Over the weekend, Arsenal stamped their authority over the Premier League after a cracking win against Manchester United, Manchester City announced their title defence was nowhere close to done while Chelsea and Liverpool battled their way to a listless draw.
Over in Spain, everyone in the top 5 (Barcelona, Real Madrid, Real Sociedad, Atletico Madrid and Villarreal) won to maintain the status quo. Napoli continue to run away with Serie A; chasing pack AC Milan and Inter Milan are yet to play (at the time of publishing) but are now 12 and 13 points behind respectively.
In Germany, meanwhile, Eintracht Frankfurt and Union Berlin closed the gap to Bayern Munich atop Bundesliga to five points after the latter drew with fifth-placed RB Leipzig.
By The Numbers has the best stats from the weekend action:
PREMIER LEAGUE
3
Bukayo Saka is only the third Arsenal player to score in three straight Prem appearances against Manchester United, after Freddie Ljungberg (1998-2000) and Thierry Henry (2000-01).
4
Ah, Erling Haaland goodness. His hat-trick against Wolves was his fourth of this PL season, which is as many hat tricks as the rest of the Premier League this season combined. Only Alan Shearer has ever scored more hat tricks in a PL season (5 in 1995-96).
Haaland has now passed some notable names on the all-time Prem hat trick list: Cristiano Ronaldo, Frank Lampard, Didier Drogba, Romelu Lukaku, Jamie Vardy, Robbie Keane, Heung-Min Son and Ole Gunnar Solskjær are all players with 3 career Premier League hat-tricks.
9
Marcus Rashford's nine post-World Cup goals (in all competitions) are the most among players in Europe's top 5 leagues.
15
Newcastle United are unbeaten in their last 15 Prem games (W9 D6), which is now their longest-ever unbeaten run in top-flight history.
16
Kevin De Bruyne has provided more assists in all competitions this season than any other player in Europe's top five leagues (16), with seven of these assists resulting in Erling Haaland goals.
19
That fourth hat-trick of Erling Haaland's is a record - coming in just his 19th appearance, he has broken Ruud van Nistelrooy's record whose fourth hat-trick came in his 65th appearance.
It took Luis Suarez ���� Premier League appearances to score four hat tricks. Erling Haaland did it in ����.
BUILT DIFFERENT �� pic.twitter.com/1uSoZuPWG9
- ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) January 22, 2023
23
Haaland, Haaland, Haaland. Erling Haaland's now on 23 Prem goals this season. In other words, he has tied last season's Golden Boot winners (Son and Salah)...halfway through the season.
50
Arsenal's 50 points through 19 Prem games are the fifth most by a club at this stage of the league season in the PL era. The only team with 50 or more points at this stage has not won the league (Liverpool, who had 51 in 2018-19).
25
Since the Prem went to 20 teams in the 1995-96 season only one player has scored more goals in their first season in the competition than Erling Haaland: Kevin Phillips had 30 in 1999-00 for Sunderland. Of course, that was over a full season.
90
Eddie Nketiah is just the second Arsenal player to score a 90th-minute winner against Manchester United in the Prem... after Thierry Henry in January 2007.
1000
This weekend saw Jürgen Klopp's 1,000th game as a manager (270 with Mainz 05, 319 with Borussia Dortmund and 411 with Liverpool). It came 21 years and 327 days after his first (Mainz 1-0 Duisburg on 28th February 2001).
BUNDESLIGA
233
In some wonderfully heartwarming news, Sebastien Häller made his Dortmund debut on Sunday. Exactly 233 days after his last official match (Nation's Cup match for Ivory Coast).
"F--- cancer."
The boots Sebastien Haller will wear on his Borussia Dortmund return ��
(via sebastien.haller/IG) pic.twitter.com/jC3WHAgCgX
- ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) January 21, 2023
LA LIGA
5
Karim Benzema now has scored 228 career goals in LaLiga - he passes Alfredo Di Stéfano (227) and ties Raul González (228) for fifth on the all-time LaLiga top scorers list. The only ones above him now? Hugo Sanchez (234), Telmo Zarra (252), Cristiano Ronaldo (311) and Lionel Messi (474).
13
Barcelona have kept 13 clean sheets this season in LaLiga. That's the most in Europe's top 5 leagues. In fact, they have only conceded six goals against this season in LaLiga, five fewer than any other club from Europe's top 5 leagues this season (Newcastle 11).
(Stats courtesy: ESPN Stats and Information Group)