Stat, Viz, Quiz: Newcastle End 70-Year Domestic Trophy Drought

By Opta Analyst | Created at 2025-03-18 16:47:53 | Updated at 2025-03-20 15:17:36 1 day ago

Stat, Viz, Quiz is the Opta Analyst football newsletter. This week’s edition looks at Newcastle United, Leicester City, and a Ruud van Nistelrooy record.

It happened. It really finally happened.

After so long, with people having waited generations to witness it, it finally happened… Federico Chiesa appeared off the bench for Liverpool after seven consecutive games as an unused sub.

Also, Newcastle United won the League Cup, and we’ll of course be indulging Magpies fans with some data from the club’s best day in the modern era.

We’ll also be looking at an unwanted record ‘achieved’ by Leicester City, before getting into a quiz so challenging that you’ll want Dan Burn to head it away for you.

Before we get going, let’s head straight into what is becoming a weekly segment of Did Any Home Teams Win in the Bundesliga?

After two consecutive matchdays in the German top flight without a home team winning, we can confirm that, yes, there were indeed some victories for the hosts this time round.

In fact, there were FOUR. St. Pauli started Matchday 26 by beating Hoffenheim 1-0, before Augsburg saw off Wolfsburg by the same score. RB Leipzig eased past Borussia Dortmund 2-0, and Heidenheim beat Holstein Kiel 3-1. Heim really is where the heart is.

If you haven’t done so already, you can subscribe below for free to receive SVQ every Tuesday.

STAT – Leaky Leicester Reach Four Figures

Over the years, Leicester City have racked up a few fairly major Premier League achievements. They are responsible for one of the greatest escapes the league has ever seen as well as one of the most improbable title wins in any sport, let alone just in Premier League history. They’ve had more to cheer about, particularly in recent years, than most other teams.

But they won’t be quite so happy with the latest milestone they’ve hit. With their 3-0 defeat to Manchester United on Sunday, Leicester surpassed 1,000 goals conceded in Premier League games. They are far from the first side to reach four figures, but – and we’re sorry to be the bearers of bad news here – they are by far the quickest.

Their tally in the goals against column went past 1,000 in their 679th Premier League game, meaning they hit that unwanted milestone 25 games faster than West Ham.

West Ham themselves had done it 15 games quicker than Southampton (719 games), who in turn were 36 quicker than Tottenham (755 games).

Newcastle make up the top five (762 games), with 12 teams in total having conceded 1,000 goals. Most of them – unlike Leicester, West Ham and Southampton – are Premier League ever-presents.

Leicester’s leaky defence this season – as well as in their previous season in the Premier League, in 2022-23 – has seen them accelerate into an unwanted lead. They have lost 20 of their 29 matches in 2024-25, conceding 65 goals already, and appear destined to repeat what they did last time they were in the top flight and suffer another relegation. The Opta supercomputer gives them just a 0.5% chance of survival.

They have only conceded more goals in a Premier League season twice before – 68 in 2022-23 and 80 in 1994-95. They will inevitably overtake the first of those two with nine games remaining, and there is also a decent chance they’ll surpass their tally in 1994-95, even though that was a 42-game season.

In fact, their current rate of 2.2 goals conceded per game in 2024-25 is the fifth worst by any team in any season in Premier League history. Sheffield United’s record breakers from last season (104 goals conceded in 38 games – 2.7 per game) top that particular list, ahead of Southampton’s current crop who, by conceding 2.4 goals per game, have done Leicester a favour by taking the heat off them by being even more leaky in defence.

Right now, though, there’s no place for the Foxes to hide. The statisticians are out in force and we’re letting everyone know that this is a record Leicester could have for a while.

VIZ – Salute The Magpies

You could hear and feel it. The noise of 70 years of waiting escaping the relieved and joyous mouths of fans and players alike on the final whistle.

Newcastle United beat Liverpool 2-1 at Wembley on Sunday to win the League Cup for the first time ever, and end a run of nine successive losses at England’s national stadium.

We say 70 years, though there will be those who tell you it’s ‘only’ been 56 years, with the club having won the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup in 1968-69.

However, we can say with certainty that it was 70 years since the club’s last major domestic success, after winning the FA Cup in 1954-55.

Dan Burn’s header from the edge of the car park, or penalty area if we’re being less exaggerative, opened the scoring just before half-time, with Alexander Isak doubling Newcastle’s lead early in the second half. It was Isak’s 100th appearance for Newcastle in all competitions, scoring his 58th goal, with only Erling Haaland (113) and Mohamed Salah (84) scoring more among Premier League players in that time.

In truth, Newcastle dominated, and it was a surprise to see them hanging on at the end after substitute Federico Chiesa pulled a goal back for Liverpool. But hang on they did to lift the silverware among scenes of great Geordie joy.

Bruno Guimarães was a particular stand out, just as he said he would be in the lead up to the game when he insisted he would give everything to win. The Brazilian won nine of his 14 duels and won possession nine times in total, more than anyone else on the pitch.

Bruno Guimaraes possession won v Liverpool

It was very much a team effort, though, with five Newcastle players creating two chances each, compared to Liverpool who only saw Harvey Elliott create that many (2) and he came off the bench.

It meant Eddie Howe became the first English manager to win either the FA Cup or League Cup since Harry Redknapp won the FA Cup with Portsmouth in 2008, while he’s the first to do so in the League Cup specifically since Steve McClaren with Middlesbrough in 2004.

Will this be the start of something big for Newcastle? Time will tell, but whatever happens, Sunday will forever be one of the most iconic days in the club’s history.

QUIZ – Haaland Breaks Another Record

While most of the headlines have been about Newcastle’s success, there was also some Premier League action at the weekend, which we’ve dipped into for our quiz. Answers at the bottom of the page.

1. Erling Haaland’s opener for Man City against Brighton was his 100th goal involvement in the Premier League (84 goals, 16 assists). In just his 94th game, it’s the fastest any player has reached this milestone in the competition. Which player’s record did he beat?

2. Who is the only defender to have scored more Premier League goals than Nottingham Forest’s Nikola Milenkovic (4) this season?

3. Having failed to win any of their first nine away games in the Premier League this season, Brentford have won their last five in a row, their longest such run on the road since December 2010 when they were in which division?

4. Willian made his 50th Premier League start for Fulham in the 2-0 win over Spurs, becoming only the second Brazilian player to make 50+ starts for multiple clubs in the competition (168 for Chelsea, 50 for Fulham) along with who else?

5. Chelsea are winless in their last seven away games in the Premier League (D2 L5); their longest run without a league victory on the road since October 2022-February 2023 under Graham Potter (D4 L4). Who was the last team they beat in an away league game?

Ready to Bracket Differently This March Madness?

For a significant change of pace, let’s talk college basketball. Anyone who follows it will know that it’s March Madness season, and if you fancy making your March just a little bit madder, we have the bracket game for you.

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Ask Opta

This week’s question actually came to us a couple of weeks ago from Nick Jones, but we thought it pertinent to wait until this week. Nick asked: “Assuming Ruud van Nistelrooy manages to stay employed for another couple of weeks, he’ll achieve a presumably rare distinction of managing the same fixture (Manchester United vs Leicester City) four times in one season, and even more unusually he’ll have been in charge of each team twice. Has anyone ever achieved anything similar?”

Do you have a stats-based football question you want to Ask Opta? If so, send it to [email protected] and we’ll do our best to provide you with the answer in a future edition of SVQ.

Answer:

We can confirm that, no, no one else had previously managed in games between two specific teams four times in one season while also managing both sides. Van Nistelrooy became a history maker on Sunday, which we’re sure will have been of great comfort to him while he was watching his Leicester side get picked apart by former employers Manchester United.

We can also say that he was the first manager to take charge of both clubs in a specific Premier League fixture in a single season since Alan Pardew in 2014-15 (Crystal Palace vs Newcastle United).

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