Premier League 2018/19: Opta facts for players, teams, managers and the title contenders

Player facts

• Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang became the sixth Arsenal player to score 20+ goals in a Premier League season. No side has seen more different players achieve this (Liverpool and Man Utd also six).
• Bournemouth duo Ryan Fraser and Callum Wilson combined for 12 Premier League goals – only Alan Shearer and Chris Sutton (13 for Blackburn Rovers in 1994-95) have ever combined for more in a single campaign.
• Against Spurs in May, Bournemouth keeper Mark Travers became the first teenager goalkeeper to start a Premier League game since Joe Hart for Man City vs Sheffield United in October 2006.
• Bruno’s assist for Glenn Murray for Brighton against Wolves in October was the oldest combined assister to scorer combination in Premier League history (73y 57d).
• Eden Hazard scored his 100th goal in all competitions for Chelsea, the 10th player to do so for the club.
• Richarlison scored six Premier League goals in his first nine Premier League games for Everton, one more than he netted in 38 appearances for Watford in 2017-18.
• Aged 16 years and 30 days, Fulham’s Harvey Elliott became the youngest ever Premier League player when he appeared against Wolves in May, breaking the record previously held by Matthew Briggs, also of Fulham, in May 2007 (16y 68d).
• Jamie Vardy has scored the first Premier League goal under each of the last four permanent Leicester City managers – Claudio Ranieri, Craig Shakespeare, Claude Puel and Brendan Rodgers.
• Jamie Vardy scored his 100th goal for Leicester in all competitions, the seventh player to do so for the club and first since Gary Lineker.
• Paul Pogba reached double figures for league goals in a season for the first time in his top-flight career. He also registered more goal involvements (22) than he has in any previous campaign in the top five European leagues.
• Salomón Rondón has been involved in 44% of Newcastle United’s Premier League goals this season (11 goals, 7 assists), the highest percentage by a Magpies player since Alan Shearer in 2003-04 (50%).
• Harry Kane’s goal against Southampton in March was his 200th career goal for club and country.
• With a hat-trick against Leicester in January, Diogo Jota became the first Wolves player to scored 3+ goals in a top-flight match since John Richards in October 1977 – also against Leicester.
• Raúl Jiménez scored 13 Premier League goals for Wolves this season, the most by a player for the club in a single Premier League campaign (previous record was 12 by Steven Fletcher in 2010-11).
• All five of Diogo Jota’s Premier League assists have been for Wolves team-mate Raúl Jiménez, the most assists exclusively for one player in the history of the Premier League.

Team Facts

• Arsenal lost their opening two games to a Premier League season for the first time since 1992-93.
• Arsenal have now failed to finish in the top four of the top-flight in three consecutive seasons, their longest such run since a run of four campaigns between 1982-83 and 1985-86.
• Bournemouth picked up their two biggest away wins in the Premier League this season, beating Watford 4-0 in October and Brighton 5-0 in April.
• Brighton are the only team in Premier League history to have won 100% of their home games against Manchester United (2/2).
• When Brighton visited Cardiff in November, it became the 100th different fixture to have been played in all four tiers of English league football.
• Burnley conceded just 39 Premier League goals in 2017-18 – they’d reached that number in just 19 games this season.
• This was Burnley’s fifth season in the Premier League, but the first where they failed to beat the reigning champions.
• Chelsea suffered their biggest ever Premier League defeat at the hands of Man City in February 2019, losing 0-6 at the Etihad.
• Everton kept a home clean sheet against each of Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United, the first time that’s happened by a club in the top-flight since 1947-48, when both Manchester City and Blackpool achieved it.
• Between January and April, Fulham conceded at least twice in 13 consecutive Premier League games, a record for a team within a single top-flight campaign.
• Fulham lost all 10 of their London derby matches in 2018-19, becoming the first team to ever lose that many such games in a single top-flight campaign.
• Huddersfield scored just 10 home goals in the Premier League in 2018-19; no side has ever scored fewer at home in a single campaign in the competition (Man City also 10 in 2006-07).
• Huddersfield failed to score in a league-high 19 different Premier League games this season They’d also failed to score in a league-high 21 matches in the 2017-18 campaign.
• Huddersfield became the first team in top-flight history not to score more than once in a single home league game across a season.
• Huddersfield were officially relegated on March 30th, the second earliest in terms of date a team has been relegated from the Premier League (Derby County, March 29th 2008).
• Manchester United conceded 54 goals this season, their most ever in a single Premier League campaign and most in a league season since 1978-79 (63).
• Manchester United have kept just two home clean sheets in the Premier League this season – their fewest in a season since 1962-63.
• Manchester United ended the season on 66 points - 32 fewer than champions Manchester City - the most they've finished behind top spot since they gained promotion back to the first tier of English football back in 1975.
• Newcastle United lost 10 home Premier League games this season, their most in a league season since the 1988-89 campaign (also 10 defeats).
• Southampton became the 13th team in Premier League history to fail to win any of their opening seven home games of a season, but only the third to avoid relegation, along with Middlesbrough in 2000-01 and Portsmouth in 2005-06.
• Tottenham set a new Premier League record of going 28 games without a draw from the start of the season. Including last season, they were 32 games without a draw, also a Premier League record.
• Tottenham have finished in the top four of the Premier League for the fourth consecutive season – their best run of finishes in the top-flight since a run of five consecutive top four finishes between 1959-60 and 1963-64.
• Spurs were the first top-flight team to draw none of their away games in a season since Norwich City in the 1980-81 campaign.
• Watford won their first four matches in a top-flight season for the first time in their history.
• Watford are only the second team in Premier League history to win their first four games of a season but finish outside the top-seven, along with Charlton Athletic in 2005-06.
• West Ham lost their opening four Premier League games under Manuel Pellegrini – only the second time in their history they’ve lost their first league games in a season (also 2010-11).
• With their 1-0 victory in April, West Ham became the first visiting club to win at Tottenham Hotspur’s new stadium. The Hammers were also the first away side to win at Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium (1-0 in April 2007).
• Wolves earned 57 points in the Premier League this season, the most by a promoted club since Ipswich in 2000-01 (66).

Manager Facts

• Chelsea boss Maurizio Sarri remained unbeaten in his first 12 Premier League games, a new record for a manager at the start of his career in the competition.
• Crystal Palace manager Roy Hodgson became the oldest ever manager to take charge of a Premier League game. He was aged 71y 276d against Bournemouth on the final day (his most recent game).
• Ole Gunnar Solskjaer became the first Manchester United manager in history to win their first six league games in charge of the club.
• Against Burnley in December, Mauricio Pochettino won his 100th Premier League game as Tottenham manager, in his 169th game in charge of the club – 10 games fewer than it took Arsene Wenger to reach 100 league wins with Arsenal.

Miscellaneous Facts

• Southampton’s Shane Long scored the fastest goal in Premier League history, netting after just 7.69 seconds against Watford in April.
• In their game against Brighton in April, Wolves became the first team since 2003-04 to not commit a single foul in a Premier League match.
• The Premier League had three joint-highest scorers (Aubameyang, Mane, Salah) for the first time since the 1998-99 campaign (Yorke, Owen, Hasselbaink).
• There were more goals scored this season (1072) than there were in any previous 20-team Premier League campaign.
• 2018-19 saw the fewer draws (71) than any other Premier League campaign, while 2018-19 also saw the highest ratio of away wins than any other season in the competition 34%).
• Three African players scored 20+ goals in the Premier League this season – no previous campaign had seen more than one player from the continent reach that figure.
• The top two clubs earned 195 points combined this season – the most by the top-two clubs at the end of a top-flight season in history.

Champions - Manchester City

• Manchester City won their fourth Premier League title – only Manchester United (13) and Chelsea (5) have won more.
• Manchester City are the first team to retain the English top-flight title since Manchester United in 2008-09.
• Manchester City equalled their own record for the most wins in a single English top-flight league season (32), also winning 32 times last season.
• Manchester City earned 98 points – only the Citizens themselves (100 in 2017-18) have ever earned more in a single top-flight campaign.
• This was the eighth different time the Premier League title was decided on the final day of the season, with Manchester City winning it on three of those occasions (2011-12, 2013-14 and 2018-19).
• Manchester City have defeated every single team this season in the Premier League – only the second time it’s ever been done in consecutive top-flight campaigns after Preston in the first two seasons.
• Manchester City scored the opening goal in 34 different Premier League games this season, more than any other side in a single campaign in the history of the competition.
• Manchester City led for 2088 minutes – a record in a single Premier League campaign. They also trailed for just 132 minutes, fewer than any other side in a single season in the competition.
• Against Chelsea in the Community Shield in August, Sergio Aguero became the first player to score 200 goals in all competitions for Manchester City.
• Sergio Aguero scored his 150th Premier League goal for Man City this season, only the third player to have scored as many for a single club in the competition (after Wayne Rooney with Manchester United and Thierry Henry with Arsenal).
• Sergio Aguero scored 20 Premier League goals for the fifth consecutive season, only the second player to do so in the competition (after Thierry Henry between 2001-02 and 2005-06).
• Sergio Aguero scored three hat-tricks in the Premier League this season, taking his overall tally in the competition to 11 – no player has ever scored more in the competition (level with Alan Shearer).
• Raheem Sterling was involved in more Premier League goals than any other Englishman in the Premier League this season (17 goals, 10 assists).

Runners-up - Liverpool

• Liverpool’s haul of 97 points is the joint-third highest total a team has ever achieved in a single English top-flight campaign (converting to three points for a win), and the most for a team not the win the league.
• Liverpool lost just one Premier League game this season – only the fifth occasions of a side losing one or fewer across an entire English top-flight campaign (Preston 0 in 1888-89, Arsenal 1 in 1990-91, Arsenal 0 in 2003-04 and Chelsea 1 in 2004-05).
• Liverpool broke their own record for fewest top-flight defeats for a non title-winning team (2 in 2008-09, 1 in 2018-19).
• This was only the second time Liverpool won as many as 30 top-flight games in a single season, with the Reds also doing so in 1978-79.
• Liverpool were top of the Premier League for 141 days this season, more than any other side and more than they had been in any previous campaign in the competition.
• Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah each scored 22 Premier League goals this season, the fourth time a club has had two players score 20+ in a single campaign in the competition, and first since Liverpool themselves in 2013-14 (Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge).
• Trent Alexander-Arnold provided 12 assists in the Premier League this season, the most by a defender in a single season in the competition’s history.
• Alisson kept 21 Premier League clean sheets for Liverpool this season – only Petr Cech in 2004-05 (24) has kept more in a season among goalkeepers.
• Liverpool conceded just 22 Premier League goals in 2018-19, the fewest of any side; only Arsenal in 1998-99 (17) have conceded fewer without winning the title in a top-flight campaign.
• The last three occasions of a team topping the Premier League table on Christmas Day and failing to win the league have been Liverpool (2008-09, 2013-14 and 2018-19).
• Liverpool went the entire Premier League campaign unbeaten at home (W17 D2 L0) and extended their home unbeaten run to 40 matches – only Chelsea have had a longer unbeaten run in Premier League history (86 games between 2004 and 2008).

Follow Sporting Life on social media - find us on Facebook here or tweet @SportingLifeFC

Related football links

• Sporting Life's betting tips
• Inside the Premier League title race
• Play Super 6
• Latest football fixtures
• Football results
• Latest Paper Talk