“The first Premier League goal of the season came after 87 minutes,” tweets Daniel Hill. “What is the longest wait for the first goal from the start of a Premier League campaign?”
The answer depends in part on whether you count minutes gone in the season or cumulative minutes played. Let us explain. Peter Beagrie scored the first goal of the 1993-94 season after 10 minutes of Everton’s game at Southampton. That was one of 10 3pm fixtures (standalone games at the start of the season weren’t a thing until 2003-04), so the first goal was scored 10 minutes after the season began, but also after 100 combined minutes of top-flight football up and down the country.
Joshua Zirkzee’s winner for Manchester United comes in at 87 minutes either way, which puts it in third place on both tables. Second place belongs to 2007-08, when Michael Chopra scored a 93rd-minute winner for promoted Sunderland against Spurs in the opening game of the season. As nobody counts added time in answers like this, we’ll call it 90 minutes.
The leader, both in consecutive and cumulative minutes, is 2010-11. That began with a Saturday lunchtime game between Spurs and Man City. It finished goalless, thanks mainly to a spectacular performance from a young Joe Hart, so the first goal of the season came during the 3pm games. It was scored in the 14th minute by Blackburn’s Nikola Kalinic; there were six games being played simultaneously, which means the goal came after 104 minutes of the season and 174 minutes of cumulative play.
We haven’t gone back through all the old Football League seasons because life is precious, but here’s the top five for the Premier League era.
Minutes since start of the season
104
2010-11 Nicola Kalinic for Blackburn v Everton
90
2007-08 Michael Chopra for Sunderland v Spurs
87
2024-25 Joshua Zirkee for Man Utd v Fulham
46
2006-07 Rob Hulse for Sheff Utd v Liverpool
45
2016-17 Adama Diomande for Hull v Leicester
Cumulative minutes played
174
2010-11 Kalinic
120
2001-02 Kevin Nolan for Bolton at Leicester
100
1993-94 Peter Beagrie for Everton at Southampton
90
1999-2000 Carl Cort for Wimbledon at Watford; 2007-08 Chopra
87
2024-25 Zirkzee
And finally, the fastest opening goal came in 2017-18, when Alexandre Lacazette gave Arsenal the lead against Leicester after 94 seconds.
Losing winners
“Having just won the league with Derry City on Football Manager despite losing 10 games, I wondered whether any team has been beaten more often and still come top?” tweets Jack Tanner.
We hope Jack means in real life, otherwise The Knowledge is about to commit to the most controversial change of direction since the NME described Radiohead’s Kid A as “a whole new sphere of self-indulgence … post-bo11ocks”. So, real football it is. And that football was more democratic in the 20th century, when league tables were a whole lot snugger. Mike Slattery has done the work on this one, at least when it comes to the English top flight.
Everton are the only team to win the League with 12 defeats in a 42 game season (1932), 11 in a 38 game season (1915) and 7 in a 22 game season (1891). However, The Wednesday with 11/34 (1903), 32.4%, lost the highest proportion of games of any League champions.
— Mike (@themikeslattery) October 19, 2022
Used to be a regular thing once upon a time. 19 English champions lost at least 10 games, but nobody since Derby in 1975. Blackburn are the only team to win the PL losing as many as 7, and even that was the last 42-game season.
— Mike (@themikeslattery) August 16, 2024
Further afield, Deportivo La Coruña finally won La Liga for the only time in 1999-2000 despite losing 11 of their 38 games. It was an odd season, in which the fifth-best team in Spain, Real Madrid, were also the best in Europe. But after the desperate heartbreak suffered by Deportivo in 1993-94, only rival fans and trivia geeks begrudged them.
Coritiba were Brazilian champions in 1985 even though they lost 10 of their 29 games, or 34%. They also had the added bonus of a negative goal difference, as discussed in a previous Knowledge.
In percentage terms, the greatest embodiment of that old Nick Berry string-tugger were the champions of Panama in 2005. Plaza Amador lost 14 of their 38 games, a comical 37%. That’s a higher loss figure than Crystal Palace when they were relegated in the inaugural Premier League season.
The explanation is complicated, but thankfully it’s all on the wonderful RSSSF site. In short, Plaza finished in the top four in the Apertura stage, which got them through to the knockout stage. They won their semi-final and final to become Apertura champions which meant that, although they tanked monumentally in the Clausura stage (10 defeats in 16, bottom of the table) they automatically qualified for a superfinal against the Clausura winners San Francisco FC.
On the big day Plaza Amador pulled it off: they won 2-0 in a low-key match that included four red cards, three for Plaza, and 11 yellows. The red cards have been airbrushed out of some videos (see below), but you can still find them. Plaza’s Jaime Cox appears to have been sent off for being head-butted, twice.
“By my count there are six bald managers in this season’s Premier League,” announces Jonathan Webster. “Is this a record?”
Jonathan has since upgraded this to seven managers, but we’ve rejected his application for Steve Cooper to join the bald community. That means there are six: Pep Guardiola, Erik ten Hag, Enzo Maresca, Arne Slot, Nuno Espírito Santo and Sean Dyche. Remarkably, and we’d love to know how you research something like this, Jack Hayward has crunched the, er, follicles.
“This is a record for the division since 1992, but the 2022-23 season might match it if you count interim coaches and have a loose definition of bald,” writes Jack. “Guardiola, Ten Hag, Dyche and Patrick Vieira were all permanent bosses that season, while Bruno Saltor spent four days as the interim manager of Chelsea. Cristian Stellini’s hairline was almost as high as his achievements as caretaker Spurs manager were low, so count him if you wish.”
Southampton/Sunderland/everyone: an apology
Last week we looked at huge aggregate drubbings in derbies, and said that Sunderland’s 9-1 victory over Newcastle in 1909 was a record away win in the English top flight. And so it was, but only for 110 years. “Can I be the first of 1,057 Leicester City/Portsmouth pedants to remind you that Southampton were beaten 9-0 in a home top-flight fixture by Leicester in October 2019?” writes Glynn Marshall. Indeed you can.
Knowledge archive
“Wolves have drawn 20 league games so far – are they on course for a record?” asked Christopher Snelling in 2005.
They’re not far away, Christopher: in fact Glenn Hoddle’s side need three draws from their last five league games to equal the English record [They managed only one more – 2024 ed]. Given their current form, that should be a stroll in the park.
The record of 23 draws is held by four sides: Norwich 1978-79, Exeter 1986-87, Hartlepool 1997-98, and Cardiff 1997-98. But whereas the last three, like Wolves, played 46 games, the Norwich vintage drew 23 out of 42 games – that means a whopping 55% of their games ended all square.
It comes as no surprise that that was comfortably exceeded in Italian football in the glory days of the mid-80s. “In 1984-85 Perugia, in Serie B, had a record of: P38 W11 D26 L1 (their away record was a glorious W3 D15 L1),” says Paul Crankshaw. “Despite losing only once in 38 games, they only finished in fourth place, a point off promotion.” It could only happen in Italy.
Can you help?
“James Daly’s goal for Harrogate on Saturday came after seven consecutive headers without the ball touching the ground or another body part. Is this a record?” asks Paul Savage?
“Last week, Ajax’s Brian Brobbey missed twice in a Europa League penalty shootout against Panathinaikos and still ended up on the winning side. Has this happened before?” wonders Max Green.
“I returned home sodden last week after watching Bury beat Abbey Hey 7-1 in drizzly Gorton. Overall there were 48 goals scored in eight North West Counties Premier League games that night. Is an average of six goals per game in a round of fixtures for a league some kind of record? I fully expect the famed Boxing Day 1963 to be up there but are there are any others?” writes David Triggs.
“James Milner is seven years older than the manager who picked him to play for Brighton at Everton. Is this a record for one of Europe’s top five leagues?” asks Robin Burchfield.
“Sheffield Wednesday won their opening league game 4-0, then lost their second by the same score. What’s the biggest swing between an opening-game win and a defeat in the next league match?” asks Andrew Wilson.
The North London Derby next month is likely to feature Ben White v Archie Gray (with an outside chance of Spurs promoting Leo Black from the U18s to complete the set) which makes me wonder, which fixture has had the most colours for surnames on the team sheet?
— rudy (@RudyR23) August 15, 2024
“Due to renovations at Ibrox, Rangers could reach the League Cup final by playing every game at Hampden Park,” notes David Shannon. “Has a club ever won a domestic cup playing every game at the same ground?”