Plenty of goals and a few surprising results as the top football leagues in Europe showcased their best yet again over the weekend. Liverpool and Manchester City earned comeback wins in the Premier League while Manchester United slipped to their seventh loss of the season. Aston Villa notched up their 15 straight win, similar to Girona who picked up their seventh consecutive away win in the LaLiga by stunning Barcelona.
Also in LaLiga, Atletico Madrid extended their club-record home LaLiga winning streak to 17 with a win over Almeria, while Real Madrid were held to a draw by Real Betis. Plenty of upsets over in the Bundesliga as Eintracht Frankfurt handed Bayern Munich a 5-1 thrashing, while RB Leipzig defeated Borussia Dortmund 3-2. PSG beat Nantes to cement their spot atop the Ligue 1.
ESPN's By The Numbers has the best stats from the weekend:
PREMIER LEAGUE
200
Mohamed Salah scored his 200th goal for Liverpool in all competitions when he found the back of the net against Crystal Palace this weekend. Salah became the first non-British player to score 200 goals for Liverpool, and it also marked his 150th goal in the Premier League.
327 games.
200 goals.@MoSalah's scoring record for the Reds... ���� pic.twitter.com/iVsp2G3ttN- Liverpool FC (@LFC) December 10, 2023
3
The last time Manchester United lost twice at home by 3+ goals in the same Premier League season was in 2013-14. They lost 3-0 to Man City on October 29.
7
Liverpool have registered seven comeback wins in all competitions this season, which would be tied with Girona for the most by any team from Europe's top 5 leagues.
15
Aston Villa are the first club to win 15 straight home games in the English top flight, excluding the traditional "Big 6" English clubs, in nearly 100 years (Bolton Wanderers' 17 straight from 1924-25).
35
Manchester United have had more home losses in the Premier League (35) since 2013-14 than it did from 1992-93 to 2012-13 under Sir Alex Ferguson (34).
7
Son Heung-min is only the seventh player to score 10+ Premier League goals in 8+ successive seasons since Wayne Rooney (11), Frank Lampard (10), Sergio Agüero (9), Harry Kane (9), Thierry Henry (8), and Sadio Mane (8).
LALIGA
7
Girona have won seven straight away games in the La Liga - the longest away winning streak by any team in the Spanish top-flight since Barcelona won nine straight away games in 2020-21.
12
Jude Bellingham's 12 La Liga goals this season are tied with 1990-91 Dalian Atkinson for the 4th-most by an Englishman in league history. He's one goal away from tying Michael Owen for the most single-season La Liga goals by an Englishman for Real Madrid. Jude's 12 goals in his first 14 La Liga games match the number of goals Cristiano Ronaldo had in his first 14 La Liga games.
17
Atletico Madrid have extended their club-record home La Liga winning streak to 17 and are tied for the third-longest home winning streak in La Liga history for a team not named Real Madrid or Barcelona.
BUNDESLIGA
5
Eintracht Frankfurt scored five goals in the first 60 minutes of play against FC Bayern, the last team to do so against Bayern in a Bundesliga match was Eintracht themselves in a 6-0 win way back in 1975.
LIGUE 1
6
Alexandre Lacazette scored his career's sixth hat-trick in Ligue 1 (2nd in the 2023 calendar year). Since 2010-11, only Kylian Mbappé and Zlatan Ibrahimovic have more hat tricks than him.
Messi-Ronaldo Watch
Cristiano Ronaldo scored in Al Nassr's 4-1 win over Al Riyadh in the Saudi Pro League, as they now trail table-toppers Al Hilal by seven points. Ronaldo will lead his side against Al Shabab in the King Cup of Champions quarterfinal this week. Meanwhile, Lionel Messi's Inter Miami announced that they will go on their first-ever international tour as they begin their 2024 preseason in Hong Kong.
You can't stop watching this ��
������️��️
pic.twitter.com/2q3tzvAhot- AlNassr FC (@AlNassrFC_EN) December 9, 2023
(Stats courtesy: ESPN Stats and Information Group)