Club football made its return after the international break with a bang, with plenty of eye-opening results. Manchester City returned to the top of the Premier League with a 2-1 win over Brighton, with Tottenham yet to play. Arsenal and Chelsea shared the spoils while Liverpool won the Merseyside derby - with Manchester United's win over Sheffield United an especially poignant one. Over in Spain, Girona picked up a 5-2 win over Almeria to join Real Madrid at the top after their ill-tempered draw against Sevilla, while Barcelona's latest La Masia gem gave them a 1-0 win over Athletic ahead of El Clasico next week.
Inter's 3-0 win away to Torino saw them return to the top in Serie A, while Milan fell behind after a 0-1 loss to Juventus courtesy a familiar face. Bayer Leverkusen maintained their lead atop the Bundesliga table with a 2-1 win away to Wolfsburg, while the chasing pack of Stuttgart, Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund all picked up wins. It was status quo in France as well, with leaders Monaco defeating Metz, while Nice and PSG also picked up wins.
ESPN's By The Numbers has the best stats from the weekend:
Premier League
21
Manchester City won their 21st consecutive game at the Etihad in all competitions in 2023 - setting a record by becoming the first Premier League club to have such a run at home.
3
Leandro Trossard became the first Arsenal player to score his first three goals for the club as a substitute.
5
Scott McTominay became only the fifth Manchester United player in Prem history to score and give away a penalty in the same match. His teammate, Bruno Fernandes was the last player to do so in September 2020.
200+
Mohamed Salah brought up his 200th league goal of his career against Everton and made it 201 soon after - with 146 of those goals coming in the Premier League going past Robin van Persie (144) in the all-time scoring charts and is now level in 12th place with Teddy Sheringham. Salah also has the most goal contributions in the Premier League this season - 11 (7G, 4A), overtaking Erling Haaland on 10 (9G, 1A)
Mo Salah has now scored over 200 league goals in his career.
Incredible ���� pic.twitter.com/BC3ZTZ4WAx
- ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) October 21, 2023
LaLiga
3000
Real Madrid, Barcelona and Athletic Club all played their 3000th game in the Spanish top flight this weekend.
10
Real Madrid now have a 10-game unbeaten streak vs Sevilla in LaLiga, which is the longest such run since Sevilla went 15 games without a win over Real Madrid between 1993-2003.
784 and 94
Until his goal against Sevilla that earned Real Madrid a draw, Dani Carvajal had last scored for club and country on August 28, 2021 - 784 days ago. David Alaba, meanwhile, 'scored' his first-ever own-goal for Madrid, after 94 games in all competitions.
2061
Antoine Griezmann scored a hat-trick for Atletico Madrid in their 3-0 win away to Celta Vigo. The club's last hat-trick was by.... Griezmann himself, who did so in February 2018 - 2061 days ago. This was the Frenchman's fourth hat-trick in LaLiga.
29
Almeria are the first club to concede 29 goals in their first 10 LaLiga games of the season since Elche conceded 30 in 1962-63
17y 291d
Marc Guiu scored on debut for Barcelona, and is the youngest to do so in the 21st century for the club. The last four players to do so are Jose Arnaiz, Carles Alena, Sandro Ramirez and Munir El Haddadi.
At the final whistle, the whole Barca team went to congratulate 17-year-old Marc Guiu who scored the winner on his debut ��❤️ pic.twitter.com/H73TWQKK41
- ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) October 22, 2023
Serie A
7
Manuel Locatelli scored a long range goal for Juventus against AC Milan to give them a 1-0 win - exactly seven years after he did the same for Milan in the same fixture, on the same day.
12y 5m 8d
Lorenzo di Silvestri scored a header from outside the box for Bologna in their 2-1 win over Frosinone. The last time such a header was scored in Serie A was on 14 May 2011 by Gennaro Gattuso - 12 years, 5 months and 8 days ago.
Bundesliga
22
Bayer Leverkusen's tally of 22 points after eight games is the third-best start to a season by any club in Bundesliga history. Bayern Munich won their first eight (24 points) in 2012-13 and 2015-16, going on to win the league in those seasons, as well as when they also achieved 22 points in 1998-99.
16
Borussia Dortmund extended their unbeaten streak in Bundesliga to 16 games (11-5-0, W-D-L), the club's longest since a 31-game streak between 2011 and 2012.
Serhou Guirassy is the first player to score 14 goals on the first eight matchdays of a Bundesliga season ������
(via @OptaFranz) pic.twitter.com/MFv5NMYgZJ
- ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) October 21, 2023
Ligue 1
2
PSG's tally of two consecutive clean sheets in Ligue 1 is their best since going five games without conceding between December 2021 and February 2022.
Messi-Ronaldo Watch
Lionel Messi featured in Inter Miami's last game of the season having missed out on the playoffs, but was unable to help his team win. Not the case for Cristiano Ronaldo, as his scoring form for Al Nassr continued.
61
Cristiano Ronaldo scored the 61st free-kick of his career, netting a goal in Al Nassr's 2-1 win over Damac.
And finally,
1
One Bobby Charlton.
(Stats courtesy: ESPN Stats and Information Group)