By Andrew Beasley. Statistics sourced from EPLIndex, and correct up to and including 8th May 2012.

Anfield. Tuesday night, at about ten to nine. The last home game of a topsy-turvy season for Liverpool.

Stewart Downing is about to attempt to bag his first Premier League goal for the Reds in much the same fashion that a goal-less Peter Crouch did against Portsmouth in November 2005; a penalty. A free shot, from twelve yards out.

Downing strikes the ball. The keeper goes the wrong way, the ball is inside the post…

But not by quite enough, it hits it and rebounds out, and Downing remains without a Premier League goal for the Reds, much like Crouch did on that winter afternoon seven years ago. Potential cheers turn to groans in an instant.

Perhaps a more damning statistic for a player bought in to set up opportunities for his colleagues is that the former Aston Villa man has yet to register an assist in the league for Liverpool either.

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