The week in numbers: w/e 12/2/12

Drogba missed a penalty in the final again

0 – Ivory Coast failed to win the Africa Cup of Nations despite not conceding a single goal in the entire tournament. Zambia beat them 8-7 on penalties after the teams played out a goalless draw in last night’s final.

3 – All three finals in which Ivory Coast have played have gone to a penalty shootout after finishing 0-0. They won the final in 1992 and lost in 2006.

2 – Didier Drogba missed a penalty in normal time. The Ivory Coast striker also missed from the spot in the 2006 final.

SPotY-watch update

The final ten candidates competing for the chance to succeed Tony McCoy as BBC Sports Personality of the Year (SPotY) Awards was announced last night. The shortlist, determined by the votes of newspaper and magazine journalists, contains three golfers, no footballers and, unusually this year, no women. The winner will be announced at the ceremony at the BBC’s new MediaCityUK complex in Salford on Thursday 22nd December, but here is a quick run-down of the top ten – in descending order of the odds offered by bookmaker William Hill.

The week in numbers: w/e 6/11/11

Butt was found guilty of spot-fixing

30 – In months, jail sentence handed down to former Pakistan cricket captain Salman Butt for his role in agreeing to arrange for three no-balls to be delivered at specified times during a Test match against England at Lord’s last year. Bowlers Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir were given 12 and six-month sentences respectively.

10 – Casey Stoner, who had already secured the 2011 MotoGP title, overtook Ben Spies on the final corner of the season-closing race in Valencia to win his tenth race of the year.

The week in numbers: w/e 2/1/11

Phil Taylor won't be adding to his 15 world titles this year (image courtesy of Wikipedia)

2 – Phil ‘The Power’ Taylor was knocked out by Mark Webster in the quarter-final of darts’ PDC World Championships. It is only the second time in the past 18 years that Taylor has failed to reach the final.

18 – 18 wickets fell on the second day of the second Test between South Africa and India in Durban. India’s last four first innings wickets and their first four second innings wickets fell either side of the hosts being bowled out for just 131. India eventually won by 87 runs to tie the series 1-1 and set up the decisive third Test, which started in Cape Town yesterday.

1 – Squash player Nick Matthew, who three weeks ago became the first English winner of the World Open, has also become the first Englishman ever to finish the year as world number one, according to the Professional Squash Association rankings.

156 – Passes successfully completed by Xavi in Barcelona‘s 2-1 win over Levante. As an entire side, Levante completed just 115 passes.

The Ashes in numbers

1 – Defeat by an innings and 157 runs in the fourth Test meant this was the first time ever that Australia have lost by an innings twice in the same series outside of England.

Jonathan Trott averages over 100 in Ashes Tests

2 – As of the end of the fourth Test, only two players in Ashes history have averaged above 100 in England vs Australia matches – Australia’s Albert Trott and England’s Jonathan Trott. No, they’re not related.

19 – It was Australia’s worst Ashes loss since the legendary Old Trafford Test of 1956, when spinner Jim Laker took 19/90 and England won by an innings and 170 runs.

3 – Australia have lost by an innings three times since the beginning of 2009, having only lost twice between 1992-93 and 2009.

12 – There hasn’t been a draw between England and Australia at the MCG in their last 12 meetings there. Australia have won seven to England’s five.

24 – The number of years since England last retained the Ashes (1986/87).

21 – Australia and England have met 48 times in Tests at Sydney – venue for the fifth and final Test which started last night – with 21 wins each and six draws.

The Premier League week in numbers

5 – Arsenal‘s 3-1 win over Chelsea ended a run of five successive defeats in all competitions against the defending champions.

1 – Chelsea had only one shot on target in the entire game – Branislav Ivanović‘s headed goal.

Baird's first goals in nearly four years broke Fulham's long winless away streak

26 – Fulham won 2-0 away at Stoke, ending a run of 26 consecutive away league matches without a win, dating back to August 2009. Chris Baird, who had not registered a goal in nearly four years, scored twice in the first ten minutes.

2 – Manchester City scored three goals in the first half in their 4-0 win at home to Aston Villa. The last time they scored twice in the first half at home in a league match was last season, also against Villa.

3 – Blackburn have had a man sent off in their last three meetings with West Bromwich Albion. Nikola Kalinic saw red, but Blackburn still won 3-1.

31 – Sunderland had 31 shots in their match against Blackpool. They lost 2-0.

26 – Wolves won 1-0 at Liverpool. It was their first win at Anfield in 26 years.

1 – Rio Ferdinand‘s first Premier League foul of the season resulted in the penalty missed by Peter Odemwingie, as Manchester United won 2-1 at West Bromwich Albion.

Rooney finally scored from open play

1,418 – Wayne Rooney‘s third-minute opener ended a run of 1,418 minutes without a goal from open play for United.

1 – Stoke had only one shot on target against Everton but won 2-0.

3 – Everton have scored an own goal in each of their last three games.

6 – West Ham‘s 2-0 win over Wolves ended a run of six consecutive New Year’s Day defeats, the longest such sequence in the Premier League.

3 – Roger Johnson‘s own goal in the 3-0 defeat to Arsenal was the third scored by a Birmingham centre back this season.

3 – There were three goals in the 84th minute or later as Chelsea recovered from 2-1 down at home to Aston Villa to take a 3-2 lead, before conceding an injury-time equaliser to draw 3-3.

The NFL week in numbers

Brett Favre endured only his second ever losing season (image courtesy of vikings.com)

2 – For just the second time in 20 NFL seasons, Minnesota’s Brett Favre was on a team with a losing record (6-10) as the Vikings lost to Detroit 20-13. His only other losing season was 2005 when Green Bay finished 4-12.

5 – The New England Patriots defeated Miami 38-7 to finish the season 14-2 overall, and 8-0 at home. It is the fifth time in the last eight seasons they have been unbeaten at home – no other NFL team has achieved this feat more than once in that span.

8 – New England have now scored 30-plus points in eight consecutive games, the third longest streak in NFL history (St Louis 14 games in 1999, New England nine in 2006-07).

7 – The Patriots lost a fumble against Miami, ending their NFL record streak of seven straight games without a turnover.

10 – New England’s 10 turnovers this season is the fewest in NFL history.

335 – Tom Brady extended his NFL record of consecutive pass attempts without an interception to 335.

1 – The Seattle Seahawks became the first team in NFL history to win a division title (and qualify for the playoffs) with a losing record. Their 16-6 victory over the the St Louis Rams saw them finish 7-9.

9 – The Indianapolis Colts finished 10-6 after a 23-20 win over the Tennessee Titans. It means they have won at least 10 games for nine consecutive seasons, the second-longest such streak ever (the San Francisco 49ers achieved it 16 years running from 1983-98).

9 – The Colts have now qualified for the playoffs in nine consecutive seasons, tying the Dallas Cowboys (1975-83) for the longest run in NFL history.

33 – Quarterback Matt Ryan led Atlanta to a 31-10 victory over Carolina. He is now 33-13 as a starter, tying the legendary Dan Marino for most wins by a starting quarterback in his first three seasons since at least 1970.

1 – The Oakland Raiders defeated the Kansas City Chiefs 31-10 to finish 6-0 against AFC West rivals this season. However, they were 2-8 outside their division and finished 8-8 overall, becoming the first team since at least 1970 to sweep their division and yet miss the playoffs.

22 – 22 quarterbacks have passed for at least 3,000 yards, the most in a single season in NFL history. (The previous record was 19 in 2001 & 2009.)

(Some statistics courtesy of Opta Sports, The Times, @InfostradaLive, @StatManJon, Cricinfo and NFL.com.)

The week in numbers: w/e 12/12/10

Amir Khan (image courtesy of Wikipedia)

3 – Amir Khan successfully defended his WBA light-welterweight title for the third time with a narrow but unanimous points victory over Argentina’s Marcos Maidana in Las Vegas.

9 – In his ninth professional fight, Olympic gold medallist James DeGale won the British super-middleweight title with a ninth-round stoppage of Paul Smith.

12 – Arsenal are unbeaten in all 12 Champions League games (10 wins, two draws) in which Andrey Arshavin has played. With the Russian in the side, they beat Partizan Belgrade 3-1 at the Emirates Stadium to qualify for the knockout phase.

498 – A 32nd-minute goal by Pablo Hernandez in Valencia’s 1-1 draw at Old Trafford broke Manchester United‘s streak of 498 minutes without conceding a Champions League goal.

Nick Matthew (image courtesy of Wikipedia)

1 – Nick Matthew became the first Englishman to become World Open squash champion after beating fellow Englishman James Willstrop in the final in Saudi Arabia.

138,000,000 – Value (in pounds) of Qatar Foundation‘s 5½-year shirt sponsorship deal with Barcelona.

2 – After three rounds of pool games in rugby union‘s Heineken Cup, only two out of 24 teams (Northampton and Toulouse) remain unbeaten, while four teams have yet to win a match.

5 – Having trailed 9-5 in the final of snooker‘s UK Championship last night, John Higgins won the last five frames to claim a 10-9 victory over Mark Williams, a month after returning from his six-month ban. He replaces Australian Neil Robertson as world number one.

The Ashes in numbers

43 – Australia lost their last six wickets for just 43 runs as they collapsed to defeat in the second Test in Adelaide by an innings and 71 runs.

100 – This was England‘s 100th Test win over Australia. They have lost 132 and drawn 91.

23 – Years since England last held the lead in an Ashes series in Australia.

225 – Alastair Cook‘s current series average, having scored 67, 235 not out and 148 in his three innings so far.

87.31 – England’s average runs per wicket so far in this series, compared with Australia’s 36.67.

0 – There have been no runs scored by the number eight batsman on either side so far in this series.

The Premier League week in numbers

Alan Pardew (image courtesy of nufc.co.uk)

5½ – Length of contract in years awarded to new Newcastle manager Alan Pardew. The club has had seven managers in the past 5½ years.

10 – Fulham‘s 0-0 draw with Sunderland was their tenth draw in 17 games this season.

0 – Stoke are still yet to record 50% possession in a Premier League game. They lost 0-1 at home to Blackpool.

1 – Liverpool‘s 3-1 defeat at Newcastle means Roy Hodgson has won just one of his last 27 away games in the Premier League.

10 – Andy Carroll‘s late strike was his tenth league goal of the season. Dimitar Berbatov (11) and Carlos Tevez (10) are the only other players to have reached double figures so far this campaign.

3 – Liverpool conceded three goals from just three shots on target. The only other time this feat has been achieved this season was when Manchester City did so against … Liverpool.

Stuart Holden - 88th-minute winner

49 – Time in seconds between Mame Diouf‘s equaliser (86:42) and Stuart Holden‘s winning goal (87:31) in Bolton‘s 2-1 win over Blackburn.

5 – Bolton have scored a goal in the 88th minute or later in five of their last six league home games.

17 – Wolves kept their first Premier League clean sheet of the season (and their first since April) at the 17th attempt, beating Birmingham 1-0.

4 – None of the last four penalties at White Hart Lane in all competitions have been scored, including Didier Drogba‘s effort in yesterday’s 1-1 draw between Tottenham and Chelsea.

6 – All six Premier League goals scored on Sunday were left-footed. Strangely, the same was true for each of the five goals scored the previous Sunday.

The NFL week in numbers

63 – Peyton Manning had his 63rd career 300-yard passing day – tying Dan Marino as the NFL all-time leader in that respect – as the Indianapolis Colts beat the Tennessee Titans 30-28 to snap out of a three-game slump.

Troy Polamalu

5 – Troy Polamalu recorded two more interceptions, including a 45-yard return for a touchdown, as Pittsburgh beat Cincinnati 23-7. The Steelers are 21-3 when he records an interception, and 5-0 this season.

19 – In defeating the Green Bay Packers 7-3, the Detroit Lions snapped a 19-game losing streak in their division. It was their first win in the NFC North since October 2007.

6 – St Louis‘s Steven Jackson passed 1,000 yards for the season in the Rams’ 31-13 defeat to New Orleans, becoming the first player in team history to rush for at least 1,000 yards in six consecutive seasons.

Jay Feely (image courtesy of azcardinals.com)

4 – Arizona kicker Jay Feely became only the fourth kicker since 1950 to score a rushing touchdown, and the first since 2001. The Cardinals thumped the Denver Broncos 43-13 – more conventionally, Feely also kicked five field goals.

5 – The New England Patriots became the first team since at least 1970 with no turnovers in five straight games – and the first team in NFL history with 30-plus points and no turnovers in five straight games – as they demolished the Chicago Bears 36-7 in the snow at Soldier Field.

8 – New England quarterback Tom Brady extended his run of games without an interception to eight.

3 – Seattle‘s Leon Washington registered his third kickoff return touchdown of the season, as the Seahawks lost 40-21 to the San Francisco 49ers. It was his seventh career touchdown from a kick return, one behind Joshua Cribbs’ NFL record.

(Some statistics courtesy of Opta Sports, The Times, @StatManJon, and NFL.com.)