Football
Anirudh Menon 1y

Ronaldo 5%, Messi record 12, Rashford 100, Van Dijk 1: Stats

Arsenal ripped apart Nottingham Forest to stay two points atop the Premier League as everyone in the top 4 (Manchester City, Tottenham, Newcastle United) won to maintain their positions. Chelsea's chastening loss at Brighton meanwhile saw Manchester United clamber over them to fifth. In Spain, a fractious draw against Girona saw Real Madrid's lead cut to one point as Barcelona beat Valencia (very) late on. Atletico Madrid's (even later) loss at Cadiz means there's just three points between third (Atleti) and seventh (Osasuna). A weekend of late goals also saw Union Berlin finagle one against Borussia Monchengladbach to retain a one point lead over Bayern Munich. Freiburg and Borussia Dortmund also won to keep the top four close. PSG came from behind to beat Troyes and maintain their five point lead atop Ligue 1. In Serie A, Napoli continued their imperious start to stay five points ahead of Atalanta while losses for AC Milan and Lazio saw them lose ground over the top two.

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

PREMIER LEAGUE

1

An incredible modern streak came to an end on Saturday. Virgil van Dijk lost a Prem game at Anfield for the first time in his Liverpool career. He had remained unbeaten in his first 70 Liverpool home games (W59 D11).

+1

Manchester United's 1-0 win over West Ham United sees their goal difference turn positive (+1) for the first time this season.

3:01

What a wonderfully quirky bit of trivia this is. There were two years and 107 days between Reiss Nelson's first and second goals in the Prem. But just three minutes and one second between his second and third goals.

5+

This is the 19th time Arsenal have won a Prem home game by 5+ goals. It's the first time in the PL era that they've done it under a manager not named Arsene Wenger, though.

20 -

Aged 21 years and 55 days, Bukayo Saka is the third-youngest player to assist 20 goals in the Premier League after Cesc Fabregas (19y, 352 days) and Wayne Rooney (20 years, 300 days)

42%

Kevin De Bruyne's freekick goal against Leicester City was as close to perfection as they come. Among players to have scored 50+ goals in the Prem, only two other great set piece experts have scored a higher percentage of their goals from outside the box than KDB (42% - 25/60): David Beckham (55%) and Christian Eriksen (44%).

100

Marcus Rashford is now the 22nd player to score 100 goals for Manchester United, and the first to hit that milestone since Wayne Rooney in 2009.

LALIGA

1

Toni Kroos was sent off in a league game for the first time in his career - after 426 games: 253 in LaLiga and 173 in Bundesliga.

10 -

For all their European heartache, Barcelona's domestic campaign is going on rather well. In fact, they have kept 10 clean sheets in their 12 games in LaLiga in 2022/23 (W10 D1 L1), That's the most sheet sheets for any team after their first 12 games of a season in the competition's history.

13

At the other end of the pitch, Robert Lewandowski has found his feet fast in Spain. He has scored 13 goals in 12 games for Barcelona in LaLiga - the last player to score more in his first 12 games of a season in the competition was Cristiano Ronaldo with Real Madrid in 2014/15 (An incredible 20 goals).

SERIE A

11

Only Diego Milito (15) and Cristiano Ronaldo (13) have been involved in more goals than Khvicha Kvaratskhelia (11: 6 goals + 5 assists) in their first 12 matches in Serie A (since 2003/04).

17

AC Milan have lost a Serie A away game after 17 away matches without a single defeat (W12 D5), stopping the longest open run in the Europe's top 5 leagues.

LIGUE 1

8

Alexandre Lacazette has 8 goals for Lyon in Ligue 1 this season. Among players 30 and older, only Lewandoswki (13) and Neymar (10) have more in the top five European leagues.

30

Sergio Ramos has become the first PSG player to remain unbeaten in his first 30 games with the club in all competitions, overtaking Rai (29)

RONALDO MESSI WATCH

Cristiano Ronaldo played but was rather quiet against West Ham. Lionel Messi, meanwhile, was integral for PSG's win against Troyes, scoring a sensational goal and providing an assist.

5%

This is some stat. Cristiano Ronaldo has converted just 5% of his shots in the Prem this season, compared to 16% last term.

The detailed comparison;

2021-22: 30 apps, 18 goals, 16% shot conversion, 0.16 xG per shot, 137 mins/goal

2022-23: 9 apps, 1 goal, 5% shot conversion, 0.07 xG per shot, 430 mins/goal

12

A new personal record for Messi. He's never reached 10 assists faster in a campaign than this (12 games). His previous best was 14 (2010-11 and 2018-19).

(Stats courtesy: ESPN Stats and Information Group)

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