Football
Anirudh Menon 1y

Stats: Salah overtakes Gerrard, Valverde matches Raul

El Clasico headlined a cracking weekend as Real Madrid convincingly beat Barcelona to take a three-point lead atop LaLiga. Atletico Madrid, Real Betis and Real Sociedad are all just behind, with Barca just three points ahead. In the Premier League, Liverpool rediscovered their mojo against Manchester City, Arsenal extended their lead to four points over City, while Tottenham and Chelsea registered wins to keep pace behind them.

In Bundesliga, Union Berlin continued their remarkable run with a win over Borussia Dortmund. They now lead Bayern, who also won, by four points. Serie A saw Napoli continue to score goals for fun and maintain a two point lead over Atalanta while AC Milan also won too to stay with them. PSG winning and Lorient drawing meanwhile means the Parisians now have a three point lead atop Ligue 1.

By The Numbers has the best stats from the weekend action:

PREMIER LEAGUE

5

Manchester City have had 5 goals overruled by VAR in the last two seasons. That's the most along with West Ham and Arsenal in that time period.

10

Mohamed Salah is a proper big-game player. His goal against Man City was his ninth against them in all comps. The only team he's scored more against in his Liverpool career? Man United (10).

100

Salah has become only the second player in the Prem era to score 100+ left-footed goals, after Robbie Fowler (105).

121

Salah is now also just behind Fowler in the list of Liverpool's PL era top scorers. He has 121, one more than Steven Gerrard now and seven less than Fowler.

23

Tottenham (W7 D2 L1) have 23 points from their 10 Prem games this season, their highest points tally at this stage of a top-flight campaign since 1963-64 (24 pts; considering 3 pts for a win)

31

This was Manchester United's 76th Premier League goalless draw. 31 of them have come since Alex Ferguson's retirement in 2013 (41%) - the most of any side in the competition since the start of 2013-14.

50

A mini milestone for Bukayo Saka and Mikel Arteta. The Arsenal winger is the first player to have been involved in 50 goals for the club under Arteta (all comps, 26 G, 24 A)

LALIGA

0

Quite remarkable this: Eden Hazard has yet to appear for Real Madrid in a Clasico since signing with the club in 2019.

1

Karim Benzema's goal (11:27) was the earliest Real Madrid have scored in El Clasico at the Bernabeu since... Benzema himself in March 2013 (5:35).

2

Federico Valverde's goal was Real Madrid's second from outside the box in a Clasico at the Bernabeu since 1998/99, after - and this could be a surprising name considering his reputation as a penalty box poacher - Raul Gonzalez in May 2008.

4

Since 2003/04, four players have won and scored a penalty in Clasicos - Cristiano Ronaldo in 2014, Luis Suárez in 2018, Sergio Ramos in 2020 and now Rodrygo in 2022.

4

Atletico Madrid have kept a fourth clean sheet away from home this season. That's tied for second most by any team in the big-5 European Leagues (only PSG has more - 5)

4

Edinson Cavani has become just the fifth South American player (in the 21st century) to score in four of the big-5 European leagues after Alexis Sánchez, James Rodríguez, Philippe Coutinho and Angel di Maria.

Fun fact: The only player who has scored in all 5 leagues this century (since 1999-2000) is Stevan Jovetic.

5

Real Betis have won their first five home games in LaLiga 2022/23, their second-best start to a home campaign in the competition's history after the seven wins in 1934/35.

SERIE A

1

In away games this calendar year, AC Milan are the only unbeaten side in the big-5 European leagues (excluding the current newly promoted sides).

7

Napoli substitutes have scored seven goals this season in Serie A, more than any other side in the big-5 European leagues this season.

15

Another big-5 record for Napoli this season: No one has had more than the 15 different goalscorers Napoli have had in all competitions in the 2022/23 so far.

RONALDO MESSI WATCH

Both played, neither did anything spectacular.

(Stats courtesy: ESPN Stats and Information Group)

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