This Crew Can't Miss PK's PREMIERSHIP/Patrick Kinmartin

Liam Lawrence has become known for getting a club player of the year award with Stoke City, not for being one of English football's leading men of steel. Nonetheless, his injury confession on BBC Radio last week was purely awkward.

"It was in the middle of the night, the dog lies on the stairs and I didn't see him," Lawrence explained, filling the transcript that proceeded right ahead to make its rounds everywhere such bloopers are welcome (apparently here also among them.)

"I trod on him, realised what I'd done, tried to go to the next step, gone over on my ankle and fallen down the stairs. I'll miss the weekend, then it's the international break. Hopefully I'll be back after that.

"I've had a lot of stick, the lads have been ribbing me and I've heard a few things on the telly and on the radio. It's just a bit of banter."

Hey, accidents happen dog-gone it. Six years ago, just 13 players in the Premiership avoided enough of any type hindrance toward playing to start in at least 95 percent of their team's matches.

Surprisingly, while the Lawrence incident and another usual dose of injury knocks that included Didier Drogba missing Chelsea's matchup with Aston Villa on Sunday, that number has increased steadily.

During the 2004-2005 campaign, 22 players made 36 starts or more. That total took a dip the next season before surging back to 22 in 2006-2007 and then a bit higher to 23 last season.

Even with matches at the top flight being contested more physically rigorous than ever and coinciding cup tournaments putting copious amounts of additional action on some teams' schedules, modern-day Prem players are actually putting the quality demanded to fully endure the August-through-May grind on full display.

The notion is worth beholding. No calendar can track player durability better than the league's. To reach or near the 38-start mark in a season that encompasses nine months requires venerable health equally steady performance dependability. Sure, there are the various international and ulterior tournament breaks mixed in to hide behind, but being in the starting lineup fall until spring is generally the ultimate display of a diligent solider.

In that regard, some of the repeat offenders on the 36-plus starts list (not including goalkeepers) don't surprise. Villa star Gabriel Agbonlahor has 74 starts the past two years. Manchester City stalwart Richard Dunne ended up with 36 last season, costing him the chance to be the league's leading iron man since he would have had back-to-back seasons without a missed call into the lineup. Former teammate Sylvain Distin made 37 starts for City two seasons ago and then 36 last year, his first with Portsmouth.

Names from the Big Four squads, due to the nature of their commitment in the push for the treble, don't often get the full Prem run-out. Just 18 times the past five seasons Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal players have leveled with or surpassed the 36-start plateau. And a third of that measure alone belongs to Frank Lampard (four) and Jamie Carragher (two). By the way, that's quite a feat for both considering the rotation systems their clubs have employed in recent years.

For others, getting the full season's share of significant action proves to be nothing more than a spectacle of sorts. Back when he was with Fulham, Reading defender Liam Rosenior was in the lineup for all 38 games during the 2006-2007 year. In his previous two seasons with the Cottagers, Rosenior made 16 and 23 starts, respectively. He also only made 15 the season after completing the full slate.

That swing on the spectrum pales in comparison to Martin Laursen's well-documented turnaround from his injury saga. The Villa defender developed into an immense health liability while making 42 mere starts during the six seasons leading up to last year. Laursen didn't miss a single one, joining five teammates — Wilfred Bouma (38), Gareth Barry (37), Ashley Young (37), Nigel Reo Coker (36) and Agbonlahor (37) — who were able to complete the 95-percent commitment. The six players from one team starting at least 36 matches was a high in the modern-day league setup.

Taking this heightened sense of perfect attendance in class further, there are those who have been able to turn impressive work rates into consecutive-game streaks that fans love to fawn over. Distin, it's easy to overlook, was good for 115 straight with three seasons straight through of no misses for City  from 2002 to 2005 (the string actually began with a start for Newcastle in their 2001-2002 finale during his loan period there.)

Distin's output is the longest spurt of the past six years. Because Chelsea were such a story unto themselves, Lampard's track toward topping it that same season before his run — spanning from midway through 2002 to the same point of 2005 — that landed at 112 never garnered glaring press.

The longest current streak generating is Middlesbrough dynamo Stewart Downing's 69 consecutive appearances on the starting sheet, which continued in the Riversiders' 1-0 win over Wigan at the JJB Stadium on Saturday.

With what all these current trends seem to be suggesting, you can call off the dogs (especially Liam Lawrence's) on the notion of Downing struggling to surpass Distin.

Wrapping up the rest of the Prem weekend...

OWED DRINKS: Drawing successive matches against Arsenal and Manchester United was rough, but then Bolton manager Gary Megson had to take his group to Upton Park against surging West Ham. Megson, who is slowly developing Paul Jewell-type mastery of stop-bleeding, engineered the 3-1 win and looked especially valiant for not complaining about the virile scheduling luck.

OWES DRINKS: It wasn't a point stressed for members of the Chelsea front office because Steve Sidwell didn't suit up for Villa in Sunday's matchup at Stamford Bridge — Sidwell's burgeoning career may well be permanently crippled because of his mal-use by the Blues. Indeed, he signed the contract. Did the club, however, express warning about a decreased role while stumping so quickly for his services?

GOAL FULFILLED: Matt Taylor, the king of all goals DAPP (the confluence of distance, accuracy, purpose and power), returned in royal fashion with his laser free kick for the Wanderers in their win at Upton.

LET IT BE: There was plenty of prognosticating about how this week's international break would affect any given team. In the long run, these halts in the schedule do little to determine where teams finish in the final table.

SAY IT IS SO: That Damien Duff, who scored in Newcastle's 2-2 comeback draw at Goodison Park on Sunday, is playing well enough offensively to warrant permanent attacking midfielder status. Five years ago, a Duff-Michael Owen partnership up front would have been a dream partnership. For the good of both players and their abilities to liven pace in a hurry, a joint resurgence is a cozy thought.

3-POINT FINISH: Home teams went a combined 3-5-2, meaning the last three full match weekends have seen host sides come up on the short half of games won. ... Rory DeLapp was at Fratton Park with Stoke on Saturday, so the Portsmouth braintrust at least now has had the chance to think about what a January swoop for his throw-in services might bring to the set-piece equation that already contains the towering heading capabilities of Peter Crouch. ... For the sake of goalkeepers being included included in the league's iron man conversation, Brad Friedel remains the frontrunner with his seventh start of the year for Villa on Sunday upping his consecutive total to 159 that dates back to the beginning of the 2003-2004 season with Blackburn.

Patrick Kinmartin covers the English Premier League for 101soccer.com, you can contact him at PK@101soccer.com