“Arsenal have already had four different hat-trick scorers this season (Özil, Sánchez, Pérez, Walcott). Is this a record?” tweets Samir Gelb.
Manchester United had four in 1999-2000: Andy Cole v Newcastle, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer v Everton (both scored four), Dwight Yorke v Derby and Paul Scholes v West Ham. They also had five in 1957-58: Billy Whelan v Leicester, Tommy Taylor v Villa, Dennis Viollet v Workington, Bobby Charlton v Bolton and Alex Dawson v Fulham.
Adam Purdue takes us across town to Manchester City in 1987-88, “when Tony Adcock, David White and Paul Stewart all grabbed hat-tricks in the 10-1 hammering of Huddersfield. Admittedly we were in Division Two at the time so all the goals were in black and white but still count. Although Adcock got another hat-trick in the same season and so did Imre Varadi, that still only takes the total of hat-trick scorers to four. But one other stat jumped out at me: Varadi and White both also got three braces, and Stewart hit two an incredible six times (aside from the hat-tricks). Ian Brightwell even scored a brace. In total then, Stewart scored more than once seven times in the season and City, overall, had scorers of more than one a scarcely believable 18 times – can this be beaten?”
And Dan Seppings can match United’s 1957-58 mark. “The record is jointly held by Arsenal in 1932-33 (Cliff Bastin, David Jack, Jack Lambert, Joe Hulme, Ernest Coleman) and the 1958-59 Wolverhampton Wanderers team (Bobby Mason, Colin Booth, Mickey Lill, Norman Deeley, Peter Broadbent).”
Lower-league foreign managerial title winners
“Rafa Benítez is in a good position to win the Championship with Newcastle this season,” notes Chai. “If they win, will he be the first non-British/Irish manager to win the Championship/Second Division title? Have managers of other nationalities won a lower-league title yet?”
“I believe the only other time a foreign manager has won the Championship/Second Division is back in the 2000-01 season when Jean Tigana took Fulham to the title,” begins Chris White. “Tigana was born in Mali (then known as French Sudan) but represented France as a professional footballer getting capped 52 times. When you drop down to League One there are a few more examples: Roberto Martínez won the title with Swansea in the 2007-08 season and Gus Poyet with Brighton in the 2010-11 season. In League Two, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink took Burton Albion to the title in 2014-15 and Paolo Di Canio took Swindon to the title in 2011-12.”
The bumper DFB Pokal
“I was reading an article about the Coupe de France on the fine Football Pink website,” writes Kári Tulinius. “The author mentions the astounding stat that a grand total of 18,194 teams from European France as well as overseas departments and territories are registered for the French Cup. Depending on how many players are registered by each club (let’s say 18 to 23 per team), somewhere between 330,000 and 420,000 athletes are all trying to win the Charles Simon Trophy. In terms of athletes competing for the same prize, is the Coupe de France the largest football (and sporting) contest in the world?”
Julian Unkel points us in the direction of Germany, where “every football club registered with the DFB may qualify to compete in the DFB Pokal; besides the 36 teams from Bundesliga and 2. Liga and the first four teams of the 3. Liga, the 24 remaining slots in the first round are filled by the winners (and three runner-ups) of the 21 regional association cups (Verbandspokal), which – in theory, at least – may be won by any club in Germany (in 2003, ninth-division TSV Gerbrunn managed to qualify for the DFB Pokal that way). In 2016, 25,075 clubs were registered with the DFB, which, using Kári’s formula, equates to 450,000 to 575,000 athletes competing for the trophy.”
Fallen club champions (2)
Further to last week’s column …
“I know of the case of DWS in Amsterdam,” mails Niels van Muijden. “National champion in the Netherlands in 1964, they made it to the European Cup quarter-final the season after. Currently playing in the ‘4e klasse’ in a Sunday amateur league which is the 9th tier; we have 10 in total.”
Knowledge archive
“Has anyone ever erected a statue of anyone younger than the 34-year-old Thierry Henry?” wondered Martyn Rees in 2012. “And has any player played for a team knowing his statue is outside?”
As you’d expect it’s quite a rare feat for a player to have a statue unveiled in his honour before hanging up his boots, with the honour usually reserved for greats of the past long into their retirement, but at least two players have been enshrined in bronze at a younger age than Arsenal’s returning Frenchman.
Juan Román Riquelme had just turned 33 when Boca Juniors unveiled a statue of the mercurial playmaker in 2011. “You’re all crazy, I always say that,” Riquelme told fans who had chanted his name at the ceremony. “I will never be able to repay you for what you have given me. This is the most beautiful moment in my career. I’m a fan of Boca and will die as one, like you all.” On a slightly different note, exactly one month younger than Henry is Roma’s Simone Perrotta. His statue isn’t outside the Stadio Olimpico, however, but at the Roy Oldham Sports Village in Ashton-under-Lyne near Manchester. It depicts Tameside’s three World Cup winners – Geoff Hurst, Jimmy Armfield and Perrotta, who was born in Ashton and lived in the town until the age of six – and was unveiled in December 2010 when the Italy midfielder was, like Riquelme, just 33.
Can you help?
“Has a player ever refused a transfer or refused to play for a team because of a team’s sponsor?” asks JF Mamjjasond.
“As N’Golo Kanté heads towards joining the club of those to have won successive league titles with two different teams, has anyone won successive league titles with three or more different teams?” asks Tony Thornton (and a lot of others).
“What’s the most number of consecutive headed goals scored by a team?” tweets George O’Neill. “It can go over matches. Same question, but for volleys?”
“With Burnley’s current great form at home and woeful away record, I was wondering what the biggest difference in points gained at home to away based on three points for a win?” wonders Sean Cole. “I make Burnley’s this season 2.15 to 0.1 so a difference of 2.05.”
“Due to having an Aberdeen-supporting mate, I started a game of Football Manager as the mighty Dons,” explains David Szmidt. “While playing, I noticed that a lot of teams in Scotland have names that don’t include the name of the town or city in which they play (Queen of the South, St Mirren, Hibernian and so forth). So my question is: which professional league pyramid involves the most clubs with names that aren’t the same as their home town? I realise this could get quite tricky (eg East Fife being a geographical location, but the team playing specifically in the town of Methil), but I’m sure some kind of arbitrary system could be imposed.”
@TheKnowledge_GU Have mid-season captaincy changes ever proven to work? Asking as an #LCFC fan with pressure mounting on Wes Morgan...
— Josh Phillips (@ChopperPhillips) February 7, 2017
- Send your questions and answers to knowledge@theguardian.com or tweet@TheKnowledge_GU.
