zicoball.

📊| the numbers.

[zicoball. @ZICOBALL]

🇫🇷 Before today, no team from Europe's top five leagues had returned fewer points than Metz (2), nor conceded more goals (26) in league action at this stage of the season.

Tonight? Clean sheet. RC Lens dispatched. 3.35xG & two goals to the good: 2-0.

[zicoball. @ZICOBALL]

Didier Drogba (29G in 32 #CFC) is the only player in Premier League history to feature at AFCON & win the PL Golden Boot outright in the same season. Monster.

Salah (+ shared with Son in 21/22), Mane & Auba split the Golden Boot in an AFCON year, but the comp was held in June.

[zicoball. @ZICOBALL]

Only two teams have fallen short of the 10.0xG mark in the Championship after ten games played: #Swans & #DCFC.

Coventry (23.1xG) & #SaintsFC (18.58xG) lead the way on the underlying data. Southampton have scored just 11 goals from their lofty xG total, a -7.58 underperformance.

[zicoball. @ZICOBALL]

Sunderland, currently sitting on 14 points from 8 games, have surpassed the points return of each of 2024/25's relegated trio at this stage of last season.

The 14 points earned by #SAFC is already more than Southampton (12) accumulated in 38 matches in 2024/25.

[zicoball. @ZICOBALL]

‘Own Goal’ is Fulham’s top goalscorer after seven PL games played.

#FFC is one of 13 clubs, out of 96 from Europe’s top five leagues, without one player who has scored more than one goal in their respective domestic campaigns. Winless #WWFC find themselves in the same boat.

[zicoball. @ZICOBALL]

Only #AFC (8.0) and #NUFC (8.86) have faced fewer shots per game than Manchester United this season.

Yet, #MUFC are currently conceding the most high-quality chances of all 20 teams in the Premier League in 2025/26, averaging 0.16xG per shot faced.

[zicoball. @ZICOBALL]

🇦🇷 After Fiorentina’s 1993 relegation, Gabriel Batistuta stayed, fired them back up, & ended the 1994/95 campaign as Serie A's leading marksman (26).

GB scored in each of the first 11 games; a Serie A record. Florence soon unveiled a bronze statue of Batigol in 1996.

[zicoball. @ZICOBALL]

🦉 Despite the ongoing circus led by Dejphon Chansiri behind the scenes in Sheffield, Barry Bannan continues to be #SWFC's creative spark at 35 years old.

No player in the Championship has registered more shot creating actions (41) than Sheffield Wednesday's captain.

[zicoball. @ZICOBALL]

🇮🇹 Mateo Retegui has registered nine goal involvements (5G/4A) in his last four Italy games.

The Al-Qadsiah striker is the first Italian to record a goal contribution in four consecutive games since Lorenzo Insigne's four assists on the bounce in 2020/21.

[zicoball. @ZICOBALL]

👐 There's a growing trend in England's top-flight: 14/20 Premier League teams average at least 1.0 long throws into the box per90 this season, with #BrentfordFC (4.86) leading the way.

In 2024/25, only six PL teams hit a 1.0+ long throws average after 38 games. In the mixer.

[zicoball. @ZICOBALL]

🇨🇻 Cape Verde have become the smallest African nation to ever qualify for the FIFA World Cup.

Today’s win over Eswatini sees the Blue Sharks finish above Cameroon in 2nd place, boasting 7/10 wins in qualifying. Punching.

[zicoball. @ZICOBALL]

🇩🇪 Harry Kane’s start to the Bundesliga season has been the most clinical opening six league fixtures in his entire career, outscoring a host of clubs across Europe:

⚽️ vs Frankfurt
⚽️⚽️ vs Bremen
⚽️⚽️⚽️ vs Hoffenheim
⚽️⚽️ vs HSV
⚽️⚽️⚽️ vs Stuttgart

Plus x4 in the #UCL.

[zicoball. @ZICOBALL]

Lorent Tolaj has accumulated 6.8xG after 11 L1 apps this season - the most of any player in the division. Not bad considering #PAFC’s stuttering start to 2025/26.

Mason Burstow, who leads L1 in goals scored (7) for #BWFC, doesn’t make the top five on the underlying data.

[zicoball. @ZICOBALL]

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Bukayo Saka's left peg, quickly becoming a national treasure, broke an 86-year record vs Wales. Saka became #AFC's all-time leading England goalscorer with 13 goals.

In net, Jordan Pickford's 8th consecutive England clean sheet surpassed Gordon Banks' total (7) from 1966.

[zicoball. @ZICOBALL]

🇸🇲 Austria's 10-0 win against San Marino was the eighth occasion where the visitors have conceded 10+ goals in a single match.

Currently ranked 210th of 210 nations in the FIFA World Rankings, San Marino have now conceded at least 5+ goals in 79 fixtures.

[zicoball. @ZICOBALL]

🎯| Chelsea’s 6-0 win against West Brom stands as the biggest opening day victory since the Premier League rebrand in 1992/93.

A Didier Drogba hat-trick set #CFC on their way to a second-placed finish in 2010/11, nine points behind #MUFC.

[zicoball. @ZICOBALL]

💰| How much did the big-hitters make from featuring in the #CWC this summer? The finalists both broke the $100m mark, with $1b being shared out in total:

$114.6m - #CFC
$106.9m - #PSG
$82.5m - #RealMadrid
$60.8m - Fluminense
$52.3m - #FCBayern
$52.3m - #BVB
$51.7m - #MCFC

[zicoball. @ZICOBALL]

2️⃣ | The last time Chelsea beat PSG?
The 2014 #UCL QF - goals from Schürrle & Demba Ba completed a second leg comeback win.

Speaking of Ba… João Pedro’s #CWC brace vs Fluminense made him the first #CFC debutant to score twice since Batshuayi (2016) & Demba Ba (2013). Impact.

[zicoball. @ZICOBALL]

⚡| Kevin Phillips scored 23 goals in 26 games in 1998/99 despite a broken toe curtailing momentum, as #SAFC stormed to the title with a record 105 points.

The following season? Phillips' 30 strikes won the PL Golden Boot, becoming the first ever English Golden Shoe winner.

[zicoball. @ZICOBALL]

🎯| New #WAFC loanee Paul Mullin hit 32 goals for #CamUTD in 2020/21 - the most in a L2 season since the 2004 rebrand, before swapping promotion for Wrexham that summer.

Remarkably, Mullin is still yet to start more than nine games in a single L1 campaign. Unfinished business.