Welcome to 2024, football (stats) lovers! We've had a cracking 2023 close with some intense Premier League and Serie A action. Liverpool have a chance to extend their lead at the top of the Prem on Monday night as Arsenal struggled to a loss at Fulham. Also struggling were Manchester United, who stumbled to defeat at Nottingham Forest. Man City, Aston Villa and Spurs, though, ended the calendar year with solid wins. Over in Italy, high flying Inter were held to a draw at Genoa, which meant Juventus closed the gap to two at the top with a tight win over Roma. Also dealing in wins were a Christian Pulisic-inspired AC Milan, and Fiorentina. Defending champions Napoli, though, were held to a goalless draw by Monza.
By The Numbers brings you the best stats from the last weekend of footballing action in 2023:
PREMIER LEAGUE
1
Mohamed Salah is some player, eh? He's yet to play this gameweek and a stat of starts off this piece. That's because he is the only player with 15+ goals (24) and 15+ assists (15) in Europe's big-five leagues in the calendar year 2023. He is the first player to reach 15 for both goals and assists in a single Prem calendar year since Thierry Henry in 2003 (25 goals, 19 assists).
74%
You would expect this from possession-obsessed Manchester City's, but their game against Sheffield United had the most 'ball in-play time' of any game in the Prem this season. The ball was in play for 69:41, despite this being the shortest game of the season (93:51). That's a solid 74% of the match.
4
A slightly worrying downward trend for Arsenal fans: their club have now conceded four goals from corners across their last six Prem games. In their first 14 games of the season, they'd conceded just one goal in this manner.
4
Raul Jimenez is back. He's now scored four goals in his last four appearances in the Prem -- which is as many as he had scored across his previous 50 games (!) in the competition.
9
Manchester United have lost as many as nine of their first 20 league games in a season for the first time since 1989-90. They have now suffered as many defeats as they did in the whole of last season.
21
Manchester United have lost 21 games in all competitions in 2023. They have only done worse in three calendar years: 1930 (28), 1972 (25), 1921 (24).
Son Heung-min has 17 goal contributions (12 goals, five assists) in 20 PL games this season.
That's already more than he had in ALL of last season (16) ��
Incredible �� pic.twitter.com/I38Rkd3hER
- ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) December 31, 2023
Also 17
Villa Park is Unai Emery's fortress. Aston Villa have won more home games (17) and earned more home points (53) in the Prem in calendar year 2023 than any other side.
12
Chelsea have been enduring a rather torrid season, but Cole Palmer is proving to be quite the bright spot. The young forward has been involved in 12 Prem goals this season (8 goals, 4 assists). Only player currently aged 21 or under has been involved in more in Europe's top five leagues this season: a certain Jude Bellingham (15).
SERIE A
8
Atalanta's Ademola Lookman has been involved in the joint-most home goals in Serie A this season: eight (six goals and two assists), tied with Roma's Paulo Dybala.
12
Juventus have reverted to the tried-and-tested Max Allegri playbook, and it's paying off. They have won 12 matches with 1-0 score in the Serie A in 2023: that's 4+ more than any other team in the period.
In fact, each of Juventus' last 8 Serie A wins have been by a 1-goal margin.
They are also one of only three teams in the big-5 European Leagues to have collected 20+ clean sheets in this period (Barcelona 22 and Inter Milan 21).
(Stats courtesy: ESPN Stats and Information Group)