The Premier League made its return on Saturday after going on a near two-week pause due to the international break. The weekend results showed why the English top-flight is the most popular league in the world.
Liverpool continued their perfect start to the campaign despite suffering an early scare against Newcastle, eventually winning 3-1. Tottenham cruised to a 4-0 win over Crystal Palace while Chelsea and Man United beat Wolves and Leicester 5-2 and 1-0 respectively.
However, the two interesting results were Norwich City vs Man City and Watford vs Arsenal. The reigning champions traveled to the newly-promoted side and were handed a shock 3-2 defeat while the Gunners threw away a 2-0 lead to draw 2-2 with the Hornets. Here are the standout stats.
Watford 2-2 Arsenal – Two awful figures from the Gunners’ disaster class
Arsenal showed on Sunday how not to defend a 2-0 lead. The Gunners went from controlling the game to coming away with a single point and feeling lucky it didn’t end in a defeat. Emery’s men could not stop Watford and ended up conceding 31 shots from the Hornets, which is an unwanted 16-year record.
31 - Arsenal faced 31 shots in their 2-2 draw against Watford, the most they have ever faced in a @premierleague fixture since Opta began collecting such data in the division in 2003-04. Barrage. pic.twitter.com/v6HET8uuEx
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) September 15, 2019
The equalizer courtesy of another penalty given away by David Luiz while the first was courtesy of an error from Sokratis. This means from last season, the north London giants have committed 14 errors in total leading to goals, two more than any other team in the league during that exact timeframe.
Norwich City 3-2 Man City – the feats achieved by the Canaries in their unforgettable win
This was another great example of David vs Goliath. No one expected Norwich City to beat the reigning champions of England but they did. As a result, Pukki and Co. became the first newly-promoted side to beat Guardiola in the league.
Speaking of the Finnish striker, Pukki joined a list of famous strikers who have scored six or more goals in their first five games in the English top-flight.
Teemu Pukki is the 6th player to score 6+ goals in his first 5 @premierleague appearances pic.twitter.com/NNDEYGdJNI
— Sky Sports Statto (@SkySportsStatto) September 14, 2019
Wolves 2-5 Chelsea – Tammy Abraham enters the history books
There is no hotter striker in the Premier League than Tammy Abraham at the moment. After scoring back-to-back braces against Norwich and Sheffield, the English youngster followed up on it with a hat-trick against Wolves, becoming the youngest player in the club’s history to pull off a three-goal haul. Abraham, who is 21, beat the record previously held by Hazard at 23.
Liverpool 3-1 Newcastle – Mane impressive Anfield run hits new milestone
Sadio Mane proved that he is one of Liverpool’s top men with his performance against Newcastle, scoring a brace to hand the Reds the lead after going 1-0 down to the Magpies. Salah would net their third goal but it was the Senegalese star who stole the show.
This means the former Southampton ace has now gone 50 games at Anfield without losing since joining the Merseyside giants. Some have stated that this is a Premier League record, but some have countered this by pointing out that Drogba went 80 games unbeaten at Stamford Bridge during his debut campaign.
Sadio Mane played his th PL game for @LFC at Anfield today and is still to be on the losing side
— Sky Sports Statto (@SkySportsStatto) September 14, 2019
His record:
wins
draws
goals
assists
goals in his last home PL apps#LIVNEW pic.twitter.com/Y0p0kIDmgK