There were plenty of controversies, upsets and goals as the weekend’s club football did not disappoint. Manchester City climbed atop the Premier League table with a dominant win, although Tottenham can regain their position with a win over Chelsea on Monday night. Arsenal fell away after a controversial loss to Newcastle, while Liverpool salvaged a point against Luton Town, with Manchester United scoring a late winner against Fulham. Girona opened up a 2-point lead in LaLiga with a comeback 4-2 win over Osasuna, while Barcelona clawed the gap back to second-placed Real Madrid (who drew at home to Rayo) with a win away to Real Sociedad, while Atletico Madrid began the week with a shock loss away to Las Palmas.
Over in Italy, leaders Inter, second-placed Juve and Napoli in fourth picked up wins, while Milan dropped points with a loss at home to Udinese. Bayer Leverkusen defeated Hoffenheim to keep their two-point lead atop the Bundesliga, after Bayern Munich demolished Borussia Dortmund in Der Klassiker. Ligue 1 maintained its status quo with the top three of Nice, PSG and Monaco all picking up wins.
ESPN’s By The Numbers has the best stats from the weekend:
5
Manchester United have taken the lead after the 75th minute five times this season – no other club has done so more than twice this season. They extended their run of wins at Craven Cottage to seven games – United only have a better record away from home to West Brom (8 games).
90+5
Luis Díaz‘s goal (90’+5) was Liverpool’s latest equaliser in the Premier League since Divock Origi in 2015 vs West Brom (90’+6). Diaz’s goal was also Liverpool’s 5th-latest equaliser in the Premier League. Just as well, since Liverpool were staring at a first league loss to Luton Town since February 1991.
1
Arsenal’s defeat to Newcastle meant that Tottenham are the only unbeaten team remaining in the Premier League this season. Arsenal also failed to score for the first time this season (17 games, all competitions) – Newcastle were also the first team to stop Mikel Arteta’s men from scoring last season (0-0 draw in January).
13
Manchester City’s 100% record against Bournemouth (13-0-0 WDL) is the best in English top-flight history.
5
At 21, Jeremy Doku became the youngest player to be involved in five goals in a single Premier League game since 2008-09. The last player with five goal contributions in a single game was Erling Haaland (then aged 22) in October 2022. Doku also became only the fifth player to rack up four assists in a single Premier League game, equalling a record.
✅ 1 goal
✅ 4 assists
✅ 21 years oldAn unbelievable performance by Jérémy Doku �� pic.twitter.com/dSuqzEBDCT
– ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) November 4, 2023
14
Real Madrid saw their run of scoring in 14 consecutive LaLiga games come to an end against Rayo Vallecano. Barcelona now have the longest active scoring streak in the league (11 games).
11 and 8
With the goalless draw against Madrid, Rayo extended their unbeaten run to eight games – the best ever in the club’s LaLiga history. They also ended a run of 11 consecutive losses away to Madrid.
12
Rayo’s haul of 12 points in 9 games against Spain’s big three (Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid) is better than the 10 points they managed in the 41 games prior to that.
1
Las Palmas defeated Atletico Madrid in LaLiga for the first time since 1986/87, also ending an eight-game losing streak in the league against Atleti.
Isco began the year without a club and joined Real Betis as a free agent in July.
He’s managed to pick up 8 MOTM awards in 12 LALIGA matches ��
What a turnaround �� pic.twitter.com/P5bG02bQae
– ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) November 5, 2023
5
Robert Lewandowski‘s spell of five games without a goal for Barcelona (247 minutes and eight shots) is his worst spell in club football since October 2016, when he went five games without a goal for Bayern in all competitions.
9
The Anoeta no longer has a hoodoo over Barcelona, with the club now unbeaten away to Real Sociedad in their last 9 games. It ties Barcelona’s best-ever streak away to Sociedad, set between 1953 and 1960.
1
Oihan Sancet became the first player to assist two brothers in the same match, as both Inaki and Nico Williams found the net in Athletic Club’s win over Villarreal.
2 in 2
There have been six instances of a Serie A team scoring two goals in injury time to win after trailing in the 90th minute since the 2010/11 season. Yet, the last two matchdays have seen Cagliari and Roma achieve this feat, with the latter scoring in the 91st and 94th minute to defeat Lecce.
6/9
Only Gabriel ‘Batigol’ Batistuta (10) has scored more goals than Romelu Lukaku (6) in any player’s first nine games for Roma in the three-point era (since 1994/95)
Romelu Lukaku missed a penalty in the fifth minute but ended up winning the match for Roma in the 94th minute ��
Look at what it means �� pic.twitter.com/vNDqN8k5S4
– ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) November 5, 2023
0/2
AC Milan have suffered two consecutive losses without scoring in Serie A – the last time they did so was in September 2012.
1, 10 and 15
Harry Kane became the first-ever player to score a hat-trick in his debut Klassiker, with the next best being Roy Makaay who did so in his fourth derby. Kane also became only the tenth player in Bundesliga history to score consecutive hat-tricks, with only Makaay and Mario Gomez having done so for Bayern in the club’s history. Kane now has 15 goals in his first 10 Bundesliga games, breaking a record set 60 years ago by Klaus Matischak of Schalke, who scored 13 goals in 10 games in the first-ever Bundesliga season in 1963-64.
56, 20 and 17
Borussia Dortmund saw multiple streaks come to an end against Bayern, with their 56-game streak of scoring at home coming to an end, as did their 20-game unbeaten run at home and even their 17-game unbeaten run in the Bundesliga.
11, 10 and 4
Bayern on the other hand, saw their unbeaten run against Dortmund extend to 11 in all competitions – the best ever streak in Der Klassiker. In the Bundesliga, Bayern have been unbeaten in their last 10 games against Dortmund, second-best to the 13-game streak set between 1996 to 2002. The four-goal margin of victory was also Bayern’s best-ever at Dortmund, level with the 5-1 win in September 2009.
Harry Kane has broken the all-time record for the most goals in a player’s first 10 Bundesliga appearances (14).
What a season he’s having �� pic.twitter.com/BP6UTrExlS
– ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) November 4, 2023
28
Bayer Leverkusen’s haul of 28 points in the first ten games is the second-best in Bundesliga history, bettered only by Bayern’s perfect 30 points in the 2015/16 season.
5
PSG have scored 3 or more goals in their last 5 games in all competitions – the club’s longest such streak since doing so in six consecutive games between May and August 2022
Messi-Ronaldo Watch
Lionel Messi’s on holiday (and also shutting down reports of a loan move to Barcelona), all while Cristiano Ronaldo continues his goal-scoring form.
38-year-old Cristiano Ronaldo leads the Saudi Pro League in BOTH goals and assists so far this season.
Like fine wine ���� pic.twitter.com/wxBtDXaPJZ
– ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) November 5, 2023
(Stats courtesy: ESPN Stats and Information Group)
