Cristiano Ronaldo scoring yet another hattrick and breaking yet another record headlined a weekend of cracking action in Europe's top five leagues. Ronaldo's goals saw Manchester United beat Tottenham Hotspur, but they're still out of the top four thanks to Arsenal easing past Leicester City. Chelsea, Liverpool, and Manchester City all won to maintain the points-gaps between 3-2-1 on the table.
Wins for AC Milan (1) and Napoli (2) kept the gap at the top of the Serie A table to 3, but Inter Milan slipped up behind them with a draw. Juventus, in fourth, are now just three points behind Inter. A second consecutive Bundesliga draw for Bayern Munich means Borussia Dortmund are just seven behind now. PSG continue to maintain a fifteen (!) point gap atop Ligue 1, while yet another draw for Sevilla means Real Madrid's lead atop LaLiga is now at 7.
By The Numbers brings you the best stats from the weekend:
PREMIER LEAGUE
4
Mohamed Salah has now scored 20 Premier League goals in one season 4 times. Only 5 other players (Alan Shearer, Sergio Aguero, Thierry Henry, Ruud van Nistelrooy, and Harry Kane) have hit that mark on 4 separate occasions in the PL era. No other Liverpool player has done it more than twice.
158
In Liverpool's PL history, only Steven Gerrard (212 = 120G + 92A) has had more goal involvements for the club than Salah (158 = 115G +43A)
22
There's not much to cheer for in the other half of Merseyside - Everton have 22 points from 26 PL matches this season, their lowest ever tally at this stage of any league campaign (assuming 3 pts/win all-time).
100
To make it worse... Jonjoe Kenny received Everton's 100th PL red card on Sunday. Only one other club has ever received more - Arsenal (101).
400
Manchester United have now won exactly 400 PL home games, becoming the first team to reach that milestone in the competition. 23 of those wins have been against Tottenham - which is more than any side has beaten another at home in the PL.
2000
Liverpool (2000) joined Manchester United (2173) as the only two clubs in the PL with 2,000+ goals. Arsenal's two goals on Sunday mean they are just a goal away from joining them at the milestone.
177
Harry Kane has now scored 177 PL goals. That brings him level with Frank Lampard for 5th in the all-time charts.
LALIGA
1
Real Sociedad have won more games 1-0 than any other team in Europe's big 5 leagues this season. (Seven, one more than Sevilla and... a little surprisingly, Manchester City)
600
Gerard Pique has become the 5th player and 1st defender to make 600 appearances for Barcelona. It's quite an illustrious list - Lionel Messi (778), Xavi (767), Andres Iniesta (674), and Sergio Busquets (665).
BAYERN MUNICH RECORD SCORING STREAK
Is now at 73 Bundesliga games.
BUNDESLIGA
Speaking of Bayern Munich and scoring, Robert Lewandowski has now tied the record for away goals in a Bundesliga season (17, with Jupp Heynckes in 1973-74 and Timo Werner in 2019-20).
LIGUE 1
40
Kylian Mbappe (40 = 26G + 14A) joins Robert Lewandowski (47 = 43G + 4A) and Karim Benzema (42 = 30G +12A) as the only players in Europe's Top-5 leagues with 40+ goal contributions this season.
MESSI RONALDO WATCH
Oh, what drama. Lionel Messi was booed by his home fans at PSG even as he played in a 3-0 win, while Cristiano Ronaldo scored a hattrick and was given a standing ovation at Old Trafford.
3
Cristiano Ronaldo's three goals yesterday put Manchester United 1-0, 2-1 and finally 3-2 ahead against Tottenham; he was the first player ever to give Manchester United the lead three times in a single PL game.
14
Ronaldo has scored 14 goals vs Tottenham. That's the most he's scored against any English and non-Spanish club. Five of those have come this season.
14
Ronaldo scored his second Premier League hattrick and first since January 2008 against Newcastle. His two feats were separated by 14 years & 59 days, the longest gap between hat-tricks for a player in Premier League history. It was, though, the 49th (!) of his club career.
37
Ronaldo (37 years, 35 days) is the second oldest player to score a hattrick in the PL era after Teddy Sheringham (37y, 146d)
807
Ronaldo's first goal on the night, i.e the 805th goal of his professional career helped him tie Josef Bican for most goals in competitive matches in the history of football, according to RSSSF. By the end of the night, he was on 807.
6
Messi is now scoreless in his last 6 home league games, the longest such streak of his career. In fact, Messi's only home league goal this season came way back on November 20.