It was another exciting weekend of football matches with big results across Europe and elsewhere. Manchester City and Arsenal drew their respective matches, but Chelsea moved to second place on the Premier League table after a deserving 4-3 win over Tottenham.
Barcelona dropped points against Real Betis after a 2-2 draw while Real Madrid secured a 3-0 win over Girona. Atletico Madrid continued their winning run with a thrilling 4-3 win over Sevilla. In Serie A, Atalanta are on top after their 2-1 win over AC Milan. Meanwhile, Napoli suffered a 1-0 loss against Lazio.
In the Bundesliga, Bayern Munich are still on top with yet another win over Heidenheim.
ESPN's By The Numbers brings you the best of stats from weekend's football matches:
PREMIER LEAGUE
33 and 50
Since the start of last Premier League season, only Erling Haaland (40) has more goals than Cole Palmer (33). However, in that span, Palmer (50) has the most goal contributions in the league.
12
Palmer has scored all his 12 penalties in the Premier League, passing Yaya Toure for the joint-best 100% record in the competition.
Cole Palmer has been directly involved in 38 Premier League goals in 2024 (25 goals, 13 assists).
It's the most in a calendar year by a Chelsea player in competition history.
Incredible �� pic.twitter.com/0rLe3jvWmS
- ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) December 8, 2024
11
Tottenham's 4-2 loss against Chelsea was the 11th time they lost a Premier League game after having been 2+ goals ahead, which is at least four more than such defeats from any other side in the league's history.
37
Jamie Vardy became the second-oldest player to score and assist in a Premier League match (37y, 332d against Brighton), after Ryan Giggs in December 2011 (38y, 22d against Fulham).
15
Arsenal have scored 15 goals from corners in the Premier League in 2024, their joint-most in a calendar year in the league.
LALIGA
200
Real Madrid's Kylian Mbappe scored his 200th career goal in the match against Girona -- PSG: 175, Monaco: 16, Real Madrid: 9.
5
Jude Bellingham has scored in five consecutive league games in a single season for the first time in the top five European leagues.
1
Barcelona failed to win a LALIGA game for the first time this season when Lamine Yamal started.
36-year-old Robert Lewandowski is the leading goal scorer in all of Europe's top 5 leagues (16) �� pic.twitter.com/79FRVLAlfW
- ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) December 7, 2024
4
No team has dropped more points from winning positions than Barcelona in LaLiga since the start of November 2024 (4).
16
Barcelona's Robert Lewandowski became the first player to score 16 goals in his first 16 games of a LaLiga season since Lionel Messi did it in 2018/19 (also 16).
SERIE A
9
Atalanta's 9-game win streak in the league is tied for their longest in club history (9 in 2020).
15 and 16
Atalanta's Charles De Ketelaere is only one of the three players to have scored 15+ goals and provided 15+ assists (15G+16A) in 2024 in the five major European leagues in all competitions, alongside Mohamed Salah and Cole Palmer.
BUNDESLIGA
12
Jamal Musiala has scored 12 goals in 19 appearances in all competitions this season -- as many as he had scored in 38 appearances in the entire 2023-24 season.
LIGUE 1
100
Jonathan David has scored 100 goals in 206 games with Lille in all competitions.
MESSI - RONALDO WATCH
Messi, the MVP
Lionel Messi was named winner of the Landon Donovan MVP Award for the 2024 MLS season.
In 19 regular season MLS matches, Messi scored 20 goals and assisted 16 times.
What a season for the MLS MVP �� pic.twitter.com/TxkbMeTC3u
- ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) December 6, 2024
19
Cristiano Ronaldo's Al-Nassr lost a crucial match in the league against Karim Benzema's Al-Ittihad.
Ronaldo did score a goal for his team, which is his 19th in last 21 matches for club and country, including 8 goals in his last five games for club and country.
(Stats courtesy ESPN Stats & Information Group)