Stat, Viz, Quiz is the weekly Opta Analyst football newsletter. Our latest edition includes numbers on Liverpool vs Manchester City, Harry Kane and Premier League relegation.
Liverpool vs Manchester City was billed as the biggest game of the Premier League season so far, and it delivered.
Jürgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola shared the points at Anfield in what was almost certainly their last ever meeting in England’s top flight. In this week’s SVQ, we’ll look at how things transpired in the latest instant classic between the two.
Harry Kane scored another hat-trick in the Bundesliga over the weekend and has a chance to break a record many believed would stay unbroken forever. How many can the England captain score?
We’ll also be looking at those who managed to avoid relegation despite all odds, just to give Sheffield United and Burnley fans some hope.
But let’s get started by looking back at Sunday’s main event.
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STAT – The Inseparables
What an occasion. Arguably the two best managers of the modern era fighting it out for the 16th and quite probably final time in the Premier League amid an incredibly close title race.
Much to the delight of Arsenal and Mikel Arteta in particular, Liverpool and Manchester City cancelled each other out in a 1-1 draw at Anfield, with John Stones’ opener from a smart corner routine followed by an Alexis Mac Allister penalty.
It was perhaps not a surprise to see the game finish level, making it seven stalemates between Klopp and Guardiola in Premier League clashes, the most frequent outcome (Klopp with four wins, Guardiola with five). Four of Liverpool and City’s last six meetings in the top flight have ended as a draw, as many as in the previous 17.
In fact, the team that scored first in the last eight Premier League games between them have only gone on to win twice, with five ending all square.
The last time these two contested a title race in 2021-22, City pipped Liverpool to the title by 93 points to 92, with the two games between them both ending 2-2.
Sunday’s result meant both meetings in 2023-24 ended 1-1, suggesting it may be a close-run thing again at the end of this season, with the added complication of new league leaders Arsenal thrown into the mix.
Since the start of the 2020-21 season, no fixture has seen both teams score on more occasions in the Premier League than Liverpool vs City (seven times in eight games), so entertainment from both has been practically guaranteed.
The standards in England have been raised by Klopp and Guardiola in recent years, and it’s a shame we’re unlikely to see them do battle again in the Premier League.
With 10 league games remaining, there could still be further chapters written in their respectful rivalry, though.
VIZ – Kane on Course
As Jimmy Greaves once said about football: “It’s a funny old game”.
Speaking of former Tottenham strikers, Bayern Munich have been dominant in Germany for over a decade, and then added a guaranteed goalscorer to their squad in Harry Kane.
Not only that, but Kane has gone on to score even more than people anticipated… and yet Bayern look set to miss out on the Bundesliga title for the first time since the 2011-12 season.
Bayern might not think that’s particularly funny, but Bayer Leverkusen’s relentless form under Xabi Alonso sees them 10 points ahead of the Rekordmeister with nine games remaining.
It won’t help dispel the theory that Kane is cursed to never win a trophy, having moved to Bayern from Spurs last summer in order to right that wrong.
He has very much held up his end of the bargain, though. Saturday’s 8-1 thrashing of Mainz saw Kane score his fourth hat-trick in the Bundesliga in 2023-24, making him the first player ever to hit that many trebles in a debut campaign in Germany’s top flight.
Kane’s third goal at the Allianz Arena was his 30th of the season in just 25 games; only once before has a player scored that many goals in his first-ever Bundesliga campaign (Uwe Seeler – 30 goals in the competition’s inaugural season in 1963-64).
With nine games to go, it makes you wonder how many Kane can finish with. He’s still 11 behind Robert Lewandowski’s astonishing 41 goals in 2020-21 and needs another 10 to match the legendary Gerd Müller’s best effort in 1971-72 (40 goals).
Kane still needs to up his productivity a little bit to break that record, averaging 1.2 goals per game, meaning he is pretty much on course to match Lewandowski’s 41 (though it must be noted the Pole did it in just 29 games).
It would be disappointing for Kane not to break his trophy duck, but it will be quite some consolation if he’s able to become the deadliest striker in German football history in his first season.
What’s German for ‘That’s the real quiz’?
QUIZ – Man Utd’s Penalty Pair, Arsenal’s Win Streak, and De Bruyne’s Deliveries
Speaking of real quizzes, here’s our weekly five questions for you to wrap your head around. Answers at the bottom of the page.
1. Bruno Fernandes and Marcus Rashford both scored penalties for Manchester United in the first half of their 2-0 win over Everton. The last time two different players scored penalties for a team in the first half of a Premier League game was Manchester City vs Leicester in December 2021, but which two now former Man City players scored them?
2. Who are the only team to have scored more headed goals than Luton Town’s 13 in the Premier League this season?
3. Arsenal’s win over Brentford made them only the fourth side to win each of their first eight Premier League games of a calendar year. The previous three all went on to win the title that year, but who were they?
4. Tottenham handed Unai Emery his joint-heaviest home defeat as a manager with a 4-0 win at Aston Villa. With which of Emery’s former teams had he previously lost by the same margin on home turf? A) Sevilla, B) Spartak Moscow, or C) Villarreal?
5. Kevin De Bruyne’s assist against Liverpool was the seventh he has recorded against them in the Premier League. Which former Manchester United star is the only player to record more assists against the Reds in the competition?
Ask Opta
This week’s question comes to us via email from Nick Jones, who asks: “As we approach the time of the year when the dreaded dotted line of the relegation zone causes sleepless nights, and we see the stats like ‘x points adrift with y to play for’, what is the biggest gap ever recovered in the Premier League?”
Do you have a stat-based question you’d like Opta to answer in a future edition of SVQ? Email us at editors@theanalyst.com or message us on X @OptaAnalyst with #AskOpta and we’ll pick the best one.
Answer:
We’re sure Sheffield United and Burnley fans will be keen to know the answer to this one. Well, prepare to dust off your favourite Dumb & Dumber GIF; we’re telling you there’s a chance.
The Blades and the Clarets remain 10 points from safety after 28 games. The biggest deficit a team has overcome to stay up in the Premier League remains West Ham’s great escape in 2006-07, when they were 10 points from safety after 29 games. Winning seven of their last nine (L2) meant they remarkably managed to finish in 15th place.
The second largest is Blackburn Rovers, who stayed up in 1996-97 – just two years after they won the Premier League – despite being nine points from safety at one point. However, that was just 11 games into the season, so they had plenty of time to recover and eventually finish 13th.
Everton were only 14 games into the 1994-95 season when they were eight points from safety after winning just once (D5 L8). However, they only lost six more times in their remaining 28 games (W10 D12) to finish 15th.
The two other teams to stay up despite being eight points from safety were West Brom (after 27 games) in 2004-05 and Portsmouth a season later (after 28 games). The Baggies had actually been bottom at one point on the final day of the season before staying up with a win over, funnily enough, Portsmouth.
Pompey went on a run in their final 10 games of the 2005-06 season that included six wins and two draws, meaning they were already safe before the final day.
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Quiz Answers
1. Riyad Mahrez and Raheem Sterling
2. Arsenal (14)
3. Manchester United (2009), Liverpool (2020) and Manchester City (2021)
4. B) Spartak Moscow, losing 5-1 to Dinamo Moscow in November 2012
5. Ryan Giggs (eight)
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