Opta's 14 most belting facts of the Premier League weekend (ft. Arsenal's ref woes)
This week's batch of beauties from @OptaJoe...
1. Leicester have won 1 of their last 18 league trips to Manchester United (D5 L12), claiming victory in January 1998 courtesy of a Tony Cottee winner.
2. Jose Mourinho has suffered 12 defeats in his last 23 league games as a manager – his previous 12 league losses came over a period of 110 games. Meanwhile, the Portuguese has only suffered 3 consecutive league defeats once before (at Chelsea between October-November 2015).
3. Bournemouth (vs Everton) have won just 2 of their last 13 Premier League matches (D2 L9), and during this run they’ve only scored more than a single goal once.
4.Liverpool (vs Hull) have lost just 1 of their last 14 Premier League games at Anfield (W7 D6) – a 0-1 defeat to Manchester United in January (the only home league match in which they've failed to score under Jurgen Klopp).
5. The Reds have lost just 1 of their last 39 Premier League home games against newly promoted sides (1-2 vs Blackpool in October 2010), winning 29 and drawing 9 of these matches.
6.Middlesbrough have lost only 1 of their last 11 home Premier League games against Tottenham (1-2 in April 2007) – but Spurs have won 22 of their last 24 Premier League games (D2) against newly promoted sides since losing 1-0 to QPR in April 2012.
7. Since the start of 2014/15, Harry Kane has missed just 4 Premier League games for Tottenham. They’ve failed to win any of them and scored just twice (D1 L3).
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8. Tony Pulis has won all 4 of his Premier League meetings against former side Stoke – 1 with Crystal Palace and 3 with West Brom.
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9.Sunderland (vs Crystal Palace) have made 14 changes to their starting XI in their opening 5 Premier League games of the season – more than any other side.
10. David Moyes hasn’t lost 3 consecutive home Premier League games as manager since September 2008, while in charge of Everton.
11.Manchester City’s Kelechi Iheanacho scored in both fixtures against Swansea last season, including City’s opener in this fixture. The Nigerian has scored 10 Premier League goals from just 14 shots on target.
12. Arsenal are winless in their last 9 Premier League meetings with Chelsea since a 5-3 win at Stamford Bridge in October 2011. Only against Liverpool have they had a longer such run in the competition (12 between 1994 and 2000).
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13. Arsenal are winless in their last 8 Premier League games with Michael Oliver as referee (D5 L3), while Chelsea are unbeaten in 13 with Oliver officiating (W7 D6).
14. West Ham (vs Southampton) have lost 3 consecutive Premier League games for the first time under Slaven Bilic – they’ve not lost 4 in a row since April 2014.
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Joe was the Deputy Editor at FourFourTwo until 2022, having risen through the FFT academy and been on the brand since 2013 in various capacities.
By weekend and frustrating midweek night he is a Leicester City fan, and in 2020 co-wrote the autobiography of former Foxes winger Matt Piper – subsequently listed for both the Telegraph and William Hill Sports Book of the Year awards.