The Premier League began the new year with a bang following a brilliant weekend of top-flight action, as Manchester City laid down a title marker at Chelsea and Arsenal continued their recent renaissance.
Manchester United’s fine form continued as the Red Devils moved level on points with league leaders Liverpool, whilst Tottenham’s talismanic duo proved too much for Leeds, and Brighton and Wolves played out a six-goal thriller.
Meanwhile, with the help of OPTA stats we have gathered some mouth-watering stats from the weekend’s action.
• 7 – Southampton are the first team in Premier League history to beat all seven winners of the competition in the season following a title win.
• 4 – Since the start of December, only West Bromwich Albion (5) and Sheffield United (6) have lost more Premier League games than Chelsea (4).
• 4 – Kevin De Bruyne has now scored four goals against Chelsea in the Premier League; the most a former player has netted against the Blues in the competition.
• 19 – Leicester’s start is the 19th time a top-flight side have won least seven of their first nine away league games of a season – none of the previous 18 have finished outside of the top four, whilst 50% of those sides have gone on to win the division that season.
• 10y 8d – Andy Carroll has scored his first Premier League goal for Newcastle since Boxing Day 2010; this period of 10 years and eight days is the second-longest gap between PL goals for a club, behind Wayne Rooney for Everton (13 years and 121 days).
• 7 – Newcastle manager Steve Bruce hasn’t won any of his seven home meetings with Leicester in all competitions (D4 L3) – the Foxes are the only side he’s faced more than twice at home without winning in his career.
• 4 – Arsenal’s 4-0 victory against West Brom was their biggest margin of victory in a competitive away game under Mikel Arteta.
• 4 – This was the fourth occasion that Brighton have managed to rescue a point in a Premier League game in which they’ve been 2+ goals behind, with this their 45th such match in the competition (W0 D4 L41).
• season (D2 L15) – the longest ever winless run from the start of a Premier League campaign.
• 11 – Crystal Palace have netted 11 first-half goals in the Premier League this season, one more than they netted before half-time in the whole of 2019-20.
• 13 – Harry Kane and Son Heung-min have now combined for 13 goals in the Premier League this season – no duo has ever combined for more in a single campaign in the competition
• 6 – Marcelo Bielsa has named an unchanged lineup for the sixth time in the Premier League this season, more than any other manager.
• 33 – Tonight was Bruno Fernandes’ 30th Premier League appearance, with his penalty the 33rd goal he’s been directly involved in (19 goals, 14 assists). The only player in Premier League history to be involved in more goals in their first 30 games is Andrew Cole (37).
• 5 – Anthony Martial has now scored on all seven days of the week in the Premier League for Man Utd, becoming the fifth player to do so, after Ryan Giggs, Andrew Cole, David Beckham and Wayne Rooney.
• 1 – West Ham boss David Moyes has secured his first win at Goodison Park in five visits in all competitions since leaving Everton in 2013 (L4).