Football's back, and how! In the Premier League, Manchester United thumped Leeds United, Arsenal got thumped by Brentford, Liverpool and Chelsea swatted aside Norwich City and Crystal Palace, respectively, but arguably the biggest result came in the last game of the weekend -- when Tottenham Hotspur beat defending champions Manchester City.
In LaLiga, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Atletico Madrid all got off to winning starts, while in Bundesliga Bayern Munich stumbled a touch on opening day. There were goals, drama, more goals and some great numbers this weekend. By The Numbers brings you the best of the latter:
Premier League
1/5
Mohamed Salah has now scored in each of his five PL season openers -- he is the first player to achieve the feat in the league's history. In fact, the seven opening day goals Salah has scored puts him only behind Frank Lampard, Wayne Rooney and Alan Shearer, who all scored eight. Jamie Vardy also has seven opening day goals.
3
Manchester City have lost three consecutive games in all competitions without scoring a single goal for the first time since... March 2007, when they were managed by Stuart Pearce.
3
Nuno Espirito Santo has now won three PL games against Pep Guardiola's Manchester City (previously twice with Wolves); that's the joint-most of any coach, along with Jurgen Klopp, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Jose Mourinho.
4
Pep Guardiola has lost four straight away games against a single club for the first time in his managerial career.
4
David Moyes' reign continues to pick up pace at West Ham United. Their 4-2 victory over Newcastle United saw them score 4+ goals in the opening league match for only the third time in their top-flight history (1928-29 and 1983-84).
4/7
Paul Pogba is only the seventh player to record four assists in a single PL game. He is, though, the first to do it for Manchester United. In fact, Pogba had more assists on Saturday than he had in each of the last two PL seasons (three each).
10
Manchester City's PL record 10-game opening-match winning streak has been snapped. The last time they failed to win an opener? 2010-11, when they drew 0-0 with... Tottenham Hotspur.
3/30
Mason Greenwood is just the third teenager in Manchester United history to score 30 goals in all competitions for the club. The other two? Norman Whiteside, 39 and George Best, 37.
5
Leeds United have conceded 5+ goals only twice since returning to the PL last season - both against Manchester United (the other being the 6-2 loss at Old Trafford in December 2020).
34
There were 34 goals scored across the PL opening weekend this season, the most since 2003-04, when there were 36 goals scored on Matchday 1.
44
Bruno Fernandes is the first Manchester United player to score a hat trick on the opening day of a league season since Lou Macari vs Birmingham in 1977-78, 44 years ago.
45
Arsenal have started a league campaign with a defeat against newly-promoted opposition for the first time in 45 years; they lost to Bristol City at Highbury in 1976-77.
74
Brentford ended Friday night on top of the English top-flight for the first time since September 1, 1946 -- a gap of 74 years, 346 days. That's the biggest ever gap for a club topping the top-flight, breaking Notts County's old record (58 years, 251 days between December 1924 and August 1983).
2,000
Danny Ings' penalty on Saturday (his first goal for Aston Villa, of course) was the 2,000th penalty scored in PL history. Brian Deane scored the first while Alan Shearer (56), Frank Lampard (43) and Steven Gerrard (32) have the most.
8,000
Roberto Firmino scored Liverpool's 8,000th goal in English league football, becoming only the second side to hit that mark, after Manchester United (8,089).
Ligue 1
7
Defending champions Lille have conceded seven goals in their first two Ligue 1 matches this season (3-3 vs Metz, 4-0 vs Nice). That is as many goals as they had conceded in their final 12 league games last season en route to winning the title.
LaLiga
1/50
After failing to score in a LaLiga season for the first time in his career last season, Gerard Pique ended up scoring Barcelona's first goal of this season. It was his 50th goal for Barcelona in all competitions (22 headed goals), the second-highest scoring Barcelona defender ever after current coach Ronald Koeman (88). This after he took a 'substantial' pay cut to allow Barcelona to register their summer signings before the season began.
45
That Pique goal was assisted by new signing Memphis Depay. Since the start of the 2016-17 season, only three players have scored 45+ goals and assisted 45+ times across Europe's top-five leagues -- Lionel Messi, Salah and Depay.
194
Karim Benzema has now scored 194 career LaLiga goals, one shy of tying Edmundo "Mundo" Suárez de Trabanco for 10th on the all-time list. He is, though, the highest scorer currently active in the league, followed by Luis Suarez (166).
Bundesliga
5/5
Hertha Berlin's Stevan Jovetic has appeared in each of Europe's top five leagues, becoming the first player to do so since Christian Poulsen, who completed the set in September 2011.
7
Borussia Dortmund have won on the first matchday of the Bundesliga for the seventh season in a row, equalling the record held by Bayern Munich (seven from 2012 to 2018). The game also saw Erling Haaland get two assists in a single game for the first time in his Dortmund career. He also scored twice. Obviously.
10
For the first time in 10 years, Bayern Munich conceded the first goal of the match on the very first matchday. Back then they lost 1-0 against Borussia Mönchengladbach; this time it was a 1-1 draw against the same team. That season, 10 years ago, was also the last time they didn't win the league title.
(Stats courtesy ESPN's Stats & Information Group)