By admin
theScore picks out the best stats and facts to surface following an entertaining opening weekend of the new Premier League season.
0 – It was a rather ineffectual Nottingham Forest debut from Jesse Lingard. The former Manchester United man recorded no shots on target, completed no dribbles, and didn’t draw a single foul during Saturday’s 2-0 defeat at Newcastle United.
1 – Southampton have won just one Premier League match since February (a 1-0 victory over Arsenal in April). They lost their 10th game over that span with Saturday’s 4-1 slump at Tottenham Hotspur.
2 – Erling Haaland is the second Manchester City player to score a brace on his Premier League debut, following Sergio Agüero in August 2011. Heir. pic.twitter.com/gkPyTX7RKl
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) August 7, 2022
3 – Callum Wilson has scored in Newcastle’s opening game in each of the three seasons he’s been with the club. He’s the second to complete three in a row since Alan Shearer after his deft finish in the win over Nottingham Forest.
6 – Pascal Gross’ goal tally against Manchester United. Only eight players have scored more goals against the Red Devils in Premier League history. It’s twice as many as Gross has mustered against any other team, and the most a Brighton & Hove Albion player has scored against a single opponent in the Premier League. Brighton shocked United with a 2-1 win at Old Trafford on Sunday.
7 – Jesse Marsch wants his team to gamble in possession. Winger Jack Harrison provided seven key passes for his Leeds United teammates in Saturday’s 2-1 win over Wolverhampton Wanderers while ending the game with just 64% passing accuracy. His colleague Rodrigo’s passes were only accurate 61% of the time.
8 – No player has scored more goals than Mohamed Salah during Premier League opening weekends. The Liverpool superstar is level with Shearer, Wayne Rooney, and Frank Lampard on eight after his close range finish in Saturday’s 2-2 draw at Fulham.
9 – Spurs’ Dejan Kulusevski has set up nine goals since making his Premier League debut in February. No player has made more assists in that time.
11 – Everton’s 1-0 loss to Chelsea marked their first defeat in a Premier League opener since 2011. Tim Cahill, Tim Howard, Phil Neville, and Louis Saha played for the Toffees in that 1-0 setback to Neil Warnock’s Queens Park Rangers.
12 – Number of teams that didn’t use their full allocation of five substitutes per game. Out of those to take advantage of the move from three to five, Brentford perhaps used their subs most effectively as they scored two second-half goals to draw 2-2 at Leicester City on Sunday.
15 – Fulham striker Aleksandar Mitrovic has netted 44 times in 45 league matches since the start of last season following Saturday’s brace against Liverpool. That’s 15 more than any other player in England’s top four leagues.
20 – West Ham United need to find their frontmen. Michail Antonio touched the ball 11 times and his replacement Gianluca Scamacca had nine touches in Sunday’s 2-0 defeat to Manchester City.
21 – Crystal Palace defender Joachim Andersen started as he means to go on this season with 21 attempted long balls during Friday’s 2-0 home defeat to Arsenal. When you’ve got runners like Wilfried Zaha and Eberechi Eze in your lineup, it’s a sound tactic.
23 – Total points collected by Steven Gerrard’s Aston Villa in their last 22 Premier League outings. Falling 2-0 at newly promoted Bournemouth on Saturday was a new low point in his short tenure.
29 – Bournemouth goalscorer Kieffer Moore made his Premier League debut two days before his 30th birthday. His career started with sixth-tier Truro City in 2012. Bournemouth is his 12th club.
50 – Mikel Arteta is the second-quickest manager to reach 50 Premier League wins with Arsenal (98 matches). It took Arsene Wenger four fewer matches.
79% – With six shots and five chances created, James Maddison was involved in 79% of Leicester’s attempts on goal against Brentford.
90% – Eighteen of Jorginho’s 20 Premier League goals have come from the penalty spot. The Chelsea midfielder’s percentage is the highest of any player with at least 10 tallies in the competition.
1,929 – Conor Coady was an unused substitute in Wolves’ loss at Leeds, marking the first time he missed a start for something other than injury or suspension since April 25, 2017. That’s a run of 1,929 days. The defender is set to move on loan to Everton, according to The Times’ Paul Joyce.
2014 – You don’t have to go back too far to find a Manchester United manager who lost his first Premier League game. Louis van Gaal did it eight years before Erik ten Hag when his United side lost 2-1 to Swansea City.
