Weekend numbers: Messi beats Ronaldo, Guardiola's worst ever start

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Gab Marcotti says Barcelona’s 5-2 thrashing of Mallorca was a true Barca performance.

Craig Burley explains why Leicester City have a realistic chance to win the Premier League title race.

Craig Burley thinks Pep Guardiola might have lingering doubts about staying for another rebuild at Manchester City.

Craig Burley is uncertain Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s ‘good week’ changes the long-term view at Old Trafford.

Gab Marcotti explains what went wrong for Juventus in their first defeat of the season at Lazio.

Craig Burley believes Arsenal need to look elsewhere for a manager who can end their struggles.

Gab Marcotti gives his take on Chelsea’s recent struggles and reveals why he expects things will turn around.

Pep Guardiola discusses the alleged racial gestures made during Man City’s Manchester derby defeat.

After a loss in the Manchester derby, Steve Nicol no longer feels Man City are Liverpool’s biggest challengers.

Another lovely weekend of football, another set of great footballing numbers to crunch through. Here are the best of the lot.

PREMIER LEAGUE

Everton looked a different team as they took apart Chelsea 3-1, Manchester United stunned City 2-1 in the derby and Jose Mourinho seems to have forgotten his trusty ol’ bus at Old Trafford – his free-scoring Spurs team smashed Burnley 5-0.

Meanwhile, Liverpool just keep on winning – they dismissed Bournemouth 3-0 away. The only team that looks like they can keep up? Leicester City, and a large part of that is due to that man who loves a party.

Jamie Vardy is just the second player in Premier League history to score in eight successive games on two separate occasions, after Ruud van Nistelrooy in January 2002 and August 2003.

Since Brendan Rodgers’ first game, Vardy has scored 25 Premier League goals – eight more than any other player in that time.

After their derby defeat, Manchester City are now 14 points behind league-leaders Liverpool; in English top-flight history, no side has ever gone on to win the title after being as many as 14 points behind the top side at the end of GW 16. Is this the end of Guardiola’s title challenge?

At 32 points, this is Pep Guardiola’s worst points return after the first 16 matches of a top-flight season in his managerial career.

Liverpool are now on a 33 game PL unbeaten streak (28-0-5 W-L-T), a club record. They have not lost since a 2-1 defeat Jan. 3 at Man City last season. Are Jurgen Klopp’s men going to be Invincible Mark II?

Everton made 37 tackles against Chelsea; the most they have made in a PL game since February 2014 (v Tottenham) and the most at Goodison Park since March 2007 (v Arsenal). Moral of the story? When big Duncan Ferguson tells you to put in a shift, you put in a shift.

Mohamed Salah marked his 100th PL appearance for Liverpool with his 63rd goal for the club. Only Alan Shearer (79), Ruud van Nistelrooy (68) and Sergio Aguero (64) scored more in their first 100 games in the competition than the Egyptian.

100

Meanwhile, in the mid-week action, Liverpool’s derby day destruction of Everton had been Jürgen Klopp’s 100th Premier League win in his 159th match in charge in the competition. Among all managers, only José Mourinho (142 matches) got to 100 wins in fewer games in the competition’s history. In case you were wondering, Sir Alex Ferguson is third, reaching 100 in 162.

LA LIGA

Another weekend, another round of wins for Real Madrid and Barcelona. After a promising start at the top of La Liga, it appears the big two are quietly marching away from the rest.

Real Betis are languishing in 11th after horrendous start to the season, but three consecutive wins have them feeling a bit more buoyant. What will help matters is just how good club legend Joaquin Sanchez has been. This weekend, Joqauin became the oldest player in La Liga history to record a hat-trick, at 38 years, 140 days old. Having not scored on in 532 previous league appearances, he took 20 minutes to complete the feat against Athletic Bilbao.

Barcelona slammed five past Mallorca, and one of those was assisted by Marc-André ter Stegen. He is the only goalkeeper to assist two goals in the top five European leagues this season.

The next bit of this may be meaningless taken out of context, but that doesn’t mean it is not funny — the German has more league assists this season than Eden Hazard, James Rodriguez, Isco, Koke, Joao Felix, and Saul.

Having been promoted back to the first division this season, Osasuna are trying their utmost to stay there. They have won more points from losing positions than any other side in the top five European leagues this season (14). Their come-from-behind 1-1 draw against Sevilla means they are a comfortable 10th on the table right now.

1700

Real Madrid are the first team to reach 1700 wins in La Liga history.

SERIE A

Inter and Roma played out a goalless draw (the first time this season that Antonio Conte’s men haven’t scored in a league game), AC Milan clambered back into the top half of the table with a 3-2 win over Bologna, and Napoli continued their miserable run with a 1-1 draw against Udinese.

The match of the weekend, though, was Lazio 3 – 1 Juventus.

Juventus, the last undefeated team in Europe’s top five leagues, have been beaten.

SCOTTISH LEAGUE CUP

Celtic beat Rangers in the Old Firm Derby to win their 4th consecutive Scottish League Cup and their 10th consecutive domestic trophy. Tenth. Why do the others even bother showing up now?

MESSI-RONALDO WATCH

Cristiano Ronaldo (finally!) scored from open play, but as mentioned earlier, that was not enough to protect their unbeaten streak. Lionel Messi, meanwhile, scored three absolute belters to ensure Barcelona romped home with the three points.

Messi is the only player to score 10+ goals in each of the last 14 seasons in the top five European leagues

Messi now has the most hat tricks in La Liga history (35); surpassing Cristiano Ronaldo (34)

This article was originally published by Espnfc.com. Read the original article here.