The curtain has come down on the latest round of 2024-25 Premier League games, and our excellent team at OptaJoe unearthed all sorts of facts over the weekend. Here, we look at the best Premier League stats from Matchday 4.
There were 14 yellow cards shown in the match between Bournemouth and Chelsea (six for Bournemouth, eight for Chelsea), the most ever issued in a single Premier League game.
Everyone remembers the Battle of the Bridge back in May 2016, when Chelsea and Tottenham played out a heated 2-2 draw at Stamford Bridge in a result that handed Leicester City a sensational Premier League title win.
In that fiery, ill-tempered game, Mark Clattenburg dished out 12 yellow cards, equalling the Premier League record for the most cautions given in a match in the competition.
That record was broken this weekend, albeit in a far less memorable game: Bournemouth 0-1 Chelsea.
Anthony Taylor gave out nine yellow cards for fouls, four for dissent and even put Renato Veiga’s name into the book for excessive celebration, which is impressive considering he didn’t even score the goal. We all get carried away sometimes, I suppose.
Taylor also gave a yellow card to Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca in the 66th minute, just for extra measure, although this card isn’t counted in the total of 14 – that’s exclusively for players.
Ten of Gabriel Magalhães’ 15 goals in the Premier League have been headers, while he’s now one of only four Arsenal players to score 10+ headed goals in the competition, along with Olivier Giroud (27), Ian Wright (14) and Emmanuel Adebayor (12).
Gabriel Magalhães sealed a third successive north London derby win at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium for Arsenal this weekend, with his second-half header arriving from a corner. Since the start of last season, Arsenal have scored more goals from set-pieces (excluding penalties) than any other team in the Premier League (24).
It was the Brazilian defender’s 15th goal overall in the Premier League, with 10 of those coming via headers. That’s an impressive tally, but still a way off the leading goalscorers from headers across Premier League history.
Aptly, Peter Crouch leads that ranking with 53 headed goals, followed by Alan Shearer (46) and Dion Dublin (45).
Of course, with Gabriel only in his fifth Premier League season and being a centre-back, you wouldn’t expect him to threaten the all-time headed goal rankings. However, even proportionally, he doesn’t rely on headed goals quite as much as some others have in the competition across history.
Overall, 66.7% (10/15) of Gabriel’s Premier League goals have come via headers. That’s lower than 22 other players to have scored at least 10 goals in the competition, with Newcastle central defender Jamaal Lascelles the only one of those to have scored every Premier League goal via a headed shot (10/10).
Callum Hudson-Odoi’s winner for Nottingham Forest was the first goal Arne Slot’s Liverpool have conceded, with what was the 27th shot they faced under the Dutchman.
Arne Slot was close to breaking a Premier League record this weekend, with the Liverpool boss just 18 minutes (plus added time) away from becoming the first manager in the history of the competition to keep four clean sheets in his first four games. Callum Hudson-Odoi ruined that with a superb winner at Anfield to shock the home crowd.
It ended a run of 26 shots without conceding for Slot’s Liverpool in 2024-25, with that record now standing at one goal from 28 shots faced.
Liverpool’s overall defensive record in 2024-25 should please Slot and fans alike, with their 28 non-penalty shots faced and their non-penalty expected goals conceded (2.8) both league lows this season after four matchdays. However, as we’ve pointed out a few times now, this has been from a very kind run of fixtures to start the new campaign.
Ederson’s assist for Manchester City’s second goal against Brentford was the fourth of his Premier League career, with only Paul Robinson providing more among goalkeepers in the competition’s history (five).
Ederson’s long punt upfield for Erling Haaland ended up being the match-winning pass for Manchester City on Saturday, with the Norwegian outmuscling Ethan Pinnock to score his second goal of the game.
Sometimes route one is the answer. The Brazilian goalkeeper’s pass was no fluke, either. He clearly spotted Haaland’s run and played an inch-perfect pass into his path over the Brentford defence.
That was Ederson’s fourth Premier League assist, which is bettered by only one goalkeeper in the competition – Paul Robinson. The former Spurs goalkeeper assisted five goals in the Premier League overall, but is also one of just six goalkeepers to score a Premier League goal.
Other goalkeepers to assist four Premier League goals are David Seaman and Pepe Reina, while five more have assisted three goals in the competition: Jussi Jääskeläinen, Mark Crossley, Tim Howard, Peter Schmeichel and Alisson Becker.
Funnily enough, a goalkeeper is also the oldest player in the competition’s history to assist a teammate. Edwin van der Sar’s assist for Manchester United vs Aston Villa in February 2011 came when he was 40 years, 95 days old.
Robert Sánchez has saved 50% of the penalties he’s faced for Chelsea in the Premier League (2/4), the best ratio for the Blues among goalkeepers to face 4+ spot-kicks in the competition.
While saving two out of four penalties is decent, it’s hardly groundbreaking. However, this does give us the opportunity to look at the Premier League goalkeepers to have the best records from penalty kicks. Unsurprisingly, Robert Sánchez doesn’t feature in this list, with three saves from 17 penalties faced overall in the Premier League.
Only six goalkeepers have saved more than 10 penalties in Premier League history, with David James (13) leading the way, followed by Thomas Sørensen (12). Polish stopper Lukasz Fabianski has saved 11, with Mark Schwarzer, Brad Fridel and Shay Given all saving 10 penalties each in the competition.
The only goalkeeper in Premier League history to face more than one penalty and save 100% of them is Allan McGregor (3/3), while former Arsenal number one Manuel Almunia (6/14 – 42.9%) has the best save ratio among goalkeepers to have faced at least 10; he’s followed by Pavel Srnicek and Bryan Gunn (4/10 – 40.0%).
32.2% of Brighton’s Premier League games have been drawn (87/270), the highest share of any side to have played in more than one campaign in the competition.
Brighton have started the season well, with the Seagulls one of only five teams still unbeaten in the top flight after the opening four matchweeks of 2024-25. Two of those four games have ended in a draw, which is no surprise considering Brighton are the all-time Premier League draw specialists.
Saturday’s 0-0 stalemate at home to Ipswich Town was their 87th draw in the history of the competition, meaning that 32.2% of their Premier League games have ended level, the highest proportion of any side to have played more than one full season since it began in 1992.
They are ahead of Coventry City, who haven’t played a Premier League match since May 2001. The Sky Blues drew 31.6% of their Premier League games, which is slightly higher than Birmingham City (30.8%), who are now in the third tier of English football.
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