Mahrez takes 369, Ten Hag emulates Mourinho’s 7, Ronaldo’s 8.6M: Stats

The compressed footballing calendar has plenty of midweek action as football ramped up in 2023. Arsenal saw their lead cut to five points atop the Premier League, dropping points at home to Newcastle United while Manchester City beat Chelsea. Manchester United kept up their good form with a win over Bournemouth while Liverpool suffered a loss to Brentford. Over in Spain, the Copa del Rey took centre-stage as Sevilla, Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid all moved on to the next round with relative ease, which was not the case for Barcelona who needed extra-time to beat third-tier CF InterCity. Serie A resumed in 2023, with Inter Milan handing league-leaders Napoli their first loss of the season, as AC Milan and Juventus clawed back the gap to the top with narrow wins. Marseille also reduced the gap to Ligue 1 title challengers Lens and Paris Saint-Germain with a win over Montpellier.

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

PREMIER LEAGUE

369

Riyad Mahrez scored the winner against Chelsea, which was his first away goal in all competitions this season. He hadn’t scored a goal away from home in the Premier League since January 1st, 2022 against Arsenal, 369 days ago. The goal was the Algerian’s 40th career Prem goal for Man City, becoming only the ninth City player to reach the 40-goal mark. Mahrez has scored 9 Prem goals as a substitute since joining City in 2018, more than any player in the league in that period.

3

Jack Grealish now has 3 assists in his last three games played for City after having just 1 in his previous 35 games combined since 2022. 

32m 3s

It took Man City 32 minutes and 3 seconds to record their first shot, the longest it’s taken the club to record a shot in a game under Pep Guardiola since October 7, 2018 in a Premier League match against Liverpool (38 minutes). It was also the first time this season that City hadn’t created a scoring chance within 25 minutes.

1

Chelsea have won only one of their last eight games since October 19th (W1 D3 L4). No team in the Premier League has won fewer games since that date.

6

Marcus Rashford now has scored in 6 straight games played at Old Trafford (1 each since Oct. 27, 2022). He had just 5 goals in his previous 24 games played at Old Trafford dating back to May 18, 2021.

22

Casemiro scored his second goal for Manchester United in 22 games for the club. The Brazilian had never scored for Real Madrid in his first 50 games in all competitions. 

7

Manchester United have won seven straight matches at Old Trafford for the first time since 2017, when Jose Mourinho was manager.

34

Harry Kane and Son Heung-min have now both scored in 34 different Premier League games together, overtaking Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane as the most of any duo in the competition.

10

Liverpool’s habit of conceding first in games continued in their loss to Brentford, with this the 10th time in 19 games so far this season. They are tied-5th most by the club in Premier League history, and the most since 12 in 1999-00.

84

Brentford defeated Liverpool for the first time in 84 years, their last win coming in a 2-1 win at Griffin Park, November 11, 1938. This was the ninth meeting between the two teams in those 84 years. With three wins against the ‘Big 6’ so far, Brentford also have the most of any club outside those six teams.

COPA DEL REY

22

Real Madrid have scored in all 22 games they have played this season. The last time they failed to score was May 20th (0-0 draw vs Betis).

93

Rodrygo scored his first non-penalty goal for club or country in 93 days – his last coming on October 5th, 2022. It was the Brazilian’s second goal in 5 Copa del Rey games with Real Madrid. The first came in February, 2020 vs Real Sociedad, which was also the last time that a player 21 years or younger scored Madrid in the competition.

2

Youssef En-Nesyri scored two goals in just 45 minutes against Linares Deportivo, the same number of goals he had in 16 games for Sevilla this season (all comps). What a difference a World Cup makes, eh?

1

Oriol Soldevila is the first player with a hat trick against Barcelona in the Copa del Rey since Novelda’s Toni Madrigal did it in Sept. 2002. Barcelona lost that game 3-2 with goals from Riquelme and Geovanni. Soldevila’s hat trick was only the second against Barcelona by a lower-league player in the last 40 seasons in the Copa del Rey (after the aforementioned Madrigal hat trick in 2002). Soldevila was born in Barcelona and came through their youth system… one that got away?

28

Since Xavi took over as Barcelona boss, no player has had more goal involvements than Ousmane Dembele (28 – 8 goals, 20 assists).

SERIE A

189

Lazio’s Ciro Immobile brought up his189th Serie A goal, taking him past legends such as Alessandro Del Piero, Alberto Gilardino and Giuseppe Signori. Immobile is now ninth in the all-time Serie A scoring charts.

14

Rafael Leao has 14 goal contributions this season – tied with Olivier Giroud for the most by a Milan player… and yet they are valued wildly apart on the transfer market.

1

Napoli lost their first match in the last 20 Serie A games and were the only remaining unbeaten team from Europe’s top 5 leagues before losing to Inter.

LIGUE 1

36

Marseille have 36 points after 17 Ligue 1 games so far, their best ever in the 21st century, barring their 38-point total in 2014/15. They went on to finish fourth that season.

5

Nuno Tavares is the first defender to score at least five goals for Marseille in a single Ligue 1 season since Daniel Van Buyten in 2002/03, who scored eight.

RONALDO MESSI WATCH

Lionel Messi received a guard of honour in training following his World Cup win and ought to be in action in the Coupe de France, while Cristiano Ronaldo awaits his Al Nassr debut following a few issues.

(Stats courtesy: ESPN Stats and Information Group)