Premier League 2018/19: 5 interesting stats from gameweek 1
The Premier League is back with a bang! Reigning champions Manchester City got off to a perfect start with a 2-0 victory against Unai Emery's Arsenal at the Emirates. In fact, rest of the top six: Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester United and Tottenham, all secured an opening day victory.
On the other hand, the newly promoted teams did not get off to the best of starts as only Wolves managed to secure a point as Cardiff City and Fulham were comfortably beaten.
There were some standout players from the first gameweek with the likes of Sadio Mane, Richarlison and Ruben Neves firing on all cylinders. Big spending Liverpool emerged as the table toppers at the end of the first week with a 4-0 drubbing of West Ham United.
As gameweek 2 approaches, we look back at some of the interesting stats which you may have missed during gameweek 1:
#1 Sterling reaches the half-century mark
Raheem Sterling became just the 11th player in the history of the Premier League to score 50 goals before turning 24. The most amazing thing about this feat is the fact that Sterling has scored 26 goals in just 65 matches since Pep Guardiola took over at Manchester City.
To put it into context, the England international scored his first 24 goals in 128 games; highlighting a remarkable improvement under the tutelage of Guardiola.
The other players on this list include: Emile Heskey (52), Robbie Keane (52), Andy Cole (56), Chris Sutton (58), Harry Kane (66), Romelu Lukaku (77), Cristiano Ronaldo (77), Wayne Rooney (86), Robbie Fowler (106) and Michael Owen (110).
#2 Opening day blues? Not for Manchester City
Manchester City won their 8th consecutive opening fixture when they beat Arsenal 2-0 at the Emirates, a run that started way back in 2011.
Their run is 2nd on the list of most successive wins in the 1st match of the season, just behind Chelsea who lead the charts with 9 successive opening day wins (2002-2010), a streak that ended in the 2010/11 season as they were held to a goalless draw by Stoke City.
After comfortably pushing aside Arsenal, Manchester City also broke the jinx of defending champions losing their season openers for past two years (Leicester City were beaten 2-1 by Hull City in 2016 while Chelsea lost 3-2 to Burnley in 2017).