Stat, Viz, Quiz is the Opta Analyst football newsletter. This week’s edition looks at David Moyes, Ederson, and home form.
When David Moyes departed West Ham last year, he was left an agonising three games short of having managed 700 Premier League games in his career.
However, now back at Everton, he has been able to reach that landmark – only the third man to do so – and we’ll be looking at the Scottish coach’s seven centuries of top-flight games.
Manchester City surprised many, especially Chelsea, with their long passes on Saturday. It worked a treat, with Ederson particularly useful with his distribution. The Brazilian goalkeeper equalled an assist record in City’s 3-1 win, and we’ll analyse his useful creativity.
We’ve also been alerted to a frankly remarkable statistical anomaly in Germany thanks to this week’s Ask Opta question, while once again, it’s quiz time.
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STAT – Moyes Makes it to 700
Any cricket fans out there will know there’s almost nothing worse for a batsman than being dismissed on 90-99 runs. The agony of coming so close to a century only to fall before you can raise your bat to the crowd and utter a snide remark to the bowler is almost unrivalled.
Of course, the difference between adding 99 and 100 to your team’s total is minimal (just one run, in fact) but it feels like a chasm to the batter.
That may have been how David Moyes felt when he left West Ham in May 2024 having managed 697 games as a Premier League boss. It must be said it was reported as a mutual agreement, with Moyes stating it was “the right decision for both parties”, but on some level there must have been some personal annoyance that he was left so near, yet so far.
That said, it didn’t end up being that far. Moyes must have been eager to get back into another top-flight gig, and that opportunity came with a second spell at Everton, whom he managed in his first Premier League game all the way back in March 2002 against Fulham.
Saturday’s trip to Brighton was his third game back at the Toffees, meaning he had done it. A nice, round 700 Premier League games as a manager, and in fitting fashion, Everton ran out 1-0 winners thanks to Iliman Ndiaye’s penalty.
The Senegalese attacker was subsequently booked for his celebration when he was judged to be inciting the home fans. We’re pretty sure Moyes didn’t envisage his 700th game featuring a player getting a yellow card for pretending to be a seagull, but there we are.
Having also had previous spells at Everton, Manchester United, Sunderland and West Ham (twice), Moyes becomes the third person to reach the landmark, after Arsène Wenger (828 games) and Sir Alex Ferguson (810).
Saturday’s victory on the south coast was Moyes’ 271st, having drawn 182 and lost 247. In fact, he’s not far from another landmark. He needs just another five points to record 1,000 in the Premier League.
Whether he can stick around for another 111 games to overtake Ferguson or 129 to leapfrog Wenger and take the record remains to be seen, but having signed on at Everton until the end of the 2026-27 season, in theory he should have at least another 95 games to come.
Here’s to however many more times Moyes takes to a Premier League dugout, and any further bird impressions his players wish to make.
VIZ – Ederson the Quarterback
Say what you want about Pep Guardiola, but no-one can deny he has played as big a part as anyone in shaping how we view modern football. The Spaniard recently pointed out himself that when he arrived in the Premier League, hardly any teams played out from the back. Now practically all of them do.
With Manchester City struggling in recent months, though, Guardiola needed a solution, and he might have found one… in going long.
It would be a stretch to suggest he’s gone ‘full Stoke City’, but we saw City attempt 53 long passes – a pass with a length of at least 32 metres – against Chelsea on Saturday. That made up 9.4% of their overall passes in the game (567), the highest percentage of passes that were long for City in any Premier League game this season, the next highest being 8.8% in their 2-1 home defeat to Manchester United in December.
It wasn’t so much the volume of long balls, though. It was their effectiveness.
After falling 1-0 behind to Noni Madueke’s early tap-in, City dusted themselves off to win 3-1, with all three goals involving a long pass.
Two came from the feet of goalkeeper Ederson, who found Erling Haaland with a long ball that eventually saw the Norwegian lob Chelsea stopper Robert Sánchez to put the hosts ahead. He also played a ball to the halfway line that was flicked on by Kevin De Bruyne, before Haaland fed Phil Foden to race through and make it 3-1 late on.
His assist for Haaland was the most notable stat of the game for Ederson, though, as it was his fifth in the Premier League since arriving in 2017. Only Paul Robinson has made as many in the competition’s history as a goalkeeper.
In 265 Premier League games for Man City, Ederson has five assists from 10 chances created, an impressive 50% success rate.
He’s just 157 assists behind Premier League record holder Ryan Giggs now, and 113 behind second-placed De Bruyne.
With De Bruyne’s contract up at the end of the season and his future in doubt, along with Guardiola’s past jokes about Ederson being good enough to play outfield… he couldn’t, could he?
Well, no, but then again if anyone would be willing to experiment in such a way, it’s him.
For now, teams will need to be alert at the back whenever Ederson has the ball at his feet. Guardiola seems happy for his goalkeeper to play the role of quarterback even more now. Appropriate given we’re less than two weeks away from the Super Bowl.
QUIZ – Blimey Bournemouth, Isak’s Travels, and Young Gunners
Prepare that big juicy brain of yours to tackle these five posers related to the weekend’s action in the Premier League. Answers at the bottom of the page.
1. After Bournemouth’s impressive 5-0 thrashing of Nottingham Forest, how many Premier League games have the Cherries now gone unbeaten in their current run? It is their longest ever run in the competition’s history.
2. Liverpool forward Cody Gakpo became the first ever Dutch player to score in six successive home starts in the Premier League. Which two Netherlands strikers did he surpass, who both had streaks of five games?
3. Alexander Isak became the first Newcastle United player to score in five consecutive Premier League away appearances, overtaking whose previous club record of four in December 1993? Clue: It wasn’t Andy Cole.
4. In Myles Lewis-Skelly (18) and Ethan Nwaneri (17), Arsenal had two English players aged 18 and under start a Premier League match for the first time since February 1998. Can you name either youngster who started for the Gunners in that game against Crystal Palace 27 years ago?
5. Jacob Ramsey’s opener against West Ham after 7 minutes and 20 seconds was Aston Villa’s fastest Premier League goal since August, in the reverse fixture against the Hammers. Who scored that goal on the opening matchday of the season at the London Stadium after just 3 mins, 29 secs.
Ask Opta
This week’s question comes from Matt P, who asks: “I saw something about a team in Germany being top of the league even though they haven’t won any home games this season. What’s the worst home record a team winning the league in England has had?”
Do you have a stats-based football question you want to Ask Opta? If so, send it to [email protected] and we’ll do our best to provide you with the answer in a future edition of SVQ.
Answer:
We assume you’re talking about FC Magdeburg, who briefly went top of Bundesliga Zwei (the German second tier) on Friday night after a 1-1 home draw against Eintracht Braunschweig. That made it nine home games without a win this season (D7 L2), the worst home record in the division despite sitting top of the overall table.
That’s because of a very strong away record, with Magdeburg winning eight of their 10 road trips (D1 L1).
They didn’t stay top for long, with victories for both Hamburg and FC Köln seeing Magdeburg drop to third by the end of Matchday 19, but it’s still impressive considering they’re yet to win in front of their own fans this season.
As for your question Matt, in the history of English football the worst home record for a team that went on to finish top of the league in terms of win percentage was Everton all the way back in 1914-15. They claimed the First Division title that year despite only having a win percentage of 42.1% at Goodison Park (W8 D5 L6).
However, looking at points per game (recalculating for three points for a win), Doncaster Rovers won the 2012-13 League One title despite only winning 10 of their 23 games at the Keepmoat Stadium (D5 L8), averaging just 1.52 points per game. Amazingly, 11 teams had better home records than the eventual champions in the division that season. Doncaster won 35 points at home, but their 49 points won away helped them seal the title, finishing above Brentford, Bournemouth and Sheffield United among others.
Interestingly, that same season, Gillingham won League Two despite only averaging 1.78 PPG at home (P23 W12 D5 L6), the sixth lowest for a title winner.
Purely for statistical quirkiness, we would quite like to see Magdeburg lifting the title on their home ground this season having not actually won there all campaign.
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Quiz Answers
1. After Bournemouth’s impressive 5-0 thrashing of Nottingham Forest, how many Premier League games have the Cherries now gone unbeaten in their current run? It is their longest ever run in the competition’s history.
11 games (W7 D4)
2. Liverpool forward Cody Gakpo became the first ever Dutch player to score in six successive home starts in the Premier League. Which two Netherlands strikers did he surpass, who both had streaks of five games?
Ruud van Nistelrooy and Robin van Persie
3. Alexander Isak became the first Newcastle United player to score in five consecutive Premier League away appearances, overtaking whose previous club record of four in December 1993? Clue: It wasn’t Andy Cole.
Peter Beardsley
4. In Myles Lewis-Skelly (18) and Ethan Nwaneri (17), Arsenal had two English players aged 18 and under start a Premier League match for the first time since February 1998. Can you name either youngster who started for the Gunners in that game against Crystal Palace 27 years ago?
Paolo Vernazza and Matt Upson
5. Jacob Ramsey’s opener against West Ham after 7 minutes and 20 seconds was Aston Villa’s fastest Premier League goal since August, in the reverse fixture against the Hammers. Who scored that goal on the opening matchday of the season at the London Stadium after just 3 mins, 29 secs.
Amadou Onana
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