Frank Lampard: 150, Not Out! (Statistics)

WITH HIS PENALTY goal against Fulham, Frank Lamaprd became the first midfielder to score 150 goals in the Premier League. This is an extraordinary feat by a midfielder -- the closest contender is Ryan Giggs with 112 goals.

Now Lampard is the 5th in the overall top scorer chart behind Alan Shearer, Andy Cole, Thierry Henry and Robbie Fowler -- a forward running midfielder alongside THE most lethal strikers Premier League has ever seen. He has set the standard very high for any attacking midfielder in the league and he could raise it even higher still. In this post, we will look at some statistics on the 150 goals he has scored in the league.


Goals Scored by Season

Chart 1. Goals Scored by Season

Lampard scored his first Premier League goal against Barnsley in 97-98 season playing for West Ham United and has scored (5 or more goals) in all 14 seasons that followed. Of the 150 goals, 24 of them were scored for West Ham. This means that even if you take the goals he has scored solely for Chelsea, he is still setting the record as the top midfield goalscorer with 126 goals.

Ever since 03-04 season, Lampard has scored 10 goals or more in every Premier League season. His highest record in a single season is 22 goals during The Double winning 09-10. His goalscoring record has no doubt been positively effected by being Chelsea's designated penalty taker (which, by the way, is no easy job). Lampard, by my calculation, has scored 34 penalty goals in the league. And, guess what? Even without these penalty goals, he will still be the top goalscoring midfielder in the league with 116 goals.

Who He Scored Against and How Many

Table 1. Teams Lampard Has Scored against and the Number of Goals Scored

Let me start with a disclaimer. Many of the databases on the internet state that Lampard has scored 5 goals in the 97-98 season for West Ham. It is both on his Wikipedia page and on his Premier League profile page. But when I try to find out which teams he scored against in that season, I could only find four goals -- two goals against Barnsley, one against Leeds United and another against Leicester City. This is confirmed by West Ham's 1997-98 Season Wiki page and the profile on SoccerBase. One possibility is that an opponent's own goal has been awarded to Lampard retrospectively but I don't know if that's true. At any rate, one goal is missing from that 97-98 season in the above table. You've been warned. (If you can shed any light on the issue, please leave a comment.)

As shown on Table 1, Lampard has scored against 37 different teams in the English league. His top three favorites to score against are Bolton (12), Aston Villa (10) and Blackburn (9). It is kind of a surprise to me that he has also scored a significant amount of goals against the likes of Fulham, Man City, Newcastle and Tottenham. Of the other 19 teams that are in the Premier League this season, QPR and Swansea are the only teams that have never conceded a Lampard goal. 

Overall, Lampard has 16 braces to his name. His only hat-trick came against Bolton this season. But that's not because he didn't score 3 goals in a single game before. He scored one too many on two occasions -- four against Derby (07-08) and four against Aston Villa (09-10).  

Goals Scored by Pitch Position

Figure 1. Goals Scored by Pitch Position

I found this graphic on the Premier League website and it is very likely to include non-league goals and exclude some goals scored for West Ham. However, I think it still paints a pretty accurate picture of where Lampard generally scores his goals from. 

First of all, I think that 2% from the left wing position is a mistake because you get 102% if you add up all the percentages you see on the graphic. About 78% of his goals were scored from inside the box and 9% from inside the 6-yard box. The majority of his goals, 53 percent, were scored from around the penalty spot -- mainly because some of them were, well, penalty goals.

WELL, THAT'S ENOUGH statistics on the 150 Premier League goals by Frank Lampard -- a striker trapped inside a midfielder's body/position. I'm sure this goal record will stand the test of time for many years to come. He's truly a rare treasure for his club and the league. And he's not even done yet!

Carefree, wherever you may be...