The Premier League of Nations, Slot’s First Sequence, and Championship Ever-Presents

Stat, Viz, Quiz is the Opta Analyst football newsletter. This week’s edition includes numbers on countries of the Premier League, goal sequences, and the EFL Championship.

The new Premier League season has begun, full of unpredictability and new possibilities.

Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal, Newcastle, Aston Villa and Manchester City all won on Matchday 1 of the 2024-25 campaign… OK, so maybe not that unpredictable.

It was still a fun weekend for the neutral, though, with every game featuring at least one goal.

In this week’s SVQ we’ll be looking at the number of countries represented through Premier League history, as well as showing off our new goal sequence graphics.

So, now that we have the warm glow of club football back in our lives, let’s get going with the first SVQ of 2024-25.

If you haven’t done so already, you can subscribe below and receive SVQ every Tuesday.

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STAT – The Premier League of Nations

A year is a long time in football.

You don’t have to tell Ali Al-Hamadi that, though. On the opening day of the 2023-24 season, Al-Hamadi came off the bench in AFC Wimbledon’s 0-0 draw away at Grimsby Town in League Two, which included him having a penalty saved at Blundell Park.

On Matchday 1 of 2024-25, Al-Hamadi came off the bench again, this time for Ipswich Town against Liverpool in the Premier League. The Tractor Boys lost 2-0, but it was still an incredible moment for the 22-year-old.

Not only did it see his dreams realised, but he also made history as the first ever Iraqi-born player to feature in a Premier League game. Coincidentally, his family moved to the city of Liverpool when he was just a year old, bringing everything somewhat full circle.

It took the total of countries that have now been represented in the Premier League since its formation in 1992 to 124.

With that stat in mind, we wanted to see which nations have been represented the most over the last 32 years.

In total, 4,858 players have graced a Premier League pitch in that time, and of those, exactly 1,700 have been from England (including Archie Gray, pictured below, who made his debut for Spurs on Monday), which is unsurprisingly the most represented nation by some distance.

There have been 217 players from Scotland, 205 from the Republic of Ireland, 167 from Spain, 152 from the Netherlands, 133 from Wales, 94 from Portugal, 83 from Italy, 80 from Germany, 71 from Northern Ireland and 57 from the United States.

What about Brazil? We all love a little Brazilian flair in the Premier League and on Sunday, Savinho became the 116th Brazilian to make his debut in the competition when he started for Manchester City in their 2-0 win at Chelsea. Guido Rodríguez made his first appearance for West Ham on Saturday and in turn became the 85th Argentinian to play in the Premier League.

There seemed to be a time when every team in England’s top flight had a Belgium international playing for them. Well in total, only 68 Belgians have featured in the competition.

In fact, the second most-represented country in Premier League history is France, with 235 players.

The most-represented African country is Nigeria, with 57 players, while there have been 55 from Australia, 15 from Japan, 14 from South Korea and just seven from China.

According to the United Nations, there are almost 200 countries in the world, so plenty are still waiting to be represented in the Premier League.

We’re curious who the first player from Vatican City will be.

VIZ – What a Sequence

Everyone was fascinated to see how Liverpool would look in the post-Jürgen Klopp era.

Granted, it was only one game and it was against promoted Ipswich Town, but after a shaky first half at Portman Road, Liverpool clicked into gear in the second and scored their first two goals under Arne Slot.

The first was a particularly nice one, too, starting with captain Virgil van Dijk winning the ball and laying it off to Alexis Mac Allister. From there, Liverpool worked the ball across to the right, ending with Mohamed Salah passing back to Trent Alexander-Arnold before racing down the right ready for the Reds’ vice-captain to find him with a typically probing ball. Salah then laid an assist on a plate for Diogo Jota to finish.

That the Slot era began with a 14-pass sequence that led to a goal seemed to be a good sign.

Not to be outdone, though, Brentford equalled that number with Bryan Mbeumo’s opener against Crystal Palace on Sunday.

In fact, eight of Brentford’s 11 players touched the ball in the 14-pass sequence that led to Mbeumo’s goal, with only Kristoffer Ajer, Mathias Jensen and Kevin Schade not involved.

The move began with Ethan Pinnock passing to Christian Nørgaard, before some intricate work on the right led to Nørgaard finding Wissa, whose pass to Mbeumo set the Cameroon international up to cut inside and fire his shot into the far corner.

This all came just moments after Crystal Palace were left deflated when Eberechi Eze’s goal from a direct free-kick was ruled out, the referee blowing for a foul by Will Hughes off the ball.

It may have been a disappointing 1-1 draw for Tottenham at Leicester on Monday, but they did at least score the goal with the longest pass sequence on MD1 of the new Premier League season.

Pedro Porro finished off a nice 15-pass move that, as you can see, largely went through the middle of the pitch, with James Maddison crossing for Porro to convert as Spurs finally made their dominance count at the King Power Stadium, even if they ultimately didn’t see it out as Jamie Vardy equalised in the second half.

We’ll be providing you with these nice new goal sequence graphics throughout the season. Keep an eye out for some of the best on our website, social media, and right here in your weekly SVQ.

QUIZ – Premier League Matchday 1

How much attention were you paying to the opening round of Premier League games? Let’s find out. Answers at the bottom of the page.

1. Joshua Zirkzee became the fourth Dutch player to score on his Premier League debut for Manchester United. Who are the previous three?

2. Mohamed Salah marked his 350th appearance for Liverpool with an assist and a goal. How many goal involvements does the Egyptian now have for the club? Clue: It’s a nice round number.

3. Kai Havertz’s opener for Arsenal against Wolves was his 33rd Premier League goal. Following on from our nationalities chat, who is the only German to score more in the competition?

4. James Milner has now played in 23 different Premier League seasons, a new record. Who did he overtake on Saturday for the outright most?

5. Manchester City’s 2-0 win at Chelsea meant they have won their opening Premier League game of the season in 13 of the last 14 seasons. Who are the only team to avoid defeat against them in that time?

Ask Opta

This week’s question comes from Paul Heighton, who queries: “Since the start of the Championship, which teams have never been promoted or relegated?”

Do you have a stats-based football question you want to Ask Opta? If so, send it to editors@theanalyst.com and we’ll do our best to provide you with the answer in a future edition of SVQ.

Answer:

The Championship is 20 years old, having been rebranded from the First Division in 2004. We recently marked the occasion with articles on the best players and teams in that time.

As for teams who haven’t been promoted or relegated from England’s second tier in that time, it’s a nice short answer. Zero.

Since that inaugural season in 2004-05, every single team has either gone up or down.

That said, there are those who keep coming back like a boomerang. In fact, 13 of the 24 teams in the Championship this season were also in it 20 years ago, but every single one of them has spent at least a year in the division below or above since.

The 2004-05 campaign saw Sunderland win the title, with Wigan Athletic also clinching automatic promotion to the Premier League, while West Ham went up via the play-offs.

To appreciate just how long ago it was, the bottom of the table makes for interesting reading.

Rotherham United finished bottom, just below Nottingham Forest, of course now in the Premier League. Forest finished below Gillingham (22nd) and Crewe Alexandra (21st), who are now both in League Two.

One place above Crewe that year? None other than Brighton & Hove Albion, who played Roma in the UEFA Europa League last season.