The weekend's club football provided plenty of goals and controversy, with Brighton atop the Premier League table, while Manchester City got past Newcastle United with a narrow win. Manchester United were defeated by Tottenham Hotspur 2-0 and 10-man Liverpool got past Bournemouth. Chelsea suffered a 1-3 loss to West Ham to put a dampener on the excitement of their latest signings.
Meanwhile, Real Madrid continued their winning streak to top LaLiga, while Barcelona brought up their first win of this campaign against Cadiz.
The Bundesliga and Serie A had their opening weekends, with Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, Napoli, Inter and Juventus all beginning with victories. Over in France, PSG floundered with another draw, while AS Monaco won once more to top the table.
ESPN's By The Numbers has the best stats from the weekend:
Premier League
1
Brighton and Hove Albion topped the English top-flight table for the first time in their history, and become the 53rd different team to finish a day at the top of the table.
18
Newcastle's streak of 18 games without a win (0-2-16 W-D-L) at the Etihad is the worst in the league, with the club having failed to score in 10 of those games, including the last four.
3 and 1.81
This was only the third time Tottenham won and kept a clean sheet against Manchester United in the Premier League (twice in 2018 and once in 2016). Of course, they had some help from Man Utd, whose xG tally of 1.81 in the first half was the club's most without scoring in the last 15 Prem seasons.
187 and 10
Mo Salah (187) overtook Steven Gerrard (186) on Liverpool's all-time goalscorers list and is now in fifth in the charts. He has a long way to go to Billy Lidell in fourth place with 228 goals, and even longer to catch up with Ian Rush in first place with 346 goals. However, Salah is the first Liverpool player to either score or assist in 10 consecutive Premier League appearances at Anfield, and the first player to do this at home for any Prem team since Jamie Vardy in 2015.
140
Salah also became the 14th player in Premier League history to breach the 140-goal mark.
1
Alexis Mac Allister was send off for the first time in his career in Liverpool's win over Bournemouth.
19y
19-year-old Carney Chukwuemeka is the youngest player to score in the PL for Chelsea since Callum Hudson-Odoi in 2020.
19y
Aged 19 years and 49 days, Alejandro Garnacho is the youngest player to start Manchester United's first two Premier League games in two decades, with Ryan Giggs the youngest since 1992-93.
1
Enzo Fernandez's miss from the penalty spot for Chelsea in their 1-3 loss to West Ham was his first career PK miss in 6 attempts at club level (all comps). He had not taken a PK since May 2022 with River Plate. It was also the first PK miss by a Chelsea player since Jorginho in April 2022.... also vs West Ham.
LaLiga
1793
Real Madrid (1793) are now just 7 games away from reaching 1800 LaLiga wins in the club's history.
28
Vinicius Jr. went level (14G, 14 A) with Karim Benzema (23G, 5A) for the most goal-contributions (28) in Europe's Top 5 Leagues this calendar year, only behind Erling Haaland with 33 (27G, 6A)
2
Jude Bellingham is the first Real Madrid player to score in the team's first two games of a LaLiga season in his debut season with the club since Cristiano Ronaldo in 2009-10. Madrid's new signing also became the youngest Englishman to score multiple goals in a LaLiga game.
154
This was Carlo Ancelotti's 154th LaLiga game in charge of Real Madrid, overtaking Vicente del Bosque (153) for 3rd-most in club history. Only Miguel Munoz (424) and Zinedine Zidane (183) have managed Madrid for longer.
172 and 32 and 21
It took Barcelona 172 minutes, 32 shots (12 on target) and 21 chances created to score their first goal of this LaLiga season.
6
Only three U-28 players have scored more game-winning goals in Europe's Top 5 Leagues than Barcelona's Pedri (6), since he made his debut in the 2020-21. (Arnaud Kalimuendo 8, Bukayo Saka and Mason Greenwood 7)
5
Atlético Madrid only attempted 5 shots in their 0-0 draw against Real Betis, which was the club's third-fewest in a match in the last 5 seasons. Only vs Real Madrid (4 in 2020) and Athletic Club (3 in 2022) did they have fewer shots. The goalless draw also happened to be their first in any competition since Oct 12, 2022 (UCL at home vs Brugge).
50
Christian Stuani scored his 50th goal in LaLiga with Girona and 92th overall. No other player has more than 20 goals with Girona.
64
Inaki Williams scored his 64th LaLiga goal for Athletic Club, tying Raul García for the most by any player in the current squad.
Serie A
23
With his two goals on Saturday, Victor Osimhen went level with Karim Benzema for the second-most goals scored in 2023 in all competitions among players from Europe's top 5 leagues (Erling Haaland has 27).
3
Juventus began their Serie A season with three goals in the first half against Udinese - the last time they had done so was in the 2001-02 season against Venezia (4-0).
200
Ciro Immobile brought up his 200th goal in Europe's Top 5 leagues, also scoring his 100th away goal in these leagues.
1
At the other end of the scoring spectrum, Andrea Belotti scored his first Serie A goal for AS Roma, after going 34 games without a goal in the league. He last scored a league goal for Torino in May 2022.
Bundesliga
28
Bayern Munich extended their unbeaten streak vs Werder Bremen in the Bundesliga to 28 games, which is the Bundesliga's record streak by a team vs a single opponent; Werder Bremen last defeated Bayern on Sept. 20, 2008 (5-2).
1G, 1A
Harry Kane scored and assisted on his Bundesliga debut for Bayern Munich. He had only done so once in the Prem in all of last season for Spurs, against Leicester in September 2022.
1
Kevin Behrens is the first Union Berlin player to ever score a hat-trick in their first league match of the season. Behrens is also the first player to score a hat-trick in Bundesliga's season opener since Serge Gnabry (Bayern Munich) and Andrej Kramaric (Hoffenheim) in the 2020/2021 season. Since 2010, only Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich) in 16/17 and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Borussia Dortmund) have done this before.
4
Dani Olmo is the first player to score four consecutive goals for RB Leipzig in all competitions since Timo Werner did so in October/November 2018. The Spaniard has 4 goals in 2 games (123 minutes so far) this season, having scored 5 goals in 31 games played last season in all competitions.
4-4
Augsburg vs Borussia Monchengladbach is the first Bundesliga match to end 4-4 since Dec. 2017 (Hannover vs Leverkusen)
10
Donyell Malen went level with Randal Kolo Muani for the most Bundesliga goals (10) in the 2023 calendar year.
0
Ludovic Ajorque failed to convert two penalties in the same game for Mainz and became the first player in Bundesliga history to do so.
Ligue 1
1
This is the first time PSG started a Ligue 1 season without a win in their first two games since 2013-14 . However, they still won the title that season, finishing 9 points ahead of Monaco.
4
Kylian Mbappe scored from the spot in four consecutive games for club and country for the first time in his career.
22
AS Monaco's Caio Henrique went level with Neymar and Vinicius Jr. as the Brazilian's with the most assists (22) in Europe's Top 5 leagues since the 2021-22 season.
Messi-Ronaldo Watch
Contrasting fortunes for the game's two greats, with Lionel Messi lifting his first trophy with Inter Miami as they defeated Nashville SC on penalties to win the Leagues Cup. Cristiano Ronaldo, however, saw his Al Nassr side defeated by Al Taawoun as they started the 2023-24 Saudi Pro League season on a less than stellar note.
44 or 42
Lionel Messi is now the most decorated player in the game's history, overtaking former Barcelona teammate Dani Alves with his 42nd senior career trophy. (Messi still remains the most decorated player of all time if you consider his youth trophies - the 2005 U20 World Cup and the 2008 Olympic Gold).
7 or 22
This is Messi's best club form since the 2017-18 season with Barcelona, scoring in his last seven games. It is tied for his 5th longest club career scoring streak. This is also Inter Miami's best scoring form, with the club scoring 22 goals in 7 games since Messi's arrival, having scored 22 goals in 22 games prior to that.
10
Messi is already Inter Miami's third-highest scorer of all time (10), behind Leonardo Campana (16) and Gonzalo Higuain (29)
0
With Al Nassr starting 0-0-2 (W-D-L) this season in the Saudi Pro League, Cristiano Ronaldo's teams have lost each of their first 2 games in a league season for the second consecutive season (Man United lost first 2 PL games of 2022-23). Before 2022-23, Cristiano Ronaldo's club teams had never started a league season with consecutive losses.
(Stats courtesy: ESPN Stats and Information Group)