Have Manchester United just set a record for consecutive league wins?

“Manchester United’s win at Newcastle last week was their 11th in a row in the league,” notes Michael Strutter. “Is that a record for the top flight in England or even Europe?”

The short and long answer is ‘no’, but best place buy canada goose jacket toronto they aren’t far away from an English top-flight record. That belongs to Arsenal, who scorched to 14 consecutive Premiership wins in 2002, 13 of them to clinch the title at the back end of the 2001-02 season. That 13-match winning streak began and ended with victories over Everton; they then beat Birmingham in the first game of the 2002-03 season before drawing at West Ham.

Three other English sides have won 14 in a row in what was then the Second Division: Manchester United (1904-05), Bristol City (1905-06) and Preston (1950-51). All of which is knocked into a cocked one by the achievements of Martin O’Neill’s Celtic. After drawing the first game of the 2003-04 season at Dunfermine, they won the next 25 until they were held at home by Motherwell in the middle of March.

Even that is not a European record, however. Dinamo Zagreb won 28 in a row during the 2006-07 and 2007-08 seasons, and Eusebio’s Benfica won 29 can you wash a canada goose parka on the spin in the 1971-72 and 1972-73 campaigns. That is generally accepted as the record, although there are unconfirmed suggestions that Sparta Prague won over 50 on the spin in the 1920s.

As for the big four European leagues, the record belongs to Internazionale, who won 17 consecutive games in 2006-07. Real Madrid (1960-61) and Bayern Munich (2004-05 and 2005-06) each won 15 in a row.

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Available now, The Knowledge in book form, a collection of our favourite questions and answers from the past nine years.

FIXTURE PILE-UPS (2)

Last week we highlighted some nasty bits of fixture congestion from the past, all of which have nothing on the ones you’ve brought to our attention this week.

Let’s start with Luke Williams and David Paton, who point out that in 1896-97 and 1915-16 respectively, Woolwich Arsenal and Celtic had to play two games in one day. Arsenal’s reserves beat Leyton 5-0 in the FA Cup while the big boys took an 8-0 black canada goose parka shellacking by Loughborough in the Second Division – still their record defeat.

At the other end of the scale, Graham Bristol says that, in the 90 days between 31 January and 30 April 1959, Norwich played an absurd 27 matches, including three lots of fixtures on consecutive days. “Out of the 27 games, three players were ever-present (Bly, Butler & Crossan), Ashman, Crowe & McCrohan missed only one game, while Brennan & Hill missed two and Thurlow missed a mere four.”

And somewhere in between lie the lung-busting, muscle-deadening runs of eight games in next to no time. Spurs played eight in 19 days between 21 March and 5 April 1972, and eight in 17 between May 1 and May 17 1982. But spare a thought for Don Revie’s Leeds – no, really – because they had to play eight in 15 days, including semi-finals in the FA Cup and European Cup, between 21 March 21 and 4 April 4 in 1970. “Funnily enough they ended the season winning nothing,” says Alistair Fraser. “Obviously it would be a very bitter man who suggested that the FA hated Leeds. But that’s exactly what I am. The cees.”

Surely the most absurd fixture pile-up, however, was that of Canvey Island at the end of the 2000-01 season, as pointed out by Liam McGuigan. They played their final five games of the season on the 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 May, their last eight in nine days best canada goose jacket for skiing and in all their final 12 Ryman League matches in 17 days between 18 April and 5 May.

UK RULES OK

“Man U’s starting XI for their first-leg Champions League match authenitc canada goose outlet store in gta with discount price against Inter contained players from each of the five international sides in Ireland and Britain. When was the last time all five were represented on one side in canada goose coat 0f a European Cup or Champions League knockout match?” pondered Michael Faherty last week.

Brian bright blue canada goose jacket Glen reckons he has the answer — Celtic did it twice in 2004-05. For their Champions League Group F tie against Shakhtar Donetsk at Parkhead on 2 November Celtic lined up with Jackie McNamara and David Marshall (Scotland), Aiden McGeady (Republic of Ireland), Neil Lennon (Northern Ireland), John Hartson (Wales) and Alan Thompson (England) in their first XI. The Bhoys then repeated the feat on 7 December against Milan, though without Marshall.

KNOWLEDGE ARCHIVE

“Who is the most gifted player never to have won a medal?” wondered Gary Scott, way back when.

Obviously this is a subjective area, hence the suggestion of Dion Dublin (you know who you are … Ed Haygarth) cheap, but most of you put berlin film festival ends canada goose jacket sponsorship amid your eggs firmly in one of three baskets: Tom Finney, Matt Le Tissier and Beppe Signori.

“Tom Finney,” canada goose coat – victoria begins Mark Smith. “It’s not even worth arguing about.” And it is a bit of an injustice that Jonathan Greening has a European Cup medal and Preston’s favourite son doesn’t have any – apart from an FA Cup runners-up medal from 1954, when Preston lost 3-2 to West Brom in the final.

But some of you felt it was worth arguing about. “Although he was top goalscorer in Serie A three times with Lazio in the early 1990s, Beppe Signori never won a thing,” says Richard Moore. “He was even dropped for the 1994 World Cup final after refusing to play on the wing.”

Then there’s Le Tissier, every neutral’s favourite player in the 1990s. “He is surely the most gifted player never to win a medal,” says Oliver Webb. “Arguably the world’s greatest-ever player never even got close – unless you count a runners-up medal in the Zenith Data Systems Cup in 1992.” We don’t, Oliver – and more to the point, we’re pretty confident he doesn’t either.

For more questions and answers take a trip through the Knowledge archive.

Can you help?

“Lloyd Owusu began the season at Yeovil, moved to Cheltenham and is now on loan at Brighton,” writes Tom Brabin. “It’s not beyond the realms of possibility that all three teams could get relegated from League One this season. Has one player ever played for three relegated teams in the can someone check if this canada goose outlet website is authentic same season?”

“Following Manchester United’s 4-0 win at Fulham in the FA Cup quarter-finals, they have now gone a year without being knocked out of a major competition; winning the Premier League and Champions League last May, the World Club Championships in December, and the Carling Cup the other week. They were last turfed out of a major competition on 8 March 2008 when Portsmouth beat them in the FA Cup, so my question to you is: What’s the longest period a team has gone without being eliminated from a major tournament?” wonders Ayman Fazeli.

“After Lewes lost their 13th consecutive Blue Square Premier game against Mansfield, a run in which they have only managed two goals, I was wondering: what is the longest consecutive losing run in English football?” wonders the excellently-surnamed Rob Smallbone from Reading.

Send your questions and answers to knowledge@theguardian.com