Premiership Record?

Last updated : 15 February 2007 By Jim Bonner
Asking "Is this our best Premiership season yet?" may seem like a stupid question, but it's still one that can be answered, and also we can ask how much better is it going to be than previous seasons?

So if you're one of these people wondering how many goals we need to score to have our best ever scoring season in the Premiership, or how many goals we need to keep out to have our best ever defensive season in the top flight, then this is the article to find out!

Firstly, the facts:

Season 03/04

Points: 45
Won: 12
Drawn: 9
Lost: 17
Position: 13th
Goals Scored: 47
Goal Average per Game: 1.2
Goals Conceded: 54
Cleansheets: 8
Best Win: Pompey 6 Leeds 1
Worst Defeats: Newcastle 3 Pompey 0, Man United 3 Pompey 0, Scummers 3 Pompey 0, Chelsea 3 Pompey 0, Liverpool 3 Pompey 0
Doubles: 1 (Leeds)
Doubled By: 3 (Chelsea, Everton, Leicester)

Season 04/05

Points: 39
Won: 10
Drawn: 9
Lost: 19
Position: 16th
Goals Scored: 43
Goal Average per Game: 1.1
Goals Conceded: 59
Cleansheets: 5
Best Win: Pompey 4 Scummers 1
Worst Defeats: Aston Villa 3 Pompey 0, Chelsea 3 Pompey 0, Arsenal 3 Pompey 0
Doubles: 1 (Crystal Palace)
Doubled By: 6 (Arsenal, Aston Villa, Blackburn, Chelsea, Everton, Man City)

Season 05/06

Points: 38
Won: 10
Drawn: 8
Lost: 20
Position: 17th
Goals Scored: 37
Goal Average per Game: 1
Goals Conceded: 62
Cleansheets: 5
Best Win: Sunderland 1 Pompey 4
Worst Defeats: Birmingham 5 Pompey 0
Doubles: 2 (Fulham, Sunderland)
Doubled By: 5 (Charlton, Chelsea, Liverpool, Man United, Tottenham)

Season 06/07 (Played 28)

Points: 41
Won: 11
Drawn: 8
Lost: 8
Position: 7th
Goals Scored: 36
Goal Average per Game: 1.3
Goals Conceded: 26
Cleansheets: 9
Best Win: Middlesbrough 0 Pompey 4
Worst Defeat: Man United 3 Pompey 0
Doubles: 1 (West Ham)
Doubles Possible: 4 (Blackburn, Everton, Reading, Watford)
Doubled By: 1 (Bolton)
Doubled Bys Possible: 3 (Chelsea, Man United, Newcastle)

So, with these facts in mind it's already been repeatedly stated that we're on course for our best ever points total in a Premiership season. Indeed, a win and two draws (or even better, two wins) and we will have officially have broken our own record of 45 Premiership points we got in 2003/2004, having already surpassed our totals of last season and the season before.

We have won 11 games so far this season, which again breaks our 04/05 and 05/06 records, leaving just one more win from ten needed to equal the record set in our debut season. Add to that the fact we'd have to lose 9 of our 10 remaining games to not have our best season in terms of avoiding defeat and the awful cheers of the opposition after the final whistle. This season inevitably looks good for our best Premiership season of wins and not losing!

We look set to break our Premiership record of goals scored in a season having scored 36 already this term. We only need to find the net once to equal last years record but we can't afford to draw blanks if we're to beat the 47 goals we scored in our first season in the Premiership. Still, with 1.3 goals being scored a game we are looking good, despite our goal drought last month.

Pompey's defensive record in the Premiership looks set to be smashed too. Shipping 54 goals is the "best" that the Portsmouth squad have managed so far, but having only conceded 26 so far this season we would have to listen to fans of the opposition cheer 28 times even to equal our best defensive record in the league. For the record, we'd have to concede 2.8 goals every game to "accomplish" this "which isn't physically possible, but still...

We've also already kept more cleansheets this season than we have in any other Premiership campaign, making the pitiful 5 we kept for the last two seasons (the worst in the league in 04/05) look laughably bad considering we kept 5 cleansheets in our first 5 league games, however that does mean we have only kept 4 cleansheets in the 23 games since then.

One record we might not break is our record Premiership win. Beating Leeds United 6-1 is a memorable achievement in itself, despite how awful they were that season. With the fixtures we have left it's very difficult to see where a victory by 5 clear goals is going to come from. The positive is that I don't see us getting trounced 5-0 this season, unlike the beating Birmingham dished out on us last season (and yet still got relegated).

Finally. we all like a double don't we? Whether it be double time, double vodka, double burgers or whatever, it's always nice to beat the same team twice in the same season. In past Prem seasons getting doubled by Pompey meant you're shit and generally going down (unless you're Fulham) and despite our massive improvement this season, we have only managed to double West Ham (who, incidentally are shit and going down by their own fans admission).

It's possible that we could achieve 4 more doubles but it would mean having to go to Ewood Park, Goodison Park, The Madejski Stadium and Vicarage Road and winning. It's quite possible that West Ham end up the only team we take 6 points from, having missed out on "easy" doubles last month over Charlton and Boro having done the hard work and winning on their turf. Oh, and there's more of a chance that we will get nothing from Chelsea and Man United this season but please, god, don't let us lose to Newcastle again.

So the answer to the question "Are we going to have our best Premiership season in every possible way?" is "probably not" due to the fact we're unlikely to encounter another team who are quite as bad as Leeds United were back three and a half years ago now. Apart from that minor quirk, we're on course for our best ever Premiership campaign (like we haven't known that since Boxing Day....).

Perhaps the bigger issue should be that, if this is our best Premiership season and best overall season since the mid-50's will we celebrate that fact if UEFA Cup football doesn't come out of it?