Football
Anirudh Menon 2y

Stats: Kane's scoreless streak, Benzema just behind Ronaldo and Mourinho's home run

What a weekend of football, eh? In England, Manchester United drew with Everton, Arsenal drew at Brighton, Chelsea beat Southampton and Tottenham regained their winning touch, beating Aston Villa. In the big-ticket fixture, Manchester City and Liverpool played out a thrill-a-minute 2-2. Over in France, Rennes shocked PSG (the Parisians are still six points clear at the top of the table), while in Germany, Eintracht Frankfurt did the shocking, at Bayern Munich. Italy saw AC Milan hold off Atalanta in a thriller, as they joined the top 4 sides (Napoli above them, Inter Milan and Roma below) in winning their matches this weekend. Also winning was Juventus, who have now climbed to 7th in the table. Real Madrid and Barcelona both suffered losses in Spain (against, interestingly, Espanyol and Atletico Madrid respectively). This leaves the two Madrids and Real Sociedad tied atop the table.

Before we move into the next international break, then, By The Numbers brings you the best stats from across Europe's top 5 leagues.


Premier League

1

Only one PL side are yet to lose in the league this season -- Liverpool. With 4 wins and 3 draws in the opening 7, they have extended their unbeaten run in all competitions to 19 matches (W13 D6).

2/4

This is only the second time ever in the history of the English top-flight that four sides have failed to win any of their opening 7 games, after 1964-65. The teams this season? Southampton, Burnley, Newcastle United and Norwich.

2

This is one that you can file under "unexpected". No one has scored more PL goals at Stamford Bridge for Chelsea under Thomas Tuchel than Trevoh Chalobah (2 goals).

5

Arsenal have scored 5 goals in their opening 7 league games, their fewest at this stage of a season since 1986-87 (also 5 goals). That had been George Graham's first campaign.

6

Harry Kane hasn't scored in any of his last 6 PL appearances, his longest scoreless streak in the competition since failing to net in his first 6 games of the 2015-16 campaign.

7

Mohamed Salah simply cannot stop scoring. He has now scored in each of his last 7 appearances for Liverpool in all competitions, equalling his longest scoring streak for them (last achieved in April 2018).

9

Manchester United have conceded at least once in each of their last 9 league matches at Old Trafford, their longest run of games without a clean sheet at home in the top-flight since February 1971 (10 games).

50

Bruno Fernandes' assist was his 50th goal involvement in 58 PL appearances (30 goals, 20 assists). Only three people have got there faster in PL history -- Andy Cole (43), Alan Shearer (54) and Eric Cantona (54).

71

A funky stat for you. Having scored on Sunday, Kelechi Iheanacho became the 71st different player to score a PL goal on their birthday.

90/30

Jamie Vardy has now scored 90 goals in the PL since turning 30 years old, just three fewer than Ian Wright (93), who has the most goals in the competition after turning 30.

LaLiga

3

This is the first time in LaLiga history that Atletico Madrid have kept three consecutive clean sheets against Barcelona in the league.

7

Villarreal, currently 11th in the league, remain the only unbeaten team in LaLiga this season, after a 2-0 win over Real Betis. This is their best start without a defeat at this stage in the competition after the 2008/09 and 2016/17 seasons, when they finished fifth (both times).

16

Karim Benzema has been involved in 16 goals in 8 LaLiga games this season (9 goals, 7 assists), the best start in goal involvement at this stage in the competition in the 21st century after Cristiano Ronaldo in 2014/15 (16 goals, 1 assist).

18

Real Madrid have lost a LaLiga away game for the first time since November 2020 against Valencia (4-1), ending a run of 18 league away games without a defeat, their best in the competition (achieved three times: 1997, 2016 and now 2021).

31

Now that he has scored against former employer FC Barcelona, Luis Suarez has scored against all 31 of the opponents he has faced in LaLiga (172 goals in total).

Ligue 1

4

Bruno Genesio has won four Ligue 1 games against Paris (3 with Lyon, now 1 with Rennes), more than any other manager against PSG under the QSI era.

Bundesliga

0

This is the first time that Robert Lewandowski has failed to score in back-to-back Bundesliga matches since Nov.-Dec. 2019 (when he went 3 without scoring).

21

Eintracht Frankfurt have won their first Bundesliga away game at FC Bayern Munich for 21 years (last coming in November 2000). The result put to an end Bayern's 9-game Bundesliga unbeaten streak and 30-game home Bundesliga unbeaten streak.

100

Marco Reus is now the third Bundesliga player (since Opta started collecting this data) to assist 100 goals in competitive matches after Thomas Müller (176) and Franck Ribery (132).

Serie A

12

Inter have scored 2+ goals in 12 league matches in a row, overtaking their longest such run in the competition (11), which was set way, way back in 1943.

17

The ageless Fabio Quagliarella has become the 7th player in the Serie A history to score in at least 17 consecutive seasons, after Altafini, Gianni Rivera, Roberto Mancini, Roberto Baggio, Alberto Gilardino and Francesco Totti. Very much a country for old men, is Serie A.

42

Jose Mourinho has now remained unbeaten for 42 consecutive home Serie A games. That is a record for a manager in the three points per win era (i.e. since 1994/95) in the Italian top-flight.

Messi Ronaldo watch

One started (Lionel Messi), the other didn't (Cristiano Ronaldo) but neither could materially impact the results of their respective teams.

200

Cristiano Ronaldo started a PL match at Old Trafford from the bench for the first time since May 2007 (when Manchester United lost 0-1 to West Ham on the final day of the 2006-07 season). When he did come on, though, it was for his 200th PL appearance.

(Stats courtesy ESPN's Stats & Information Group)

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