books of losing the highest scoring games in the League Cup and Premier League when they went down 7-5 to Arsenal in an extraordinary Cup clash on 30th Oct 2012.
Reading were on the wrong end of a 7-4 scoreline to Portsmouth in the Premier League in 2007 and they also suffered the FA Cup's second heaviest defeat, losing 18-0 to Preston North End in a first round tie in 1894.
6. Tottenham - No player purchased in summer transfer
North London giants Tottenham Hotspur have set a Premier League record by becoming the first team to go throughout the 2018 summer transfer window without a single player.
Tottenham failed to make any incoming transfer into the first team thus becoming the first side to record the feat since the summer transfer windows started in 2003.
The closest player they came to signing was Aston Villa midfielder Jack Grealish but their strong interest in the player was rebuffed by the English Championship outfit.
Aston Villa rejected a £25m bid from Tottenham for the player with the club adamant that he’s not for sale.
7. Least Points - Derby County (11 points)
The most ignominious record of the lot. Derby were relegated with 11 points in 2007-08 in an exemplary case of a Championship team achieving promotion via the play-offs before their time. Billy Davies's squad was a hopelessly inadequate combination of Football League journeymen and has-been such as Alan Stubbs, Robert Earnshaw and Robbie Savage. Their only victory was a 1-0 home win over Newcastle in a September fixture. Paul Jewell arrived after Davies's dismissal in November in a bid to delay the inevitable. Derby were relegated with six games still to play.
