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9 months ago
17
Anish Anand
Dec 18, 2023, 04:17 AM
Once again, big teams and star players from Europe's top football leagues produced impressive set of numbers over the weekend. Liverpool and Manchester United played out a goalless draw while Arsenal are back on top after a deserving win over Brighton. Manchester City dropped points against Crystal Palace while Tottenham and Aston Villa secured victories.
In LaLiga, Real Madrid scored four past Villarreal while Barcelona's winless streak continued. Inter Milan beat Lazio on Sunday to remain on top of Serie A. Juventus drew against Genoa and AC Milan beat Monza. Bundesliga saw wins for top three teams -- Bayer Leverkusen, Bayern Munich and RB Leipzig while PSG drew 1-1 against Lille in Ligue 1.
ESPN's By The Numbers has the best stats from the weekend:
PREMIER LEAGUE
34
Liverpool had 34 shots against Manchester United, their most on record in a Premier League game without scoring since 2003-04.
25
Aston Villa have won 25 Premier League games in 2023, their most top-flight wins in a calendar year in their entire history.
Jude Bellingham already has more LALIGA goals in 15 games than he had Bundesliga goals in 92 games ��
UNREAL �� pic.twitter.com/fGQW4DYMFx
- ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) December 17, 2023
181
Chelsea's Raheem Sterling has been directly involved in 181 goals in the Premier League -- 120 goals, 61 assists -- equalling the likes of Michael Owen and Dennis Bergkamp.
17 years, 229 days
At 17 years and 229 days, Lewis Miley is the youngest player to score for Newcastle United in the Premier League. He is also the league's youngest scorer since Federico Macheda for Manchester United in April 2009 (17 years, 226 days).
LALIGA
Barcelona's Robert Lewandowski has failed to score in 12 'big chances' this season, the most by any player in the league.
1
Real Madrid's Luka Modric became the oldest player (38 years and 99 days) to score and assist in the same match in Europe's top five leagues this season.
Jude Bellingham already has more LALIGA goals in 15 games than he had Bundesliga goals in 92 games ��
UNREAL �� pic.twitter.com/fGQW4DYMFx
- ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) December 17, 2023
13
Real Madrid's Jude Bellingham already has 13 league goals (scored one against Villarreal on Sunday) in 15 matches this season, which is more than his Bundesliga record of 12 goals in 92 matches.
Also, his tally of 13 goals is equal to Cristiano Ronaldo's goal tally in his first 15 LaLiga matches.
13
Since November 1, Real Madrid's Rodrygo has the most goal contributions among players from the top 5 European leagues.
SERIE A
30
Napoli's Khvicha Kvaratskhelia has been involved in 30 goals -- 17 goals, 13 assists -- in 49 Serie A games. Since 2004/05, only Domenico Berardi (31 goals in his first 42 games) and Alexandre Pato (30 goals in 45 matches) were the youngest to involve in 30-plus goals before their first 50 league matches.
Jude Bellingham already has more LALIGA goals in 15 games than he had Bundesliga goals in 92 games ��
UNREAL �� pic.twitter.com/fGQW4DYMFx
- ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) December 17, 2023
200
Sassuolo's Domenico Berardi has been involved in 200 goals in Serie A (122 goals, 78 assists). Since his debut in the league, only Ciro Immobile has been involved in more goals than him (236).
10
After his assist against Monza, AC Milan's Christian Pulisic has been directly involved in 10 goals in 20 games in all competitions this season (6 goals, 4 assists). He only had three goal contributions in 30 games in all of last season for Chelsea (1 goal, 2 assists).
BUNDESLIGA
23
Bayern Munich's Harry Kane scored his 23rd goal this season in all competitions on Sunday against Stuttgart, most among players in Europe's top 5 leagues. No other player has scored 20 goals with Erling Haaland being the second best at 19.
20
Kane, with 20 goals in Bundesliga this season, has tied the league record set by Robert Lewandowski and Gerd Müller for fastest to 20 goals in a season.
24
Bayer Leverkusen have not lost any of their 24 competitive games this season (W21 D3). In German professional football, only Hamburger SV in 1982-83 had an equally long unbeaten run to start a season (24 games).
22
Leverkusen's 22-year-old Victor Boniface has overtaken Jude Bellingham with the most goal contributions -- 22-- in all competitions among U-23 players from Europe's top five leagues.
LIGUE 1
21
PSG's Kylian Mbappe converted his penalty against Lille in a 1-1 draw. Of his 231 career goals with PSG, 28 of them (12%) have been scored via penalties.
180
Also, it was Mbappe's 180th goal in Ligue 1. He's now the eighth best goal scorer in the top-flight's history overtaking Gunnar Andersson and Carlos Bianchi (179 goals each).
Messi-Ronaldo Watch
Grateful to be honored as the most searched athlete in @google history. Check out the film at https://t.co/0PjDiMYV3I. �� #YearInSearch pic.twitter.com/uV65FyQ9XE
- Cristiano Ronaldo (@Cristiano) December 17, 2023
No matches involving both Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo this weekend but according to a tweet put up by Ronaldo himself, he's the most searched athlete in Google's history.
