The pick of the best statistics from gameweek four of the Premier League, featuring Patrick Bamford running riot over Aston Villa, Manchester City’s lethargic start to the season, Manchester United’s contrasting form at home and away, and two clubs suffer their worst starts ever.
Man United home start slump
Following a goalless draw with Chelsea on Saturday, Manchester United have experienced their worst home start to a campaign since 1972/73, the last time they failed to win any of their opening three league games at Old Trafford.
They’re also five games without a win at home, their longest run since February 1990 when they were winless in six. This is in stark contrast with their current away record having won their last ten trips in a row, the only time they have done that in their history.
For Chelsea it was their first clean sheet away from home under Frank Lampard, their last one coming on the final day of the 2018/19 season with a 0-0 draw at Leicester City. The stalemate brought the Blues’ points tally at Old Trafford since 1992 to 30, the most of any club in Premier League history.
Bruno Fernandes has created more chances [18] than any other player in the Premier League.
10 in his last 2 appearances. ???? pic.twitter.com/nrRonOXfFV
— Statman Dave (@StatmanDave) October 24, 2020
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Pep’s poor start
The Premier League title race looks wide open this season, but Manchester City are surprisingly off the pace, sitting five points off the top of the table in 13th place following their 1-1 draw with West Ham United.
Pep Guardiola had previously won all nine of his meetings with the Hammers on an aggregate scoreline of 30-3, while for David Moyes this was his first point against City in seven years.
The run goes on.
Man City have still won only ONE Premier League away game when trailing at half-time in over 25 years, featuring 104 matches, back to April 1995.
104 games
1 win
13 draws
90 defeats#WHUMCIhttps://t.co/JAW5ml8d4Y— Dale Johnson (@DaleJohnsonESPN) October 24, 2020
The result confirmed Guardiola’s worst start to a league campaign in his managerial career. City’s eight points are the fewest the Catalan coach has accumulated after five matches in charge of Barcelona, Bayern Munich or his current club in 12 years of management.
It’s just two points off last year’s tally at this point of the season when they were in second place, but they have only scored eight goals this year as opposed to the 16 they scored at this stage in 2019/20. It’s also the only time one of his teams haven’t reached double digits after five games.
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Hat-trick Bamford
Aston Villa’s brilliant run of nine Premier League games without defeat came to an end on Friday night when Leeds United won 3-0, denying the Birmingham outfit the chance to go top of the table at the same time.
Patrick Bamford was the man of the moment, scoring a hat-trick to bring his tally for the season to six. The last player to score as many for Leeds in their first six Premier League matches was none other than Eric Cantona in 1992/93.
The 27-year-old is only the second player to score in Leeds’ first three away games in a top flight league season, after Gordon Hodgson in 1937-38 and is their ninth player to score a Premier League hat-trick. Not bad from a striker who had only scored just one goal in the first tier before this season.
https://twitter.com/LUFCDATA/status/1320106356284755974?s=20
As for Villa, this was their 22nd defeat and 72nd goal conceded in the competition since the start of last season. The only club to have lost and conceded more in that time are Norwich City (27 defeats, 75 goals against).
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Worst. Start. Ever.
Fulham and Sheffield United are both enduring their worst starts to a top flight campaign ever, winning just one point in their opening six matches. The Cottagers lost at home to Crystal Palace, while the Blades led a game in the Premier League for the first time this season on Saturday, but lost to Liverpool anyway.
Only Palace and Portsmouth have endured worst starts, sitting on precisely zero points after six matches in 2017/18 and 2009/10 respectively. 11 other clubs have won just one point at this stage of a Premier League season, seven of which were relegated while the other five survived the drop.
Sources: BBC, Opta, The Sunday Times, Sky Sports.
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