{"id":615,"date":"2020-09-12T23:40:06","date_gmt":"2020-09-12T23:40:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/footballvoyage.com\/by-the-numbers-best-stats-from-1st-day-of-the-premier-league-season\/"},"modified":"2020-09-12T23:40:06","modified_gmt":"2020-09-12T23:40:06","slug":"by-the-numbers-best-stats-from-1st-day-of-the-premier-league-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/footballvoyage.com\/?p=615","title":{"rendered":"By the numbers: Best stats from 1st day of the Premier League season"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The new Premier League season kicked off with a bang Saturday, as Liverpool’s exhilarating 4-3 win over returnees Leeds United highlighted the opening day of the 2020-21 campaign. Courtesy of stats from Opta and Squawka, we examine some of the most outstanding numbers from the day’s quartet of fixtures.<\/em><\/p>\n

1<\/strong> – Arsenal raised the curtain on the season with a 3-0 win over Fulham. By opening the scoring at Craven Cottage, striker Alexandre Lacazette became the only player to record the first goal of a Premier League campaign on more than one occasion. The Frenchman also accomplished the feat in 2017-18.<\/p>\n

2<\/strong> – Willian was the standout performer in the Gunners’ win, setting up a pair of goals on his Arsenal debut. That’s the same number of Premier League assists as Mesut Ozil delivered all of last season.<\/p>\n

3<\/strong> – Mohamed Salah became the first Liverpool player to score a hat-trick on the opening day of a Premier League season, securing his treble with an 88th-minute penalty that clinched all three points for the reigning champions.<\/p>\n

4<\/strong> – Salah has now scored on the opening day of four straight seasons, too, joining Teddy Sheringham as the only players who can make such a claim.<\/p>\n

5<\/strong> – Liverpool and Leeds combined for five goals in the opening 33 minutes of Saturday’s thrilling tilt, making it the first opening-weekend match to feature five or more tallies in the first half since 2006.<\/p>\n

Shaun Botterill \/ Getty Images Sport \/ Getty<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

8<\/strong> – Callum Wilson made an immediate impact in his first match for Newcastle, scoring the opener in the Magpies’ eventual 2-0 win over West Ham United. The Englishman now has eight goals in nine league matches versus the Hammers, which is more than he’s scored against any other Premier League opponent.<\/p>\n

10<\/strong> – Virgil van Dijk had a mixed day – an uncharacteristic error led to a Patrick Bamford goal – but the towering Dutchman did get on the scoresheet with a typically emphatic header. He’s now scored 10 goals since joining the Reds, more than any other center-back in the league over that span.<\/p>\n

11<\/strong> – Grim reading for Fulham fans on this one. In top-flight action, the Cottagers have now lost their last 11 London derbies. Their next chance to end that horrid run comes next month against Crystal Palace.<\/p>\n

35<\/strong> – Liverpool have won each of their last 35 league matches when Salah scores a goal. The recipe is pretty simple for Jurgen Klopp, then.<\/p>\n

60<\/strong> – Saturday’s victory means Liverpool are now unbeaten in 60 consecutive Premier League matches at Anfield. What a fortress.<\/p>\n

120<\/strong> – Who needs possession? Crystal Palace only completed 120 passes en route to claiming a 1-0 win over Southampton. The Saints had just over 70% of the ball but couldn’t find a way past Vicente Guaita.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The new Premier League season kicked off with a bang Saturday, as Liverpool’s exhilarating 4-3 win over returnees Leeds United highlighted the opening day of the 2020-21 campaign. Courtesy of stats from Opta and Squawka, we examine some of the most outstanding numbers from the day’s quartet of fixtures. 1 – Arsenal raised the curtain […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":616,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-615","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-premier-league"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/footballvoyage.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/footballvoyage.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/footballvoyage.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/footballvoyage.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/footballvoyage.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=615"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/footballvoyage.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/footballvoyage.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/footballvoyage.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/footballvoyage.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/footballvoyage.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}