Penalties, controversies and more penalties - and we're not even talking about Abu Dhabi. The weekend in Europe's top 5 leagues saw plenty of action. In England, four of the top five won via penalties (Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea, and Manchester United). The team in fourth, West Ham United, drew away at Burnley. In Spain, Real Madrid comfortably beat Atletico Madrid to maintain their dominance atop the standings. They are now 8 points ahead of second-placed Sevilla, 13 points ahead of Atleti in fourth and a whopping 18 ahead of Barcelona (who drew 2-2 with Osasuna) in eighth. Across the border, Kylian Mbappe helped ease PSG past his former club Monaco and ensure their lead at the top remained at 13 points. In Italy, a draw for AC Milan at Udinese saw Inter Milan climb back up top after they smashed aside Cagliari.
By The Numbers has all the best stats from the weekend action:
Premier League
6
Saturday (Dec 11) saw six penalties scored in the PL - only once have there been more netted on a single day in the competition's history (7 on Feb 5, 2011).
10
This is quite a quirky record. Brentford have become the first team in PL history to have each of their first 10 home goals in the competition scored by different players (Canos, Norgaard, Pinnock, Janelt, Wissa, Zanka, Henry, Toney, Jansson, Mbeumo).
23
Mohamed Salah leads the PL with 23 goal contributions this season (14 goals, 9 assists). No other player has more than 12. In fact, it is the most of any PL player through 16 match weeks in the last 10 PL seasons. The next closest player in terms of goal contributions through this timeframe in PL history is someone else Liverpool fans are familiar with... Luis Suarez (21 G+A in 2013-14).
32
Manchester City have won 32 of their 40 PL games in 2021 (D2 L6) - only Liverpool in 1982 (33) have won more matches in a single calendar year in English top-flight history.
34
Newcastle have conceded 34 PL goals this season, more than any other side. This is their highest tally of goals conceded after their first 16 matches of any league campaign since 1977-78 (also 34), when they went on to be relegated from the top-flight.
100
Raheem Sterling has now reached 100 career PL goals with a penalty against Wolves.That was his second PL penalty. Among players with 100+ PL goals in the last 10 seasons, the only one with fewer penalty kick goals is Sadio Mane, who has 0.
118
Ralf Rangnick is the second Manchester United manager to register a clean sheet in his first two league games in charge of the club after Ernest Mangnall 118 years ago, in 1903.
LaLiga
1
This is the first time this century that two Barcelona players score their first senior team goals in the same game - Nico Gonzalez and Abdessamad Ezzalzouli.
1
This was Carlo Ancelotti's first career LaLiga win against Diego Simeone (1W-3L-1D). Meanwhile, Real Madrid's unbeaten streak against their neighbours has now extended to 11 in LaLiga (5W-0L-6D).
2
Vinicius Junior has become the first player to provide two assists in a LaLiga derby between Real Madrid and Atlético de Madrid in the 21st century.
4
Real Madrid has had a clean sheet in four consecutive home derbies against Atletico Madrid for the first time in LaLiga, all four with Thibaut Courtois as goalkeeper.
5
Marco Asensio has become the third Real Madrid player to have scored 5+ goals in LaLiga this season after Karim Benzema (13) and Vinicius Junior (10). Real Madrid are the only team in LaLiga with three players who have scored 5 or more goals this season.
51
This is quite something. Real Madrid's Ferland Mendy has only lost 1 out of 51 LaLiga matches in which he has played as a starter (His only loss as a starter came in January 2021 against Levante, 1-2).
Serie A
31
Dusan Vlahovic (31) has just become only the third player in the last 60 years to have scored more than 30 Serie A goals in a single calendar year, after Cristiano Ronaldo (33 in 2020) and Luca Toni (31 in 2005).
300
Zlatan Ibrahimovic has become the third player to score 300 goals in the big-5 European leagues since 1/1/2000, after Cristiano Ronaldo (483) and Lionel Messi (475).
500
Luciano Spalletti has now coached 500 Serie A games. In the three-points-for-a-win era (since 1994/95), he is the second coach to cross this milestone, after Francesco Guidolin (545).
Bundesliga
1
Greuther Furth have won their first game of the Bundesliga season. That means there is only one winless team remaining in the top 5 European leagues and that is Spain's Levante. Greuther Furth's 14-game winless start, meanwhile, is tied for the 3rd-longest in Bundesliga history after Nuremberg (17 in 2013-14) and Koln (16 in 2016-17).
34y 141d
At just 34 years and 141 days old, Julian Nagelsmann is the youngest coach in the history of the German Bundesliga to win 100 games in the competition (the second youngest, Erich Ribbeck was 38 years and 147 days old). Nagelsmann's first and his 100th win both came against 1. FSV Mainz 05.
Eredivisie
20
One from outside our regular beat - Sebastien Haller scored his 20th goal in his 21st match of the club season today. Among players in the top 7 leagues in Europe (Big 5 + Portugal and Netherlands), only Robert Lewandowski (27) and Mohamed Salah (21) have more in all comps.
Messi Ronaldo watch
3
Cristiano Ronaldo is the third player to score for three different Man Utd managers (Solskjaer, Carrick, Rangnick) in a single season after James Hanson and Joe Spence both did so in 1926-27 (Chapman, Hilditch, Bamlett).
4 & 7
No player has scored more winning goals in the Premier League this season than Cristiano Ronaldo (4, level with Bernardo Silva), while only Jamie Vardy's goals (8 points) have been worth more points for his side than Ronaldo's (7 points).
91
Cristiano Ronaldo has tied James Beattie (91) for 39th on the PL's all-time scoring list. Next up are Kevin Phillips and Mark Viduka at 92 each.
(Stats courtesy ESPN's Stats & Information Group)