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Amongst the leaders in goals against, only one clean-sheet so far, a succesion of errors by goalkeeper and defenders: clearly things are not running smoothly at Old Trafford although the bookies still favour them to win the Championship yet again
The accompanying table indicates how this season's United team has fared compared with its illustrious predecessors. Leaking goals at almost twice the average rate over the previous nine season, this is clearly the worst defensive start to the season for the clubEarly years were built on the outstanding triumvirate of central defenders, Bruce and Pallister along with goalkeeper, Schmeichel. However, statistically, last season was their best start with the arrival of Barthez as the last line of defence offsetting long-term injuries to Stam and Johnsen
The two closest season in terms of conceding goals were 1996/7 and 1999/00. In the former, they went down to startling 0-5 and 3-6 defeats in consecutive games but went on a sixteen match unbeaten run from mid-November onwards. Two seasons ago, they again suffered a 0-5 meltdown, against Chelsea, before a more than three month unbeaten run in which they outscored the opposition 28-9. And yes, in both seasons they ultimately triumphed
| Games before 20 goals conceded |
Goals conceded after 11 games |
Final Position |
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|---|---|---|---|
| 92/93 | 26 | 8 | 1 |
| 93/94 | 23 | 9 | 1 |
| 94/95 | 24 | 9 | 2 |
| 95/96 | 19 | 11 | 1 |
| 96/97 | 14 | 17 | 1 |
| 97/98 | 29 | 6 | 2 |
| 98/99 | 17 | 9 | 1 |
| 99/00 | 15 | 16 | 1 |
| 00/01 | 31 | 8 | 1 |
| 01/02 | 11 | 20 | ? |
| Go Figure 3-4 November |
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Arsenal 2–4 Charlton Athletic Arsenal allow four goals at home for the first time since their inaugural game in the Premiership. Neither Liverpool nor Manchester United have ever conceded as many at home over this period, but Arsenal retain the longest run, home and away, at 237 matches
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Bolton Wanderers 2–2 Everton A tale of two goalkeepers. On-loan Kevin Poole gets his first Premiership game in almost four and a half years, whilst
Steve Simonsen starts a game
for the first time, after being the only player with more than 100 bench appearances not to have done so.
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Chelsea 2–1 Ipswich Town A familiar story for Ipswich as they endure a 10 match winless run for the fourth time in their five Premier League seasons. Only Coventry, with five in nine campaigns, can rival them
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Leeds United 2–1 Tottenham Hotspur Predictably, Seth Johnson started his Leeds career with a yellow card. No doubt as league leader with 14 in 1999/00, he will rival team-mate Dacourt who has picked up 13 in each of his two full seasons in the league
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Leicester City 1–0 Sunderland Not the first Premiership scoring drought for Akinbiyi who finally scored after fourteen games. He did not find the net in fifteen appearances for Norwich during the mid-90's
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Liverpool 3–1 Manchester United With 20 goals conceded in only 11 games, United have close to the worst goal against record this season (Leicester 23/12),
and by some way their most mediocre defensive start to the season More...
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Middlesbrough 5–1 Derby County Only the third occasion on which a premiership team has scored at least five goals without hittng the back of the net before half-time. Manchester United have performed the feat twice, against Spurs earlier this season and Wimbledon four years ago
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Newcastle United 3–0 Aston Villa The enforced absence of Robert Lee obviously did him some good. His assists
were the first for 42 games and the only time in his Premiership career that he has managed a hat-trick of them
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Southampton 1–2 Blackburn Rovers The Saints problems at their new ground have been well publicized but their five-game winless streak has been topped in two
previous campaigns including a seven run skid which left them, temporarily, three points adrift at the foot of the table in March 1997
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West Ham United 0–2 Fulham The Hammers fail to become the first team to notch four succesive victories this season. Of the seven clubs with a three-win
run, only Liverpool are currently on course for triumph number four
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