It was a weekend of change in club football, as Manchester City clawed back the gap to Premier League leaders Liverpool with a last-gasp win over Newcastle United. Manchester United and Tottenham shared the spoils in a 2-2 draw, while Chelsea climbed up the table after their win over Fulham. Real Madrid won the Spanish Supercopa after soundly beating Barcelona in the final, while Girona stumbled to a goalless draw but remained on top of LaLiga. Inter hammered Monza to extend their Serie A lead over Juventus, while Milan dispatched Roma 3-1 to climb to third in the table.
Over in Germany, Bayern Munich and Bayer Leverkusen both won, with the latter still leading the Bundesliga, with Borussia Dortmund far behind despite defeating Darmstadt. PSG's lead atop Ligue 1 increased to eight points after their win over Lens and second-placed Nice losing to Rennes.
By The Numbers brings you the best stats from the weekend's footballing action:
PREMIER LEAGUE
35 and 103
Kevin de Bruyne went past Dennis Bergkamp and Cesc Fabregas (both 34) with his 35th game-winning assist in the Premier League, now second in the all-time list. Ryan Giggs is first with ... 57. Giggs also leads the way in Premier League assists overall (162), followed by Fabregas (111) and now De Bruyne, who's tied with Wayne Rooney for the third-most PL assists (103).
50
Rodri has not lost any of his last 50 games for Manchester City in all competitions (39 W, 11D). The last time he featured in a loss for City was the 0-1 reverse against Spurs last year.
18y 84d
Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur played our their first Premier League draw at Old Trafford since October 22 2005 (18 years, 2 months and 24 days ago), ending a streak of 17 straight Man United-Tottenham PL fixtures that ended with a winner (13 by Man United, 4 by Tottenham).
7
Rasmus Hojlund's 7 goals in all competitions this season are tied for the most goal contributions by a player under 21 years old for a Premier League team this season... tied with his teammate, Alejandro Garnacho (5 G, 2 A).
2 and 1
Marcus Rashford scored in consecutive PL games for first time since February 2023. This was also Rashford's first goal at Old Trafford for Manchester United in all competitions this season, having had 32 shots on goal in 14 appearances so far.
33
Tottenham have now scored for 33 Premier League games in a row, the longest scoring run in the club's history.
18
Cole Palmer now has 18 goal contributions (11 goals, 7 assists) in all competitions this season, which is the third-most by an U-21 across Europe's Top 5 leagues (Jude Belingham 22, Florian Wirtz 20). Palmer's 6 converted penalties this season are only bettered by Frank Lampard (10 in 2009/10) and Jorginho (7 in 2020/21) in Chelsea's history.
Chelsea have won more penalties than any other team in the Premier League this season (8) with Raheem Sterling winning the most of any player (3) �� pic.twitter.com/b4VITzMxih
- ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) January 13, 2024
97
Unai Emery managed 97 games in the Premier League before witnessing his first goalless draw - the longest such start of any manager in the league's history.
SPANISH SUPERCOPA
13 and 13
Real Madrid won their 13th Spanish Super Cup title (1 away from tying Barcelona for the most in the history of the competition). This was also the thirteenth consecutive Clasico match not to finish in a draw, the longest such streak in El Clasico since 13 straight from 1977-83.
1 and 6
Vinicius Jr. is the first Brazilian Real Madrid player to score a hat-trick against Barcelona (Evaristo in 1958 and Romario in 1994 have scored hat-tricks for Barcelona against Real Madrid), and is now level with Ronaldo Nazario (6) as the highest-scoring Brazilian (Ronaldinho, Rivaldo have 5) in terms of goals scored in El Clasico. Vinicius is also the sixth player with a first-half hat trick in Clasico history (5th for Real Madrid, 1st since 1995 - Ivan Zamorano).
11
This was Carlo Ancelotti's 11th title with Real Madrid, tying Zinedine Zidane for 2nd on the team's all-time list (Miguel Muñoz 14).
24
This was Xavi's 24th loss as Barcelona manager (all competitions). That's 1 away from tying Nogués for the most losses by a Spanish coach in team history.
REAL MADRID ARE SPANISH SUPER CUP CHAMPIONS ��
They've won SEVEN of NINE meetings against Barca in Spanish Super Cup final history ��
DOMINANCE �� pic.twitter.com/RwiWankrxU
- ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) January 14, 2024
LALIGA
150
Iago Aspas scored his 150th LaLiga goal (the 24th player in league history to do so) and is also now 1 short of 200 goals for Celta Vigo in all competitions.
13
Girona's 0-0 draw at Almería ended its streak of 13 away games in LaLiga with at least 1 goal. That was the longest active streak by any LaLiga team.
41 and 13
Athletic Bilbao have 41 points from 20 league games, the team's most since the league first gave 3 points per win in 1995-96 season (when retroactively awarding 3 points per win, this would be Athletic Club's best 20-game start to a LaLiga season since accruing 42 points in 12-6-2 start in 1983-84 season). The club's 13-game unbeaten streak in all competitions (10-3-0, W-D-L), is level with their longest unbeaten streak in the 21st Century (13 from Oct. 20 2001 to Dec. 23 2001).
SERIE A
51
This is Inter Milan's second best points total after 20 games in the club's history, only bettered by the 54 points they had in the 2006/07 season - which they went on to win by 22 points over second-placed Roma.
13/13 and 17/17
Hakan Calhanoglu has converted all 13 penalties he's taken in Serie A (11 for Inter Milan, 2 for AC Milan). He's not missed any of his last 17 penalties at club level.
BUNDESLIGA
Manuel Neuer has now made 500 competitive appearances for Bayern Munich ��
One of the all-time great goalkeepers �� pic.twitter.com/gKUEAlIW7T
- ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) January 12, 2024
45
Bayer Leverkusen's 45 points from 17 games are bettered only by Bayern Munich (47 points in 2013/14 and 46 points in 2015/16) in Bundesliga history.
26
Leverkusen still remain unbeaten in 26 games (23-3-0 W-D-L) in all competitions this season (lone unbeaten team in Europe's top 5 Leagues); extending the longest unbeaten start to a season by a Bundesliga team in all competitions
46
Jadon Sancho brought up his 46th assist for Dortmund in the Bundesliga in his return to the club. Only Marco Reus (70) has more in the last 20 years.
LIGUE 1
2/4
Since 2006/07, Lyon is the first team to receive two red cards despite committing four fouls or fewer in the league's history.
(Stats courtesy: ESPN Stats and Information Group)