December 28, 2024

Stats: Haaland 8 – 232 Ronaldo, Foden beats Messi to 50, Xavi’s record 18

Haaland #Haaland

Erling Haaland dominated Manchester United the same way he has done this By The Numbers copy. He helped Manchester City destroy United 6-3, but that’s only good enough for second at the moment, after Arsenal’s convincing win in the North London derby. Meanwhile, a stunning 3-3 draw at Liverpool has kept Brighton and Hove Albion in the top four. Over in Italy, Napoli and Atalanta registered wins to remain on 20 points, with Lazio and AC Milan close behind on 17. Real Madrid lost their perfect start to LaLiga with a draw against Osasuna, which also saw Barcelona leapfrog them in the table with a win over Mallorca. Union Berlin remained atop the Bundesliga despite a 0-2 loss to 10-man Eintracht Frankfurt, but are now ahead of SC Freiburg only on goal difference. Bayern Munich (who won) and Borussia Dortmund (who lost) are both two points behind.

We bring you the best stats from a cracking weekend of football:

PREMIER LEAGUE

1

We’re going to need to start an Erling Haaland watch section soon, aren’t we? He is now the first player in PL history to score a hat-trick in three consecutive home games in the competition.

3

More Haaland news, and this is a truly remarkable stat – Haaland is the fastest player in PL history to hit three hat tricks, taking eight games to do so. The earlier record was held by Michael Owen, who hit it in… 48 games. Oh and Cristiano Ronaldo took 232 games to notch the same mark.

3

Haaland and Phil Foden both hit hat-tricks in the derby, becoming just the third pair to score three goals each for the same team in the same match in the Premier League era. The others were Ayoze Perez and Jamie Vardy vs Southampton (in 2019) and Jermaine Pennant and Robert Pires vs the same opponents in 2003 (which coincidentally, was also the start of Arsenal’s ‘Invincibles’ run of 49 games unbeaten).

3

More hat-trick magic. Leandro Trossard is just the third visiting player to score a PL hat trick at Anfield. The others? Peter Ndlovu for Coventry in 1995 and Andrey Arshavin (4) for Arsenal in 2009.

5

You thought the Haaland stats were done already? Hah. His five goal involvements (3 G, 2 A), is the most goal involvements by a player in a Premier League-era Manchester derby.

6

Erik Ten Hag is now the 6th straight coach for Manchester United to lose their Manchester derby debut. The last United coach to win on his derby debut was Sir Alex Ferguson in 1987.

9

The nine goals scored are the most in Manchester derby history, in this 187th iteration of the game.

17/10

Haaland, Haaland. More Haaland. In Erling Haaland (17) and Kevin De Bruyne (10), Manchester City have both the highest scorer and highest assist-provider in Europe’s big five leagues in all competitions this season. De Bruyne has already assisted Haaland five times.

50

Phil Foden has become the youngest player to reach 50 goals playing under Pep Guardiola at 22 years, 127 days old. You might have heard of the man whose record he broke – Lionel Messi (22y 164d).

80

Arsenal have now won 80 North London derbies (all comps). They lead the all-time series 80W – 61L – 51D.

  • 5hESPN

  • 10hMark Ogden

  • 2dJames Olley

  • 2 Related

    100

    Harry Kane has become the first player in the Premier League era to reach 100 PL away goals, taking 147 appearances to get there. Oh, and this was his.14th career goal vs Arsenal across all competitions, tying Everton for his 2nd most vs a single club (behind 20 vs Leicester).

    LALIGA

    5

    After their loss to Atletico Madrid, Sevilla now have five points this season. This is the fewest they have had in their first seven league matches since 1996-97 (4)

    9

    Real Madrid’s nine-game winning streak in all competitions to open the season came to an end against Osasuna – it was their longest such streak since 1968-69 (11).

    Karim Benzema reacts after missing a penalty for Real Madrid against Osasuna. Getty Images

    18

    Xavi Hernández has not lost any of his 18 LaLiga away games as Barcelona manager (W13 D5), the best unbeaten start away from home by a manager in the competition’s history, beating Zinedine Zidane (Real Madrid in 2016 – G17 W13 D4).

    LIGUE 1

    18

    PSG are on an 18-game unbeaten streak in Ligue 1 dating back to April; that’s the team’s longest unbeaten streak since May. 2018-Jan. 2019

    BUNDESLIGA

    100

    Timo Werner is the first RB Leipzig player to score 100 goals across all competitions.

    RONALDO MESSI WATCH

    Xavier Laine/Getty Images

    Cristiano Ronaldo sat out the Manchester derby on the bench, but Lionel Messi had some fun this weekend

    2

    Messi scored a free kick goal in 2 straight games (for club or country) for the first time since 2019. (March 30 vs Espanyol, April 2 vs Villarreal). It was also his first career direct free kick goal with PSG in all competitions (27 attempts).

    5

    Messi is now on a 5-game goal streak (all comps for club and country). It’s his first such streak since Feb. 2021, for Barcelona.

    (Stats courtesy: ESPN Stats and Information Group)

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