Another weekend of twists and turns saw plenty of drama across Europe’s Top 5 leagues. Liverpool stretched their lead to six points (with a game in hand) after a wild 6-3 win over Tottenham. Manchester City and Manchester United both experienced humbling losses, while Chelsea also dropped points but Arsenal gathered steam with a 5-1 win over Crystal Palace.
Barcelona suffered a last-gasp defeat at home to Atletico Madrid, who now lead LaLiga by a point, with Real Madrid climbing to second after a thumping win over Sevilla. Serie A saw all of their title contenders pick up wins, with Atalanta still leading the pack by two points. Over in Germany, Bundesliga leaders Bayern Munich hammered RB Leipzig, with Leverkusen also winning by a 5-1 scoreline to keep pace in second place.
Coupe de France action saw PSG needing penalties to go past Lens, while Marseille thumped Saint-Etienne.
ESPN’s By The Numbers brings you the best of stats from weekend’s football matches:
9
The 9 combined goals in Liverpool’s 6-3 win over Spurs are the most in a PL game this season; also tied for the most in a league meeting between the two teams.
1
Liverpool will be in first place in the Premier League table on Christmas Day; it’s the 21st time the club has been in first place in the English Top Flight on Christmas Day – the most of any team. Liverpool have gone on to win the title in 11 of those 20 previous seasons.
1
Mohammed Salah leads the Premier League in both goals (15) and assists (11) this season; he’s the first player in PL history to reach double figures for both before Christmas. The Egyptian had 2 goals and 2 assists in the game against Tottenham – having multiple goals and assists in a game for only the second time in his Premier League career. He joins Thierry Henry (3), Teddy Sheringham (2) and Alan Shearer (2) as the only players with multiple such games.
229
Salah is now on 229 career goals for Liverpool in all competitions, breaking the tie with Billy Liddell for the 4th-most in club history.
6
This is the sixth Premier League season in which Salah has both scored and assisted 10+ goals, the most of any player in the competition’s history (passing Wayne Rooney’s 5).
1
For the first time in Premier League history, Manchester United will be in the bottom half of the table on Christmas Day – The last time Manchester United was in the bottom half of the league standings on Christmas Day was in 1989-90 (12th).
3
Manchester United suffered their third three-goal loss at home in the Premier League this season, the club’s most in a single PL season. In his 405 PL home games across 21 years, Sir Alex Ferguson only oversaw four such losses at home.
8
Manchester City are on an 8-game away winless streak in all competitions, the club’s longest in the same season since Jan. 5 to Apr. 11 2011 (10 matches).
1
Aston Villa have won back-to-back home league matches vs Man City for the first time since 1991-1993 (also 2).
9
Man City suffered a ninth loss in their last 12 games in all competitions; that is more than the club lost in their previous 106 games before that (8).
80
Jhon Duran averages a goal per 80 min. this season in the Premier League, best of any player in the league this season.
5+
Arsenal have scored 5+ goals in an away game for the sixth time in 2024 in all competitions, that’s the most by an English top-flight club in a single calendar year.
5
Gabriel Jesus scored 5 goals in 2 games this week; he had scored 1 goal in the previous 365 days for Arsenal (38 games) in all competitions for the club.
3
Barcelona have lost 3 straight LALIGA matches at home, tied for the club’s worst streak in history (also 3 in Sept.-Oct. 1987 and 3 in Oct.-Nov. 1965).
12
Atletico Madrid have 12 straight wins in all competitions (outscored opponents 33-8 during that span); it is the club’s second-longest winning run under Diego Simeone and longest since Aug.-Oct. 2012 (13 games).
5 and 9
Alexander Sorloth’s goal in the 96th minute was his fifth injury-time winner in LALIGA, breaking a tie with Lionel Messi (4) for most all-time in the league. Atleti have 9 goals in the 90th-minute-or-later in LALIGA this season (4 of which game winners); both the 9 goals and the 4 game-winning goals in the 90th minute or later this LALIGA season are the most in Europe’s top 5 leagues this season.
Alexander Sorloth broke a tie with Lionel Messi for the most 90th-minute game-winning goals in LALIGA history with his 96th-minute winner vs. Barcelona ���� pic.twitter.com/MuYWFLTxKa
– ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) December 22, 2024
1 and 24
Diego Simeone brought up his first win in 18 away matches against Barcelona (1-7-10 W-D-L). Barcelona also saw their 24-game unbeaten streak at home against Atleti come to an end.
1/7
Barcelona have one win in their last seven LALIGA games. The club has not had a 7-game span with 1 or fewer wins since March-May 2008 (1-3-4 W-D-L in an 8-game span under Frank Rijkaard).
0
Barcelona have not won any of the five LALIGA games where Lamine Yamal hasn’t started this season. It’s compounded by Robert Lewandowski going four games without a goal at home, his worst run since joining the club.
16
Real Madrid have now gone 16 games unbeaten at home against Sevilla in the league – the club’s best such record(also 16 from 1986 to 2004).
1
Kylian Mbappe scored and assisted in back-to-back games for the first time with Real Madrid; his longest such streak in all comps since 3 straight for PSG in January 2024.
5
Federico Valverde has scored 5 goals this season in LALIGA from outside the penalty area, the most in Europe’s top 5 leagues. Valverde’s 5 such goals are the most by a player in a league season since Lionel Messi (8) in 2020-21
705 and 516
Jesus Navas came on as a sub for his final apperance before retirement; it was his 705th game in all comps and 516th in LALIGA for Sevilla (both team records).
53
Villarreal have received 53 yellow cards this season, the most by any team in Europe’s Top 5 Leagues
1700
Juventus brought up the club’s 1700th victory in Serie A – a feat only matched by Real Madrid, Barcelona and Arsenal across Europe’s Top 5 leagues (since 1929/30).
11 and 124
Atalanta extended their club-record run of victories to 11 games, and also created another club record with 124 goals in all competitions this calendar year.
4
Patrik Schick is the first player to score 4 goals in a single Bundesliga game since… Patrik Schick in December 4 2021, also with Leverkusen against Greuther Fürth. Prior to Schick, the two players who scored 4 goals in a Bundesliga match were Erling Haaland with Borussia Dortmund (vs Hertha Berlin) and Robert Lewandowski (also vs Hertha Berlin) in 2020.
2
Bayern Munich and RB Leipzig both scored within the first two minutes of their contest – a first in Bundesliga history. Bayern have scored inside the first minute twice this season (both by Jamal Musiala) – the club had not scored inside the first minute of a league match since Mario Gomez scored after 24 seconds vs Augsburg on April 7, 2012.
(Stats courtesy ESPN Stats & Information Group)
