The latest round of Premier League maches saw Chelsea move a huge step closer towards the Champions League after winning at top four rivals West Ham, whilst Liverpool’s faltering forward line saw their own hopes suffer a blow.
In a weekend where VAR once again reared its ugly head, Burnley battered Wolves to move further clear of the relegation places, Everton continued their push for Europe with a win at Arsenal and Midlands rivals Aston Villa and West Brom shared the spoils entertaining draw.
Once more, we bring you some of the most interesting stats from the weekend’s actions.
• 2 – Arsenal have scored an own goal in both league matches against Everton this season, the third time they have put the ball in their own net home and away against a side in a Premier League campaign (also 2011-12 vs Liverpool and 2008-09 vs Chelsea).
• 10 – Only Manchester City (12) have won more away games than Everton (10) in the Premier League this season, while this is the first time since 1986-87 that the Toffees have won 10 away games in a single league campaign.
• 7 – Arsenal have lost seven games at the Emirates Stadium in the Premier League this season; their most home defeats in a league campaign since 1992-93 (also seven).
• 2 – Mohamed Salah, Roberto Firmino, Sadio Mané and Diogo Jota are starting together for Liverpool for just the third time – the other games were a 2-1 win vs Sheffield United in October, and a 1-1 draw with Manchester City in November.
• 31 – Only Manchester City (38) have won more points in Premier League home games this season than West Ham (31).
• 2002 – Fabián Balbuena is the first West Ham player to be sent off against Chelsea in the Premier League since Paolo Di Canio in January 2002.
• 10 – Thomas Tuchel is unbeaten in all 10 away matches with Chelsea (W8 D2) and is only the second manager in Premier League history to remain unbeaten in his first 10 away games in all competitions with a club, after Claudio Ranieri with Leicester City in 2015 (11).
• 39% – David McGoldrick has scored 39% of Sheffield United’s goals in the Premier League this season (7/18); the highest percentage of any player for his team in the competition.
• 43 – Chris Wood is now Burnley’s outright top scorer in the Premier League with 43 goals, now two ahead of Ashley Barnes despite playing 51 games fewer.
• 1 – Chris Wood is the first player from New Zealand to score a Premier League hat-trick, with New Zealand now the 46th different nation to be represented by a hat-trick scorer in the competition, and the first new nation since Gabon (Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang).
• 7 – Manchester United have drawn more Premier League games nil-nil than any other side this season (7) – only in 1980-81 (8) have the Red Devils been involved in more goalless draws in a single league campaign.
• 8 – There have been eight goals in Premier League meetings between Leeds and Man Utd this season, despite today’s 0-0; in the competition’s history, only Blackburn v Sheffield Wednesday in 1997-98 saw more goals scored when one of the two meetings finished goalless (9).
• 107 – Anwar El Ghazi’s penalty against West Brom was the 107th taken in the Premier Leaguethis season, only in 2006-07 (112) and 2009-10 (111) were there more spot-kicks in a single campaign.
• 7 – Wilfried Zaha has been involved in seven goals in his last seven Premier League appearances against Leicester, scoring six and assisting one.
• 8 – Kelechi Iheanacho has either scored (11) or assisted (2) in eight of his last nine appearances for Leicester across all competitions.