2012's sexiest football stats: by John (50 Shades Of) Ley 91 Some players spend a lifetime scoring nearly a century of goals but Lionel Messi achieved it in 2012, netting a remarkable 91. Fifa, though, has refused to get involved in the debate about who holds the world record for scoring the most goals in a year. It was widely reported that Messi's 86th goal surpassed a mark set by Germany's Gerd Mueller 40 years ago. But the Zambian Football Association claimed Godfrey Chitalu had scored 107 goals for club and country in 1972. 37 Messi's tally puts Robin van Persie's achievements into perspective, though few at Manchester United will complain. Van Persie has scored 37 goals in 2012; 19 for Arsenal and 18 for United. 16 Harry Redknapp got all emotional when, at the 17th attempt, his Queens Park Rangers team finally won a game, bringing to an end the worst ever start in Premier League history. "When he puts that whistle to his lips," said Redknapp, "there's not many better feelings in life, believe you me." Seems Harry's been out of the game too long. 9 But Queens Park Rangers have seen more red than points in 2012. The struggling Londoners have collected nine red cards this year but have won just seven Premier League games. 9 When Bradford City dumped Arsenal out of the Capital One Cup they did it with their ninth straight successful penalty shoot-out. 2 And Bradford get another shout because, having eliminated Wigan earlier in the competition, they can boast the fact that they have beaten more Premier League teams this season than QPR. Ouch. 19 The number of Premier League players booked for trying to copy Team GB's Tom Daley. The "simulation" law has come in useful for refs this season with the likes of Gareth Bale and Luis Suarez seeing yellow for diving. That's the punishment, not the diving. 6 Remember the days when Anfield was a fortress, when the words of You'll Never walk Alone could have been changed to You'll never win at Liverpool? Well not any more. In 2012 Liverpool have won 24 points from 57 available at home. That's just six wins and six draws and a worrying seven defeats. 608 Manchester United's very own Marathon Man, Ryan Giggs, has now extended his Premier League record to 608 appearances after featuring against Newcastle on Boxing Day. Giggs has been backed to play on to the age of 41 and few would bet against him claiming his 13th Premier League winners" medal in May. 272 Amount in minutes of 'Fergie-Time' played in 2012. Yes, games involving Manchester United have had 272 extra minutes this year. That is an additional four hours and 32 minutes for the likes of Wayne Rooney and now Robin van Persie to flourish, enough indeed, for an extra three full games. 13 However, when it comes to stretching games out, the noisy neighbours are not bad. In October, Manchester City's game against Swansea had an astonishing 13 minutes (12 minutes and 42 seconds to be precise) of added time, a Premier League record. 20 Talking of City, they set another Premier League record in March 2012 when they beat Chelsea at the Etihad Stadium. It was, impressively, their 20th straight win at home. 17 Robin van Persie equalled another Premier League record in the 2011-12 season while still a Gunner. The Dutchman scored against 17 different teams in the previous campaign, equalling the record set by another former Arsenal striker, Ian Wright. 1,410 The number of pieces of chewing gum West Ham's Sam Allardyce has chewed throughout 2012 (matchdays only). Working on his claim that he gets through six packets a game, he is keeping the chewing gum industry afloat almost single-handedly. He's not a bad manager, either. 2 The number of Christmas parties postponed by Premier League clubs this month. Given their reputation, football's festive fun time can often get out of order, so Queens Park Rangers were the first club to turn Scrooge and cancel Christmas after their dreadful start to the season. Newcastle followed their example. 8 Chelsea beat Villa, earlier in December, 8-0 to become the first team in the Premier League to win by that scoreline TWICE. It was also the first time SEVEN different goalscorers had netted for one team in a Premier League game. Manchester United beat Forest 8-1 and Ipswich 9-0 but a Premier League game has only been won by an eight-goal margin five times and Chelsea hold the honour of completing it on two occasions, firstly in May 2010 against Wigan and then on Dec 23, 2012. 130 That game gave us a plethora of records. Frank Lampard became Chelsea's highest goalscorer in England's top division with his 130th goal in the rout of Villa, overtaking Bobby Tambling (129). And Lampard scored on his 500th Premier League start, with his 100th Premier League goal in London. Only Thierry Henry (133) has scored more in the capital. 9 Yet when Lampard goes for his next job interview he can point to the part of his CV that says "record holder for scoring 10 goals in consecutive seasons." He has achieved it nine years in a row. Not bad for a has-been. 49 Juventus may be quaking in their boots at the prospect of facing Celtic in the Champions League but they have something from 2012 to remember, their Italian record 49-game unbeaten run, which was ended by Napoli in November. 5 Dimitar Berbatov scored his fifth Boxing Day Premier League goal this year. None of his peers can beat him, but Jermain Defoe and Frank Lampard are level. And the man in the No 9 shirt at Fulham revealed the best under-shirt words of 2012 on Boxing Day. The Bulgarian improved on Mario Balotelli's "Why always me" with the legend "Keep calm and pass the ball to me" when he scored an early goal against Southampton. 13 If the mistletoe is still hanging, David Moyes should get a big kiss one from every Evertonian. Everton are unbeaten in 13 home games, their last defeat coming at the hands of Arsenal in March. 24 No fewer than 24 of Manchester United's 46 league points this season (52 per cent) have come in games in which they have been behind. They don't call them the Comeback Kings for nothing. 1 Andre Villas-Boas is finally finding love at Tottenham but it is away from home that he has proved most impressive as Spurs remain the only team to score in every away match in the Premier League this season 52 No fewer than 52 managers, in the four divisions, left their jobs in 2012. At Chelsea, Roberto Di Matteo won the Champions League and still got sacked. And just this week, Henning Berg was jettisoned by Blackburn after just 57 days and 10 games in charge at Ewood Park. 6 When West Brom reached February they were petrified. They rarely win in that month and, before the trip to Wolves on before Valentine's Day, they had failed to win a game in February for six years. They responded by beating Wolves 5-1 - and followed that up with a 4-0 win over Sunderland. Jinx broken. 102 When Everton's Tim Howard became only the fourth goalkeeper in Premier League history to score (for his own side), against Bolton in January, he did it in style. The goal came from 102 yards (that's 93 metres), a record for the longest-range goal in the competition. Shame Everton lost. 202 Howard's long kick is equalled by his long-service medal. The American has not missed a Premier League game since September 2007 - that's 202 successive appearances for Everton. 310 But Howard has some way to go to beat the Premier League record. Tottenham goalkeeper Brad Friedel made 310 consecutive Premier League appearances - a competition record - between August 2004 and October 2012. The run ended when he was dropped to the bench for the game against Villa. But he returned, in December, against Panathinaikos to set a Spurs club record by becoming their oldest ever player at the age of 41 years and 162 days. 8 Yellow was the colour at Loftus Road in October when West Ham set a Premier League record for bookings for a single team in one game. And in addition to showing eight yellows to West Ham players, referee Mark Clattenburg showed two more yellows and a red to Rangers. Bet the ref thought his season could not get any worse... In September, Jerome Sinclair became Liverpool's youngest first-team player when he took to the field against West Brom at the tender age of 16 years and six days. 11 First you seen him, now you don't. In February Chris Smalling set a record for shortest appearance when, in the Premier League game at Norwich, the defender replaced Ryan Giggs just 11 seconds before referee Andre Marriner blew the final whistle. 4 In March Arsenal came from behind to win, on this occasion against Newcastle. It was a club record fourth successive occasion that the Gunners had turned a defeat into a victory. 7,712 The number of tweets posted by Joey Barton in 2012. Among that plethora of comments came the belief that Alan Shearer is a p****, referencing George Orwell and comparing Neil Warnock to Mike Bassett. 18 All is not well at Arsenal. In early December they suffered their worst start to a season for 18 years and Arsène Wenger's worst in his 16 years at the club. 17 A warning for Wayne after Rooney failed again from the penalty spot, against Arsenal in November. Rooney has posted an unremarkable tally of 17 goals from 25 penalties in his United career, with Sir Alex Ferguson now threatening to give responsibilities to Robin van Persie. 10 Norwich proved they are not making up the numbers when they went 10 games unbeaten in the Premier League, that impressive run ended at West Bromwich Albion on Dec 22. 11 Swansea have collected 11 away points this season - eight more than they had at this stage last season. 10 The Biscuitmen are crumbling. Poor Reading have scored 10 goals against Arsenal and Manchester United in three games this season - and lost all three. First it was the Capital One Cup and that memorable 7-5 defeat by Arsenal, followed by the 4-3 loss at home to United in the League and then the 5-2 league thrashing by the Gunners. 4 In March Arsenal's decline was highlighted by a 4-0 defeat at San Siro by AC Milan, their heaviest ever European loss. The 3-0 home win failed to soften the blow. 40 Hats off to Ross County who went 40 league games without loss before they were beaten in September by St Johnstone. 12 Barcelona are, well Barcelona, so when they went 12 games without conceding a home goal, from April 2011 to January 2012, few eyebrows were raised in Catalonia, despite it being a Spanish record. Ole. 80,000 The fine in pounds handed out to Arsenal's Nicklas Bendtner after he raised his shirt to reveal the name of a betting company on his Y-fronts, while playing for Denmark during Euro 2012. Pants. 65,000 The fine in pounds given to the Serbian FA for racist abuse during the Under-21 game against England. Insulting. 1,955 The cost in pounds of the Premier League's most expensive season ticket. Yes, you guessed right. It's moneybags Arsenal. 4 The pies on sale at a non-league football club are the most expensive in the country, according to a BBC survey. Blue Square Bet Premier Kidderminster pies cost £4. 7.19 Peter Gilmour's book Sexy Football is available now on Amazon for just £7.19. Disturbingly, used copies can be purchased from just a penny...