What a weekend it was! There was a lot of great football, from which we bring you the best numbers:
FA Cup
Arsenal stunned Manchester City 2-0 and Chelsea fired Manchester United 3-1 to settle an all-London final for the 2019/20 FA Cup.
3
Arsenal and Chelsea will meet for the third time in an English Cup final. Arsenal have won their two previous matches (2002 and 2017).
6
Chelsea have eliminated Manchester United from the FA Cup for the sixth time (including three of the past four seasons) – only Arsenal (7) has eliminated United from the competition on several occasions.
21
This will be the 21st Arsenal FA Cup final, the most for all teams in history. Of course they also won the competition more times than anyone else (13). This will be Chelsea’s fourteenth appearance, the third behind Arsenal and Manchester United (20).
66
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has scored 66 goals in all competitions for Arsenal since his debut for the club in February 2018, the only PL player with more in this period is Mohamed Salah (68).
Premier League
Only the 4 games of this weekend, but a lot of drama in the Premier League.
3
Just when you thought this season couldn’t be a stranger, Watford came up and Nigel Pearson came out. With Pearson’s departure, Watford is now the first team in PL’s history to see three permanent managers leave in one season (Pearson, Quique Sanchez Flores, Javi Gracia) Just to emphasize the strangeness of everything, Pearson has the best rate of payout (35%) and the points per game ratio (1.25) of any Watford manager in PL’s history.
5
A bad season, ending on a worse note. Norwich City is now only the third team in the history of the English top flight to lose five consecutive home games without scoring a single goal, after Sheffield Wednesday (April 1920) and Birmingham City (February 1922).
29.5
If you haven’t seen the game and seen the score, you’ll find this a hard touch to believe. In the 3-0 victory over Leicester City, Tottenham Hotspur had only 29.5% possession. This is their lowest odds in a PL game since September 2012 against Manchester United (26%) and their lowest odds in a home game in the competition since to choose dispose of such data (2003-04).
And this, for the next season, when the PL sees the return of a great team.
55
Marcelo Bielsa has won 54 of his 98 games in command of Leeds United. His 55% payout ratio is the highest any manager has had in his history.
The League
The 2019/20 La Liga season is over, with Real Madrid drawing Leganes 1-1, Barcelona defeating Alaves 5-0 and Atletico Madrid having 1-1 draw in Granada on the day the final. So here’s the look of the key places: Champions: Real Madrid. UCL seats; RM, Barcelona, Atletico Madrid, Seville. relegated: Leganes, Mallorca, Spanish.
1
Thibaut Courtois won the 2019/20 Liga goalkeeper award. Become the first keeper in history to win the Zamora trophy with Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid.
11
Sergio Ramos has scored 11 goals this season in the league, the most from a defender in one season in the 21st century.
33
Santi Cazorla has been involved in more goals than any other midfielder in the Liga since the start of last season (33-15 goals and 18 assists). What a player. What inspiration.
82
Barcelona have collected 82 points in LaLiga 2019/20, their lowest count in one season in the competition since 2007/08 (67 points).
A league
Roma and Inter played a fun 2-2 draw, which means that Juventus have a five-point gap from Inter’s second place, with one game in hand. Can Lazio spice things up in the Serie A title game later tonight?
11
In the 2020 calendar year, only Erling Haaland (13 goals) and Robert Lewandowski (12) scored more goals (excluding penalties) than Ante Rebic (11) in the top 5 European leagues.
13
Romelu Lukaku is the 1st player to score 13 away goals in his first season in Serie A history.
17
Atalanta is one of three teams in the top 5 leagues of Europe, with two players with 17 or more league goals this season (Luis Muriel and Duvan Zapata, both 17) – together with Liverpool (Sadio Mane, 17 and Mohamed Salah, 19) and Manchester United (Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial, both 17).
500
More goodness than Roma-Inter. This is the first match between the two teams, in the history of Serie A, to score 500 goals.
Ronaldo-Messi watch
Lionel Messi scored a draw, and helped another to end his home season to the max. Cristiano Ronaldo and Juventus, meanwhile, will play Lazio later tonight.
7
Messi climbs the record 7th Trophy Pichichi or tie gold boot, breaking a tie at the top of the all-time list with the legendary Telmo Zarra (6). This is Messi’s fourth staircase Pichichi – has scored 25 goals this season, 4 ahead of runner-up Karim Benzema.
21
With 21 assists, Messi overtook Xavi as the player with the most assists in a single La Liga season. He also has ties to Thomas Müller (2019-20, Bayern Munich) for most one-season assists from any player in the top 5 European leagues in the past 10 years.
(Statistics courtesy: ESPN Statistics and Information Group)
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