After the latest weekend of 2024-25 Premier League action, our excellent team at OptaJoe has unearthed all sorts of facts. Here, we look at the best Premier League stats from Matchday 6.
Arsenal had 36 shots in their win over Leicester City, their joint-most on record (since 2003-04) in a single Premier League game (also 36 vs Sunderland in May 2017).
Arsenal left it late in Saturday’s match at the Emirates Stadium against Leicester City, but they got the job done. An own goal from Leicester’s Wilfred Ndidi and an even later strike via Kai Havertz in added time secured all three points in a match where they attempted 36 shots.
That tally was the joint-highest on record in a Premier League game for the Gunners, level with their efforts versus Sunderland in May 2017 (2-0 win). It wasn’t the most attempted by a side in a Premier League game on record, however. That accolade belongs to Manchester City in their famous 3-2 win over Queens Park Rangers in May 2012 (yes, that game), where they attempted 44 shots, scoring with the final two (Edin Dzeko and Sergio Agüero), with the 44th winning them the Premier League title ahead of rivals Manchester United.
Arsenal’s 16 shots on target in Saturday’s match was also their joint-most in a Premier League game on record (since 2003-04) but one off the all-time competition record set by Liverpool versus Watford in November 2016 (17).
Bryan Mbeumo’s strike after 38 seconds saw Brentford become the first team in Premier League history to score in the opening minute in three consecutive games.
Brentford went and did it again. Saturday’s 1-1 draw with West Ham United saw them open the scoring in the first minute of the match for the third Premier League game running, with Bryan Mbeumo repeating his feat from last weekend at Spurs.
At 38 seconds, it was the latest of the three strikes, but unfortunately for Thomas Frank’s side they were unable to hold on and win any of those matches, or even score another goal, versus Manchester City, Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham.
Failure to hold on to a lead is nothing new for the Bees, with them dropping the most points from winning positions last season in the Premier League (30). They lead that ranking so far in 2024-25 (8) alongside Everton.
It is Everton who they share another record with, as the Toffees are the only other side to score in the opening minute of three different Premier League matches within a season, doing so back in 1998-99 across their 38 games. Not as impressive as Brentford’s efforts in three successive matches, mind, but the west London side need to quickly realise that the Premier League doesn’t abide by the ‘first goal wins’ rule.
With just 19 minutes and 57 seconds between Cole Palmer’s first and fourth goals, only Jermain Defoe (for Spurs vs Wigan in November 2009) has scored four Premier League goals in a quicker time in the competition (17min 56s) since Opta have exact goal times in the competition (from 2006-07).
Cole Palmer became the first player in Premier League history to score four goals before half-time in a single match, when he scored all four of Chelsea’s goals in their win over Brighton at Stamford Bridge on Saturday afternoon. He also became just the second Chelsea player to score four goals in two different Premier League games, after Frank Lampard in 2008 (against Derby County) and 2010 (against Aston Villa).
Palmer scored his first three goals in the space of nine minutes and 46 seconds, with that the sixth fastest hat-trick in Premier League history, but then added a fourth before half-time. That four-goal haul was scored in the space of 19 minutes and 57 seconds. Since Opta began collecting exact goal times in 2006-07, that’s behind only Jermain Defoe’s effort for Spurs vs Wigan Athletic in November 2009 (17 minutes, 56 seconds).
Back in February 1999, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer scored four goals after coming on as a substitute for Manchester United at Nottingham Forest, with his first goal coming in the 80th minute and his final goal coming in added time. Unfortunately, without exact goal times back then, we’re unable to find out the precise gap between his first and fourth goals, but it’s very likely to have been quicker than Defoe’s effort in 2009.
One of Palmer’s goals in the Matchday 6 win over Brighton came from the penalty spot, meaning that he’s now one of only two players in Premier League history to take at least 10 penalties and have a 100% success rate, after Yaya Touré (11/11).
Mohamed Salah has now been involved in 231 Premier League goals for Liverpool (159 goals, 72 assists), with only five players registering more for a single side in the competition’s history.
Mohamed Salah scored the winning goal in Liverpool’s 2-1 away victory over Wolverhampton Wanderers on Saturday evening. The Egyptian’s penalty in the 61st minute sealed all three points for Arne Slot’s side and took him to 231 goal involvements for Liverpool in the Premier League (161 goals, 73 assists) since his debut in August 2017.
That drew him level with Sergio Agüero’s goal involvement total at Man City (231), and now only five players are above him in the all-time Premier League rankings. His next target will be Frank Lampard (237 at Chelsea), but there’s every chance that he’ll also overtake Thierry Henry’s tally of 249 goals and assists for Arsenal in the Premier League before the season is over.
There are question marks over Salah’s long-term future at Liverpool, with his current contract expiring at the end of 2024-25 and, so far, there’s been no movement on an extension. Should the 32-year-old extend his stay at the club, surely Wayne Rooney’s record tally of 276 goal involvements at Manchester United is within his reach?
Ollie Watkins has now scored and assisted in eight Premier League matches in his career – the joint-most of any player for Aston Villa (also eight by Dwight Yorke and Gabriel Agbonlahor).
Ollie Watkins may have equalled a club record for the number of Premier League matches that he’s both scored and assisted in for Aston Villa (8), but it is not a tally that is going to threaten an all-time Premier League record any time soon.
His header against Ipswich Town at Portman Road came after he’d assisted Morgan Rogers’ strike. It was the eighth time that he’s both scored and assisted in the same Premier League match. He’d have to do this in another 28 matches to reach Wayne Rooney’s all-time competition record, however.
Rooney both scored and assisted in 36 different matches across his career at Everton and Manchester United in the Premier League, but the former England international may see his record broken by Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah soon enough. Salah has managed this in 33 different matches, one more than Thierry Henry across his time at Arsenal in the Premier League.
Bruno Fernandes was sent off for the first time in his Manchester United career, on what was his 242nd appearance for the club.
Manchester United suffered an embarrassing home defeat to Tottenham on Sunday, with the London side outclassing the Red Devils in all areas during their 3-0 win at Old Trafford.
United’s cause wasn’t helped by Bruno Fernandes’ red card in the 42nd minute – his first in the Premier League. With it coming 242 games into his Man Utd career, and 165 matches into his Premier League career, this got us thinking about the players to have played the most games in the competition without ever being sent off. Naturally, we just had to look it up and reveal the answer to you all.
Ryan Giggs currently finds himself third in the all-time appearance rankings behind Gareth Barry (653 games) and James Milner (637) but unlike those two, Giggs never received a red card in the competition across his 632 matches.
Michael Carrick is second in the ranking, with no red card in any of his 481 Premier League appearances, followed by Northern Irish defender Aaron Hughes (455). Of current Premier League players who could trouble the top 10 rankings, Danny Welbeck is still without a red card in 339 Premier League appearances, while Ben Davies (296), Adam Lallana (294), Jordan Pickford (292) and Christian Eriksen (291) are all nearing 300 Premier League games without a red.
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