REVIEW: City 4th club with multiple PL doubles vs United

FOOTBALL – Manchester City completed their double victory over crosstown Manchester United, following up a 6-1 win at Old Trafford earlier this season with a 1-0 win at the Etihad tonight. City became only the fourth club in the PL era with multiple doubles against United. Want to see the complete list?

Number of ‘double victories’ against Man Utd (seasons in brackets)

3 – Arsenal (1997/1998, 2001/2002, 2006/2007)

3 – Liverpool (2000/2001, 2001/2002, 2008/2009)

3 – Chelsea (1993/1994, 2004/2005, 2009/2010)

2 – Manchester City (2007/2008, 2011/2012)

1 – Blackburn Rovers (2005/2006)

1 – West Ham United (2006/2007)

Season in italic print means team won league title in that season

LIVE WIRE: Manchester City v Manchester United live link

FOOTBALL – Starting at 20:00 CET today, we will provide Live Text coverage of tonight’s derby match between Manchester City and Manchester United. The service is free for all and free of cost. No subscriptions, no logins, no passwords. You can gain access by clicking the following link: http://bit.ly/IHfu4m We hope that you will enjoy the show!

PREVIEW: Top two PL teams from same city is rare

FOOTBALL – Manchester City and Manchester United will decide who will capture the Premier League title in the 2011/2012 season. This is only the seventh occasion in the English top flight on which the top two teams in the table reside in the same city.

It started in Manchester

The first such scenario unfolded in the 1967/1968 season. The interesting fact is that the top two teams then were Manchester City and Manchester United. The Citizens were crowned champions and the Red Devils were runners-up.

Liverpool the hotbed in mid-1980s

The next three such cases belong to city Liverpool in period 1984/1985 to 1986/1987. Everton became a champion in first and last season in that span, Liverpool won the league in middle season.

Next inner city feud: Arsenal – Chelsea

London became the third city to produce the two teams atop the table. Arsenal became champions in 2003/2004, just ahead of runners-up Chelsea. The last such script occurred in the following season, only both teams swapped places – the Blues were ahead of the Gunners.

Only Everton managed the double

Manchester City won first game in this season at Old Trafford (6-1), however they still need three points to leapfrog their rivals. Out of those six seasons outlined above, only Everton managed to win both games against their city rivals (both games in the 1984/1985 season ended by a score of 1-0).

Slavko Jeric (find him on Twitter @lavkeri) is a loyal contributor to this website. His next contribution will make him the first to reach Gold status. We certainly like his work and hope you enjoy it, too.

LONDON CALLING – Countdown to the 2012 Olympics: 88

OLYMPICS – With the 2012 Olympic Games in London getting closer by the day, we are in full-on Olympic stats mode here and @Infostrada2012. Every day from 100 days to go until the day of the London 2012 opening ceremony, we will post a statistic related to the number of days left until the Games. Click ‘Read More’ to see today’s 88-stat and all the other ones that we have posted so far.

88 – Double 8: Michael Phelps (USA) won 8 medals in 2004 before embarking on his record 8 GOLDS in Beijing.

89 – GER won 89 medals at the Berlin Games in 1936, more than double the medals they won in Beijing (41).

90 – Amunike scored a 90th minute winner to give Nigeria the first football gold for Africa in the 1996 final vs Argentina (3-2).

91 – Number of all-time Olympic medals won by Brazil, including 20 gold. Sailing is their best sport with 6 golds & 16 medals.

92 – Japan have won 92 Olympic medals in Artistic Gymnastics, two behind the USA for most among current NOCs (USSR have 182).

93 – Number of countries who participated in the first Olympic Games held in Asia, Tokyo 1964, a record at the time.

94 – The USA have won exactly 94 medals at three different Olympic Games 1972, 1976 & 2000. No other country has ever done it. #countdown

95 – Brazil have scored a record 95 goals in the men’s Olympic Games football tournament, though they have never won the gold.

96 – Success of the Games: 176 athletes competed in 1896 to more than 10,000 in 1996.

97 – 97 years ago, in 1915, the International Olympic Committee headquarters moved to Lausanne, Switzerland, where it is still located.

98 – There will be 98 male and 98 female participants in Artistic Gymnastics at the 2012 Olympic Games.

99 – Carl Lewis was the first man to win the Olympic 100m title in under 10 seconds at sea level, finishing in 9.99 seconds at Los Angeles 1984.

100 – Total medals won by China at Beijing 2008, the most ever by an Asian country at one Olympic Games.

BIRTHDAY – 30 April: Don Schollander (Swimming)

SWIMMING: Don Schollander is 66 years old today. When he was 11 years old, he considered quitting swimming after a bout of pneumonia had rattled his invincibility. He persisted. At age 18, he won four gold medals at the Olympic Games. He won Olympic Gold in the 100m Freestyle, 400m Freestyle, 4x100m Freestyle and twice in the 4x200m Freestyle (1964 and 1968). During his career, he set 19 world records in the 200m and 400m Freestyle events as well as the Freestyle Relay.

Shares birthday with: Willie Nelson, Jane Campion, Lars von Trier

REVIEW: Juve’s 39 steps

FOOTBALL – Juventus won 0-4 at Novara in the Serie A on Sunday and are now 39 matches in all competitions without defeat this season. Click Read More and find out what that means.

> Juve broke Inter’s record of 38 official matches without defeat from the season start in 2004/05.

> Juventus are also unbeaten in their last 36 Serie A matches and they are closing in on the third longest unbeaten run by Perugia (37) in May 1978-Oct 1979.

REVIEW: Nadal’s 48th singles title sees him enter Top 10

TENNIS – Rafael Nadal has won his second men’s singles title of 2012, winning his seventh career crown in Barcelona. He thereby claimed his 48th career men’s singles tournament title, which sees him equal Ilie Nastase in 10th place all-time. Click here to see what the Top 10 looks like.

Most career men’s singles titles – ATP

109 – Jimmy Connors (USA)

94 – Ivan Lendl (TCH/USA)

77 – John McEnroe (USA)

73 – Roger Federer (SUI)

64 – Björn Borg (SWE)

64 – Pete Sampras (USA)

62 – Guillermo Vilas (ARG)

60 – Andre Agassi (USA)

49 – Boris Becker (GER)

48 – Ilie Nastase (ROU)

48 – Rafael Nadal (ESP)

RECORD: Real trio reach new heights

FOOTBALL – Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo (43), Gonzalo Higuaín (21) and Karim Benzema (20) have become the first trio from the same club in La Liga history to score 20+ league goals each in a single season. On a personal note, Ronaldo equalled an 80-year-old record.

Ronaldo scored once vs Sevilla (3-0) to take his La Liga total this season to 43. He became the first player in 80 years to score 43+ goals in Europe’s top 4 leagues since Dixie Dean scored 45 for Everton in 1931/32.

LONDON CALLING – Countdown to the 2012 Olympics: 89

OLYMPICS – With the 2012 Olympic Games in London getting closer by the day, we are in full-on Olympic stats mode here and @Infostrada2012. Every day from 100 days to go until the day of the London 2012 opening ceremony, we will post a statistic related to the number of days left until the Games. Click ‘Read More’ to see today’s 89-stat and all the other ones that we have posted so far.