Lee Mason, penalties and Spurs
Darren Bent's first goal in Saturday's game was the fastest in the Premier league so far this season, with only 36 seconds on the clock. Bent's two goals make his Premier League total for the season 22, with one other cup goal this season for his new team. Darren lies third in the list of Premier League top scorers, with Jermain Defoe now lagging behind in sixth equal along with Frank Lampard.
Peter Crouch has been involved in all 32 of Spurs Premier League games so far this season, starting 19 of those and coming off the bench 13 times. His goal against Sunderland was his seventh league goal of the season. Peter came off the bench for this game, and his only other Premier League goal off the bench was his first league goal of the season against Birmingham in August.
Regarding Heurelho Gomes' heroic penalty saves, here is some more information on Pat Jennings' saves against Liverpool in the Seventies. Pat saved one penalty in each half from Kevin Keegan and Tommy Smith respectively, at Anfield in a 1-1 draw almost exactly 37 years ago on March 31, 1973.
Lee Mason has now refereed five Spurs games. In those five games he has awarded seven penalties. Two of these have been for Spurs, and five against Spurs in two games (Stoke away last season and Sunderland away this season). I also note that Mr. Mason awarded Sunderland two penalties earlier this season in their 5-2 win over Wolves. This was the game in which Darren Bent scored the first penalty, and then handed over penalty kick duties to Kenwyne Jones, who scored the second.
The next round of Premier League fixtures affecting Spurs include Man City at home to Birmingham on Sunday, and Liverpool at home to Fulham. Aston Villa play Everton on the same night that we play Arsenal, as both teams catch up after their involvement in FA Cup semi-finals at the week-end.
My thanks are due to Declan Mulcahy for his research.
Results 03-04.04.10
Arsenal 1-0 Wolves
Bolton 0-1 A. Villa
Burnley 1-6 Man City
Man Utd 1-2 Chelsea
P'tsmouth 0-0 Blackburn
Stoke 2-0 Hull
S'derland 3-1 Spurs
B'mingham 1-1 Liverpool
Everton 2-2 West Ham
Fulham 2-1 Wigan
Barclays Premier League
Pos Team P W D L F A GD Pts
1 Chelsea 33 23 5 5 84 30 54 74
2 Man Utd 33 23 3 7 77 27 50 72
3 Arsenal 33 22 5 6 75 34 41 71
4 Man City 32 16 11 5 64 40 24 59
5 Spurs 32 17 7 8 58 32 26 58
6 Liverpool 33 16 7 10 54 33 21 55
7 A. Villa 32 14 12 6 44 32 12 54
8 Everton 33 13 11 9 52 44 8 50
9 B'mingham 33 12 10 11 34 38 -4 46
10 Stoke 32 10 12 10 32 35 -3 42
11 Blackburn 33 11 9 13 35 50 -15 42
12 Fulham 32 11 8 13 35 37 -2 41
13 S'derland 33 9 11 13 44 51 -7 38
14 Wolves 33 8 8 17 28 51 -23 32
15 Bolton 33 8 8 17 36 62 -26 32
16 Wigan 33 8 7 18 30 64 -34 31
17 West Ham 33 6 10 17 40 57 -17 28
18 Hull 32 6 9 17 31 66 -35 27
19 Burnley 33 6 6 21 32 71 -39 24
20 P'tsmouth 33 6 5 22 28 60 -32 14
*Portsmouth deducted 9 points on 17.03.10.
