Plenty of drama from the weekend as late goals and upsets amped up the excitement in club football. Manchester City remained top of the Premier League with another big win, with Tottenham and Liverpool in the chase with high-scoring wins of their own. Arsenal needed injury-time goals to beat Manchester United, while Chelsea were upset by Nottingham Forest. Real Madrid and Barcelona both left it late in their victories, as they lead the pack in LaLiga.
Inter and AC Milan lead the way in Serie A, after defending champions Napoli lost at home to Lazio, while Juventus climbed to third with a win. Borussia Dortmund’s continued their mediocre start to the season with a draw, while Bayern Munich and Bayer Leverkusen kept their 100% records intact to lead the league. PSG hammered Lyon to climb into second, with Monaco leading the way after a win over Lens.
ESPN’s By The Numbers has the best stats from the weekend:
50/39
Erling Haaland broke Andy Cole’s longstanding record of being the fastest to 50 goal involvements in the Premier League (41G, 9A) – doing so in just 39 games, while Cole had done it in 43 games.
46/46
Manchester City have not lost any of their last 46 Premier League games when they’ve been leading at half-time (43 wins and three draws).
6
Marcus Rashford is one for the big games – his tally of six goals against Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool is only bettered by the amount he’s scored against Leicester (8). He’s also the second Manchester United player to score in three consecutive Premier League appearances against Arsenal, after Robin van Persie (2012 to 2013).
Marcus Rashford has scored 28 goals against the Premier League ‘Big Six’.
Big game player �� pic.twitter.com/SHuhxCrvQC
– ESPN UK (@ESPNUK) September 3, 2023
7
Rashford’s goal was Manchester United’s first shot on goal against Arsenal, who have conceded in this manner against seven different teams in 2023, the most of any Premier League club.
90+6
Declan Rice (90’+6) scored the fourth-latest goal by an Arsenal player to give them the lead in Premier League history. Interestingly, two of those four have come this calendar year – with Reiss Nelson’s winner against Bournemouth scored in the 97th minute. Van Persie (2011) and Alexis Sanchez (2017) have scored the latest goal (90’+8) to put Arsenal in the lead.
4
Son Heung-min scored his fourth hat-trick for Tottenham – only Harry Kane (8) has more in the club’s history. Interestingly, Kane scored all eight of those before Son scored his first – with Spurs’ last five hat-tricks coming from Son (4) and Gareth Bale (1).
18y 318d
At 18 years and 318 days old, Evan Ferguson is the 5th youngest player to score a hat-trick in the Premier League behind Robbie Fowler, Michael Owen (twice) and Chris Bart-Williams.
Ferguson, Haaland and Son scored hattricks on the same day – the last time 3 hat-tricks got scored on the same day was September 23, 1995 when Robbie Fowler (Liverpool), Alan Shearer (Blackburn) and Anthony Yeboah (Leeds United) all had one.
4/4
Chelsea have made their worst start to a Premier League season since 2015-16, with four points from four games. They finished tenth that year, with Jose Mourinho sacked midway through the season.
18
Mo Salah’s 18 goals in home games are the third most of Prem player since the start of last season. Only Erling Haaland (38 at the Etihad) and Marcus Rashford (20 at Old Trafford) have more.
4/4
Jude Bellingham became the first player after Cristiano Ronaldo to score in each of his first four games for Real Madrid. The Englishman joined a list that includes Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Ronaldo, Cesc Fabregas as the only players to do so in the 21st century in LaLiga.
This is Bellingham’s best scoring streak ever, and if he makes it five in Madrid’s next game, he will join another incredible list. The only Real Madrid players to score in each of the team’s first 5 games of a season were 1968-69 Amancio (9 total) and 1961-62 Ferenc Puskás (7 total)
Only two Real Madrid signings have EVER scored in each of their first 4 LALIGA games: Jude Bellingham and Cristiano Ronaldo ��
Elite company �� pic.twitter.com/t9WWmeDqOQ
– ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) September 2, 2023
4/4
Real Madrid has won their opening four LaLiga games in successive seasons for only the second time in history, having done so in the 1961-62 and 1962-63 seasons.
100
Gavi became the youngest player (of 172) in Barcelona’s history to play 100 games for the club. He’s the first player born in 2004 or later to reach this milestone in any of Europe’s Top 5 leagues.
3
Barcelona have conceded three goals from outside the box in their last nine games, having not conceded any such goal in the 24 games prior to that.
7
Robert Lewandowski’s late winner (85′) from the penalty spot was the seventh-latest LaLiga goal of that sort in Barcelona’s history. The last time they took the lead with a penalty late on was in 2017 – when Lionel Messi scored in the 90th minute.
8
Juventus and Lazio have kept the most clean sheets in 2023 in all of Europe’s Top 5 leagues (8).
9 and 0
Inter Milan have made their best start to a Serie A season since 1966, winning their opening three games without conceding a goal.
7602
Lilian Thuram’s last goal in Serie A came on 11th October against AC Milan. 7602 days later, his son Marcus Thuram scored for Inter.
3/3
Apparently, Bayern Munich don’t do this every year. This is the first time since 2016-17 that the club have started the Bundesliga with three wins from three games.
1
Borussia Dortmund gifted Heidenheim their first-ever Bundesliga point despite leading the game 2-0 after 15 minutes.
18/18
Lyon are bottom of the Ligue 1 table for the first time since the opening round of the 1995-96 season. With only 1 point from their opening four games, this is the worst start to a season in the club’s top-flight history.
Messi-Ronaldo Watch
Every game featuring the GOATS seems to bring with it some record. Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi both inspired their clubs to comfortable wins, with the former reaching quite the milestone along the way.
850
Ronaldo scored his 850th goal of his career (club and country) in Al Nassr’s 5-1 win, which was also his 26th goal for the club in 30 games (27 goals for Real Madrid in first 30 games).
Ronaldo has been cooking the last three games �� pic.twitter.com/3YULRNi3hu
– ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) September 2, 2023
16/924
Lionel Messi now has 16 goal involvements (11G, 5A) for Inter Miami in just 11 games (924 minutes) – meaning he’s involved in a goal every 58 minutes. His impact in Miami is clear, the club have scored 30 goals in 11 games since his arrival, having scored 28 goals in 26 games before that.
3 and 9
Jordi Alba scored the ninth goal of his career that was assisted by Lionel Messi, last having done so in May 2021. At the other end of the spectrum, Leonardo Campana already has three goals assisted by Messi.
(Stats courtesy: ESPN Stats and Information Group)