BLACKBURN Rovers are set to bank a cool £16 million from Sky TV for finishing 15th in the Premiership this season.

That's likely to be Rovers' share from the Sky domestic broadcast contract after taking into account what the club earned from TV appearances and merit money over the course of the campaign.

Every club in the Premier League automatically receives around £8.8 million from a 50 per cent stake of the central contract, and the rest of that money is then carved upon depending on the amount of appearances a club makes on TV and where they finish in the final league table.

Rovers banked £2.9 million for finishing 15th and they collected a further £3.5 million for appearing 12 times on live TV, five of which were on Sky Sports and seven on Premiership Plus.

In addition, Rovers also banked approximately £60,000 for every time one of their matches was shown as a feature game on Match of the Day.

Not surprisingly, Chelsea banked the most cash of all the Premiership clubs - a whopping £26 million - after becoming only the fourth club in the 13-year history of the league to win the title, following in the footsteps of Manchester United, Arsenal and, of course, Rovers.

A total of 36,076 minutes of football was played over the course of the campaign, including 1,876 minutes of stoppage time, and 975 goals were scored, of which 186 (20%) were headers.

There were also 60 red cards and 1,031 yellows in what was a busy nine months for the league's professional referees.

Of the 380 Premiership matches played during 2004-05, 79 finished in 1-0 wins (43 of them for the home team), there were 54 1-1 draws, 47 2-1 wins (30 home), 45 2-0 wins (34 home), and 30 goalless draws.

Arsenal were the most prolific scorers, netting an impressive 87 times, and Rovers were the least prolific, their miserly total of 32 being their lowest ever haul in a league campaign since records began.

Chelsea had the best defensive record, conceding a paltry 15 goals to re-write the record books, while relegated Norwich City shipped the most (77), a total not helped by the six they let in at Fulham on the final day.

Manchester United, meanwhile, had the most shots on target (337), the most shots off target (283), and the most corners (294), despite a poor season in front of goal by their usually high standards.

United also hit the woodwork more times than any other side (18), while arch rivals Manchester City were thwarted by the woodwork the least often (only three times).

Rovers boss Mark Hughes will not be pleased to learn his team were caught offside more times than any other (162), and Rovers also committed more fouls than anyone else (595, followed by Aston Villa on 579).

In contrast, Liverpool were the 'cleanest' side, committing 440 fouls, four fewer than Arsenal and Spurs.

Rovers were also top of the yellow cards list with 73 cautions, but Fulham picked up the most reds (seven), while Chelsea collected none at all and Arsenal and Spurs just one each.

Crystal Palace were the penalty kings of 2004/2005. Iain Dowie's side were awarded a staggering 13 spot kicks, all but two of which were converted.

At the opposite end of the scale, Charlton went all season without earning a single spot-kick.

The most penalties were conceded by Fulham (nine), two coming against Rovers.

Everton, Liverpool and Bolton all conceded just one each.

Not surprisingly, Southampton ended up using the most players (34) after three different managers took charge of team affairs at St Mary's at various points in the season.

In total, 515 players were used by the 20 clubs, with Everton, Aston Villa and Charlton all having the smallest turnover in personnel (22).

In terms of individual records, Arsenal's Thierry Henry was the Premier League's top gun once again, netting 25 times in the league and 30 in all competitions.

Hot on his heels were Crystal Palace's Andrew Johnson (21), and Henry's Arsenal team-mate Robert Pires, who bagged 14 in the league and 17 overall.

Henry wasn't just a scorer of goals either, he also made them too, finishing second in the assists count with 14, just one behind Chelsea's Frank Lampard.

Former Rovers striker Kevin Davies was deemed the clumsiest player in the to -flight after committing the most fouls (102), closely followed by Arsenal's Patrick Vieira (89) and Everton's Tim Cahill (87).

Current Rovers defender Lucas Neill, meanwhile, had the dubious distinction of racking up the most cautions (11), along with Roy Keane (Man Utd) and Ray Parlour (Middlesbrough).

Another former Rover, Damien Johnson, was one of five players to be sent off twice, joining Gonzalo Sorondo (Crystal Palace), Papa Boupa Diop (Fulham), Liam Rosenior (Fulham) and Lee Bowyer (Newcastle).

Lastly, a total of 12,878,441 fans turned up to watch the 380 matches, giving an average attendance of 33,893, proving that the Premiership is still the most watchable league in the world.

Story based on

official Barclays

Premiership data and Actim Stats figures