Premier League Week 26 in review

Welcome to our review of some of the leading stats and facts from the latest round of Premier League games in a week when three and 300 appeared to be the magic numbers.

Chelsea strengthened the strong hold on their title bid by completing a run of winning ten consecutive home games in the Premier League for the first time since their opening ten home games of the 2014-15 season.

It meant that Swansea City remained without a league win at Stamford Bridge since November 1925.

In the Swans’ 300th game in the top division, the star of the Blues’ show was Cesc Fabregas who became the first Spaniard to make 300 appearances in the Premier League.

Antonio Conte’s men now lead second-placed Tottenham Hotspur by ten points despite Harry Kane’s third hat-trick in all competitions so far in 2017.

He became the first player to score four hat-tricks for Spurs in the Premier League (Robbie Keane and Jermain Defoe both netted three threesomes) as they scored four goals in the first-half of a Premier League game for the first time since a 5-0 win against Newcastle United at White Hart Lane on 11 February 2012.

On the other hand, Stoke City conceded four goals in the first-half of a game since a 1-4 loss at Arsenal in the Premier League on 24 May 2009.

Following the controversial dismissal of Claudio Ranieri, Leicester City grabbed three vital points with three goals against Liverpool. The Foxes began the game in the bottom three. It was only the second time that the reigning Premier League champions have been in the relegation zone after Manchester United in the opening weeks of the 2007-08 season.

Incredibly, four of Liverpool’s five Premier League defeats so far in this season have come against teams who started the game in the bottom three.

With a crucial win against Middlesbrough that took them out of the bottom three for a couple of days, Crystal Palace ended a run of five consecutive home defeats; the longest such run by any team in the Premier League so far this season. In their 300th game in the Premier League, the Eagles avoided equalling a club record of six consecutive home league defeats.

While Romelu Lukaku stole the Goodison Park headlines by joining Duncan Ferguson as Everton’s joint-highest goalscorer in the Premier League (60 goals each), Leighton Baines became the fourth player to make 300 appearances in the competition for the Toffees after Tim Howard (354), Leon Osman (352) and David Unsworth (302).

Burnley continue to enjoy their trips across the Pennines to Hull as they secured only their second away point of the season. The Clarets remain unbeaten in six Premier League contests with the Tigers and have won ten of the last 14 meetings in all competitions.

City continued to show signs of progress under new manager Marco Silva though as they have now lost only one of their last 11 league and cup games at the KCOM Stadium.

After Josh King became the first AFC Bournemouth player to score a first-half goal against West Bromwich Albion in all competitions since current Cherries manager Eddie Howe in a 1-0 win in the FA Cup in January 1999, Albion recovered to secure their first league win against Bournemouth since January 1993 in League Division 2 when current Baggies boss Tony Pulis was in charge of the Cherries.

With André Ayew scoring the 100th goal in the Premier League during manager Slaven Bilic’s reign, West Ham United retained their record of never having lost consecutive league games against Watford.

Arsenal and Manchester City had a weekend break due to Manchester United and Southampton contesting the EFL Cup Final.

United secured their fifth Wembley win in the competition’s history whilst, at 35 years and 146 days, Zlatan Ibrahimović became the second-oldest scorer in a League Cup Final after Stoke City’s George Eastham in 1972 against Chelsea (aged 35 years and 162 days).

José Mourinho became the first-ever United manager to win a major trophy in his first season in charge. This was the fourth time he had won the League Cup; a joint-record for a manager along with Brian Clough and Sir Alex Ferguson. Having previously lifted the trophy with Chelsea, José also joined Joe Mercer (Aston Villa and Manchester City), Ron Atkinson (Sheffield Wednesday and Aston Villa) and George Graham (Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur) to win the trophy with different clubs.

Premier League Week 26 in review

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