Tottenham's win over Swansea statistically among most one-sided PL games ever
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Which of the weekend's matches can claim to be among the most one-sided in Premier League history? Just how bad is Jose Mourinho's decline? And what links Christian Benteke, John Spencer and Carlos Tevez? BBC Sport takes a look at these crucial questions, and more.
Shooooooooooooooot!
Poor Swansea.
One week they can't stop scoring, finding the net five times in a 5-4 win against Crystal Palace - one of the most entertaining games the Premier League has seen.
The next, they cannot muster a single shot on target in a 5-0 hammering at Tottenham.
In that game, Spurs had 15 shots on target to Swansea's zero. The Welsh side did not even muster a single corner.
Only once in Premier League history has there been a bigger gap between teams when it comes to shots on target, when Manchester City had 16 and West Brom none on 21 March 2015. Chelsea v Burnley in 2009 was also 15-0.
Spurs took their chances better than those other teams, ensuring a five-goal winning margin. City and Chelsea won their games 3-0.
Special once?
Jose Mourinho's aura is well and truly gone after a sorry end to his Chelsea reign, and a shaky start to his Manchester United one. He has won only nine of his past 30 Premier League games for both clubs - a 30% win ratio. His first 196 English league games, all as Chelsea boss, yielded 136 wins - a 69% return of success.
For those keeping track of Sir Alex Ferguson's successors at Old Trafford, Jose's 21 points after 14 games with United is worse than under David Moyes (22 points) and Louis van Gaal (25). To give Mourinho a tiny sliver of comfort, they are sixth, three places above where they were under Moyes.
Dons match the achievement of Jon Macken
BBC Sport doesn't do hyperbole, but if we did, this would have been called Comeback Sunday. Curzon Ashton blew a 3-0 lead going into the final 10 minutes, to lose 4-3 against AFC Wimbledon in the FA Cup second round.
At roughly the same time, Bournemouth came back from 2-0 down at half-time and 3-1 behind with 15 minutes to go to beat Liverpool 4-3, their first win over the Reds. Ever.
But neither of those games were record-breakers. The Dons' rally was the biggest FA Cup comeback since 2004, when Spurs led Manchester City, who had mild-mannered Joey Barton sent off, 3-0 at half-time in a fourth-round replay. But the 10 men matched Wimbledon's feat, going on to win 4-3. A sign of how times have changed since at City: Jon Macken scored the late winner.
However, cast your mind all the way back to a time before cars, TVs or cornflakes. It's 1879 and Darwen fight back from 5-1 down with 15 minutes left to hold Old Etonians 5-5. That signalled the start of an imminent change in the balance of power between the dominant amateurs of the south and the emerging professionals of the north. Obviously.
Now come back to the modern day. The Premier League has had four comebacks from 3-0 down, most recently Wolves 4-3 Leicester in 2003.
Saturday had its share of comebacks, too. Celtic came from 3-2 down to beat Motherwell 4-3 in the last minute of their Scottish Premiership clash, while Luton overturned a 2-0 deficit at the break to thrash Solihull 6-2 in the FA Cup.
Thanks to FA Cup Factfile's Phil Annets, external for the cup stats.
Are Leicester the worst defending champions ever?
Almost. The Foxes are having the second worst start of any English champions' title defence with 13 points from 14 games.
Ipswich are the only weaker champions. In 1962-63, they had 12 points from their opening 14 (if we convert to three points for a win). A comforting thought for Leicester is that the Suffolk side stayed up that season - they finished 17th, four places and two wins above the relegation zone.
But if you want a bad omen for the Foxes... the last champions to go down were Manchester City in 1936-37. Like Leicester, they were also first-time champions.
Carroll - decent with his head, but no JT
Andy Carroll scored West Ham's only goal in their 5-1 home thrashing by Arsenal on Saturday. That was his 44th Premier League goal, with exactly half of them coming from his head.
That takes him into the top-five Premier League players, in terms of the percentage of their goals coming from headers, above Peter Crouch (47/96). He's got some way to go to match John Terry's 67.5% though.
Christian joins the birthday club with Jimmy, Jay Jay and Teddy
Christian Benteke had a very happy birthday as he marked turning 26 with two goals in Crystal Palace's 3-0 win over Southampton.
He is not the top birthday goalscorer in the Premier League, however. Equal second with Benteke are Teddy Sheringham, John Spencer, Jay Jay Okocha and Santi Cazorla, all bagging braces on their big day. But Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Carlos Tevez went one better - scoring birthday hat-tricks.
Sheringham holds a special place in history as the only man to notch in the Premier League on two different birthdays, both for Spurs. He scored against Norwich on his 28th birthday and then netted twice the next year against Southampton.
Little change at the top
Chelsea have only made eight changes to their starting line-up in the Premier League this season from game to game, with Cesc Fabregas for Nemanja Matic on Saturday the latest. At this stage of a Premier League campaign, only Burnley have made fewer - back in 2010, when they made five changes in their opening 14 games. They went down. Chelsea won't.
On the other hand, Chelsea's opponents Manchester City have made more changes than anyone else this season - 46. That's only enough to put them joint 16th on the all-time list after 14 games. Arch-rivals United made 64 in 2001, and also rank second and third.
And finally...
Sergio Ramos' last-minute equaliser for Real Madrid in El Clasico against Barcelona on Saturday was his 75th career goal for club and country. That reportedly makes him the top-scoring defender still playing at the elite level.
But unless his career takes a dramatic turn for the better, he won't be breaking the all-time record. Everton boss Ronald Koeman, once of Barca, scored an unbelievable 253 goals for club and country, including an unpopular, external - in England - free-kick against the Three Lions for the Netherlands.
- Published4 December 2016
- Published4 December 2016
- Published4 December 2016