Considering they didn’t kick a ball, it was a decent weekend for Liverpool with Arsenal and Manchester City dropping two points.
But is it Chelsea about whom Arne Slot should be most worried? They came from behind to win at Tottenham and move into second place in the Premier League table.
Here are five things our resident statto Andrew Beasley spotted from Matchweek 14 which can help with your future bets.
Fast and Furious Forest
There’s a strange sentence near the top of the Premier League page on FBRef: “Most Clean Sheets: Andre Onana (Manchester United) – 6.” That just feels wrong, doesn’t it? It seems crazier than Tottenham winning 4-0 at the Etihad.
Liverpool have more clean sheets than United, they’ve just spread them across three goalkeepers. Anyway, Morgan Gibbs-White’s goal on Saturday was given just a 3% likelihood of being scored by Opta, even after he’d put it on target. Onana’s blunder was an all-timer.
He’d already lost his clean sheet bonus by that point. It was no surprise, as Nottingham Forest have now scored first 12 times in 2024/25, more than any other club in the Premier League and only twice fewer than they managed in the entirety of last season.
Whether they’re facing ghost hands Onana or not, you can often bank on Forest getting the opening goal.
Fouly Joelinton
We saw something rarer than Onana dropping a clanger at Old Trafford this weekend. Ryan Yates was penalised for six fouls yet was not booked.
Hitting that mark without a yellow card has happened fewer than 50 times in the last decade. Joint-holder of the record is Newcastle’s Joelinton, who committed eight fouls against Brighton last year, without referee Rob Jones thinking he deserved a caution.
He didn’t reach that mark at Brentford on Saturday, but the Brazilian recorded the most fouls (three) of any player, and again escaped a booking.
Joelinton also leads the 2024/25 Premier League for matches in which a player has committed a foul, doing so in 14 of his 15 games. Yates, on 13, is close behind despite only starting 11 matches. Both men are always worth a look in the fouls markets, as they proved this weekend.
Balanced Brentford
Bryan Mbeumo and Yoane Wissa scored in the first half of Brentford’s 4-2 win over Newcastle, taking both men to nine league goals for the season. 2024/25 should become the first Premier League campaign in which the Bees have two players reach double figures.
Other clubs have players with bigger goal totals without the same level of support. Mohamed Salah is eight goals clear of Luis Diaz, while Erling Haaland has 13 with nobody else for Man City on more than three. At Forest, Chris Wood, on 10, has more goals than the rest of the squad combined.
This makes it easier when backing goal scorer bets on those teams. But it’s Brentford who have the most balanced attack this term.
Arsenal’s second half woes at the Cottage
It would not have been a shock if the match at Craven Cottage had been all square going into the break. Fulham and Arsenal were joint-top of the Premier League for trailing in the fewest matches at half time this season, on one apiece.
Raul Jimenez’s goal ensured Marco Silva’s side now stands alone in first place. As for the Gunners, they recovered to earn a point, and thought Bukayo Saka had won the game in the final minute…VAR had other ideas though.
A draw is more than Arsenal earned following their previous half time deficit, at Newcastle last month. And while they were behind at the break the fewest times last season (four), Mikel Arteta’s men didn’t win any of those games either.
Arsenal needed a 97th minute goal against Bournemouth almost two years ago to last win when losing at the interval. Bear that in mind next time the Gunners are down at half time.
Penalty king Anthony Taylor
Sunday’s action concluded in chaotic style as Chelsea won 4-3 at Tottenham. Spurs led 2-0, went 4-2 down, and almost equalised in the 97th minute.
The visitors became the third Premier League side in little over a week to have at least two penalties. Weirder still, all were away from home: Arsenal at West Ham and Bournemouth at Wolves experienced this too.
Anthony Taylor was the ref here, as he was at the London Stadium last weekend. Granted, the stupid challenges by Yves Bissouma and Pape Sarr gave him no choice but point to the spot. But, he has now awarded 0.54 penalties per match this season.
If you look for refs in the past 13 seasons with at least 16 matches, who gave more than one spot kick every other game, you find four examples. Half of them are Taylor, with last season and 2020/21 fitting the bill.
You should consider backing penalty takers to score any time the bald Mancunian is refereeing.
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