By Opta Analyst | Created at 2024-10-29 21:22:15 | Updated at 2024-11-06 00:01:45
1 week ago
After the latest round of Premier League fixtures, our UK data insights team at OptaJoe have unearthed all sorts of facts. Here, we look at the best Premier League stats from Matchday 9.
Brighton’s Danny Welbeck has scored in three successive Premier League games for only the third time, previously doing so in January 2014 with Manchester United and November 2010 with Sunderland.
The resurgence of Danny Welbeck at Brighton is one of the stories of season. Before the madness that ensued in the latter stages of the Seagulls’ home draw against Wolves, Welbeck had opened the scoring on the stroke of half-time. He latched onto Georginio Rutter’s through ball to fire smartly past José Sá. It was the instinctive finish of a player full of confidence.
And justifiably so. Welbeck’s goal means he’s now scored in three consecutive Premier League games for just the third time in his career. With six strikes for the season, he has already matched his best return for a campaign in a Brighton shirt, while you have to go back over 10 years for the last time he had a better haul in a single Premier League season – nine goals for Manchester United in 2013-14.
With only nine games gone, we’re officially calling it. This is the year Welbeck gets into double figures for the first time in his Premier League career.
Only Crystal Palace and Southampton (6 each) have scored fewer Premier League goals than Manchester United (8) this season. Indeed, the Red Devils have the biggest negative differential between expected goals and goals scored in the competition this term (-6.8 – 8 goals, 14.6 xG).
With the news that Erik ten Hag has been sacked by Manchester United, this is a fact that now carries extra weight. Sunday’s defeat to West Ham was yet another poor result for Ten Hag, and another game in which United struggled in front of goal.
Alejandro Garnacho, Bruno Fernandes, Rasmus Højlund and – most notably – Diogo Dalot, were all guilty of squandering good chances to score.
United had eight shots to West Ham’s one in the first half and racked up 1.72 expected goals in that half alone. The game could and should have been out of sight, but they were made to pay when they went behind as Crysencio Summerville opened the scoring.
Casemiro equalised with United’s only goal of the game, before Jarrod Bowen scored the winner from the spot. The Brazilian’s header was just United’s eighth goal of the season; only two sides – Crystal Palace and Southampton (6 each) – have scored fewer, while eight goals is United’s fewest after nine games in a top-flight season since 1973-74 (also 8).
The Red Devils have the biggest negative differential between expected goals and goals scored in the competition this term (-6.8), having scored eight times from 14.8 xG.
Chelsea (23 years, 89 days) named their second-youngest starting lineup in a Premier League match, behind only a December 2023 meeting with Crystal Palace (23y 21d).
Enzo Maresca’s young guns continue to impress, responding well to their Matchday 8 defeat to Liverpool with a 2-1 home win against Newcastle.
With an average age of just 23 years and 89 days old, it was Chelsea’s second youngest starting lineup in a Premier League match. In fact, the nine youngest starting lineups in the Premier League this season all belong to Chelsea, who are the only side in the division with an average age of under 24.
With Cole Palmer clearly a world-beater, and the likes of Nicolas Jackson and Moisés Caicedo hitting their stride, there is a growing sense that Maresca has wrestled control of a young and talented squad. The Blues seem set for years to come.
There were five games to have a final result-altering goal scored in the 90th minute (or later) in the Premier League this weekend, the most across a single matchday in the competition’s history.
It was another weekend of late goals on Matchday 9. Matheus Cunha, Bryan Mbeumo, Evanilson, Beto and Bowen all scored goals in second-half stoppage time. All five of those strikes changed the final result of their respective matches, too, which is the most across a single matchday in the competition’s history.
It takes this season’s total of 90th-minute (or later) goals to 21. That now means 8% of all goals scored in 2024-25 have come after the 90-minute mark; only last season (8.3%) has ever seen a higher rate on record.
Of course, the rise in last-minute goals is linked to the increase in stoppage time played at the end of games as officials try to properly add on time for delays during matches.
Whatever the reason, long may the last-minute drama continue.
Mohamed Salah has now scored in eight consecutive seasons
against Arsenal, just the third time anyone has done so against any opponent.
Mohamed Salah’s longevity never ceases to amaze. The Egyptian turned 32 over the summer but remains one of the most consistent performers in England’s top flight.
His equaliser for Liverpool against Arsenal was his eighth of the campaign and brought him level with another Reds legend Robbie Fowler for total Premier League goals (163).
Given Sunday’s opponents, it also means that Salah has now scored in eight consecutive seasons against Arsenal.
It’s just the third example in Premier League history of a player scoring in eight straight campaigns against a single opponent. Another one of Arsenal’s nemeses, Harry Kane, holds the record having scored in nine consecutive season against them, while Kane also scored in eight straight against Southampton.
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