How Man Utd Won the FA Cup, Super Bonmatí Shines Again, and Premier League Goals

Stat, Viz, Quiz is the weekly Opta Analyst football newsletter. Our latest edition includes numbers on the FA Cup final, the Women’s Champions League final, and Premier League centurions.

Be honest; who saw that coming?

Manchester City’s dream of a ‘double double’ was dashed by neighbours Manchester United on Saturday as Erik ten Hag’s men won the FA Cup final 2-1 at Wembley.

This week’s SVQ looks at how United did it and we ask if it’s fair that Ten Hag’s job at Old Trafford appears to still be under question.

We also review the Women’s Champions League final and how Barcelona were able to overcome Lyon thanks to goals from Aitana Bonmatí and Alexia Putellas.

This week’s quiz looks ahead to next weekend’s men’s Champions League final between Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund, while our Ask Opta query relates to goals, and who doesn’t love goals?

Well, maybe Pep Guardiola right now given his team didn’t score enough of them on Saturday.

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STAT – Man Utd Taking Baby Steps to Success

Let’s be real, very few people expected Man Utd to win the FA Cup final against Man City… except our very own Ryan Benson who came up with three reasons why it could happen last week. Okay, he did refer to them as ‘glimmers of hope’ but still.

An excellent performance from the Red Devils and an uncharacteristically insipid showing from the Premier League champions saw the famous trophy heading back to the red half of Manchester.

Alejandro Garnacho latched onto an absolute gift from Josko Gvardiol, who accidentally headed the ball past his own goalkeeper Stefan Ortega to give the Argentine a tap in. Garnacho became just the second Argentinian to score in the FA Cup final after Ricky Villa’s brace for Tottenham in the 1981 final, which was also against Man City.

A sumptuous move from Ten Hag’s men later in the first half saw Kobbie Mainoo finish calmly to double their lead. Mainoo became the first English teenager to score in an FA Cup final since Steve MacKenzie for City against Spurs in the aforementioned 1981 final, and the youngest to do so since John Sissons for West Ham against Preston North End in 1964.

Substitute Jérémy Doku pulled back a late goal to make it a nervy finish but United held on to beat their local rivals and seal their 13th FA Cup success, with only Arsenal (14) winning the competition on more occasions.

It was the 10th time this season that a team has beaten City on expected goals, with United recording 1.59 xG to City’s 1.33.

It also made it two trophies in two seasons for Ten Hag, having won the EFL Cup in 2022-23.

So, why are reports suggesting that United want to get rid of the Dutchman?

Of course, their eighth-place finish in the Premier League won’t have helped matters. United also ended a league campaign with a negative goal difference (57 scored, 58 conceded) for the first time since 1989-90 (-1 in both cases).

Their penchant for still delivering trophies and doing so with some incredibly bright teenage talents suggests optimism can still be there for United fans, whoever is in the Old Trafford dugout next season.

At 26 years and 58 days old, they named the youngest starting XI for an FA Cup final since Man City (25y & 310d) vs Stoke City in 2011. They were also the first side to start two teenagers in the competition’s showpiece since Millwall against United in 2004 (Peter Sweeney and Marvin Elliot).

The kids are alright, even if Ten Hag might not be.

VIZ – Barça and Bonmatí Brilliant in Bilbao

Aitana Bonmati pass map WUCL final 23-24

Barcelona’s men’s team may be going through a tough time right now, but their women’s side are flying high.

Having claimed another Liga F title after winning 27 of their 28 matches (D1), Barça Femení managed to retain the Women’s Champions League too following a 2-0 win over record eight-time European champions Lyon in Saturday’s final.

Barcelona have claimed an unprecedented quadruple, having also won the Copa de la Reina and the Spanish Super Cup.

Star player Aitana Bonmatí had quite the 2023, winning the World Cup with Spain before claiming the 2022-23 UEFA Women’s Player of the Year award, the 2023 Ballon d’Or and the 2023 FIFA Best Women’s Player award.

It was little surprise that the 26-year-old shone on the big stage again, giving Barcelona the lead in Bilbao just after the hour mark with a shot that deflected in off Lyon’s Vanessa Gilles.

As this week’s viz above indicates, Bonmatí ran the show, completing 65 of her 71 attempted passes (92%); only teammates Ingrid Engen (849), Keira Walsh (744) and Patri Guijarro (723) completed more than Bonmatí’s 570 throughout the tournament.

She has also been chipping in with regular goals, with only Lyon’s Kadidiatou Diani (8) and Paris Saint-Germain’s Marie-Antoinette Katoto (7) scoring more than her six in the Women’s Champions League this season.

Alexia Putellas put her knee issues behind her to seal victory in Bilbao in stoppage time, with the Barça captain having the honour of lifting the trophy.

Barcelona are still five Women’s Champions League trophies behind Lyon, but with the likes of Bonmatí and Putellas around, don’t be surprised to see that gap continue to narrow over the next few years.

QUIZ – The Chaaaaampions!

With the Women’s Champions League decided for another season, next Saturday sees the turn of the men as Real Madrid take on Borussia Dortmund at Wembley Stadium. For this week’s quiz, we look ahead to what promises to be another landmark occasion in the football calendar. Answers at the bottom of the page.

1. Dortmund and Real Madrid last faced each other in the Champions League in 2017-18, with Los Blancos winning both games in the group stage (3-1 away, 3-2 at home). Who scored all three of Dortmund’s goals in those games?

2. Real Madrid could win their 15th European Cup/Champions League trophy, with their 14 so far already comfortably the most in history. Which team has won the second most?

3. Dortmund haven’t won the Champions League since 1996-97; who did they beat in that final in Munich?

4. With both featuring in the 2013 final, an appearance by either Mats Hummels or Marco Reus would be the biggest gap between European Cup/Champions League final appearances (11 years) since which former Juventus goalkeeper?

5. Vinícius Júnior has five goals and four assists in the Champions League this season, following on from his seven goals and five assists in 2022-23. Which former Madrid star is the only player in Champions League history to have registered 5+ goals and 5+ assists in consecutive seasons, doing so in 1999-2000 and 2000-01? Clue: The first of those two seasons was with a different club.

Ask Opta

This week’s question comes to us from Paul Heighton, who asks: “Can you tell me of all the players in the Premier League with 100+ goals how many only played for one Premier League club?”

Do you have a stat-based question you’d like Opta to answer in a future edition of SVQ? Email us at editors@theanalyst.com or message us on X @OptaAnalyst with #AskOpta and we’ll pick the best one.

Answer:

We certainly can, Paul. A total of 34 players have scored at least 100 Premier League goals since its launch in 1992, and of those, 10 did so having only played for one team in the competition.

They are:

Sergio Agüero – Manchester City (184)
Thierry Henry – Arsenal (175)
Jamie Vardy – Leicester City (136)
Steven Gerrard – Liverpool (120)
Son Heung-min – Tottenham (120)
Ryan Giggs – Manchester United (109)
Paul Scholes – Manchester United (107)
Didier Drogba – Chelsea (104)
Cristiano Ronaldo – Manchester United (103)
Matt Le Tissier – Southampton (100)

You may be wondering why Harry Kane isn’t in this list. He actually played three times in the Premier League for Norwich during a loan spell in 2012-13.

Incidentally, Alan Shearer is the only player to have scored over 100 goals for two different Premier League clubs (112 for Blackburn and 148 for Newcastle).