Hugo Ekitike
With Liverpool and Mohamed Salah showing to be transferring in numerous instructions – and Salah heading to hitch his Egypt team-mates for the Africa Cup of Nations subsequent week anyway – the Reds want different gamers to step up and fill the Salah-shaped gap within the scoring charts. In Hugo Ekitike, they could have discovered that man.
Ekitike is now Liverpool’s main Premier League scorer with 5 objectives, whereas in all competitions he additionally tops the charts with eight. On Saturday at Elland Street, the Frenchman scored the primary double of his Liverpool profession, and with the objectives coming within the forty eighth and fiftieth minutes, he was the primary Premier League participant to attain twice within the opening 5 minutes of the second half since Raheem Sterling in March 2019 for Manchester Metropolis towards Watford.
He led all gamers within the match for photographs (5), photographs on course (3) and touches within the opposition field (9) and his solely disappointment will need to have been the scoreline – he was the primary Liverpool participant to attain two objectives in a Premier League and never win since Salah final December in a 3-3 draw with Newcastle.
Rayan Cherki
Regardless of taking part in simply 398 minutes within the Premier League this season, no participant has extra assists than Manchester Metropolis’s Rayan Cherki (5), with two of these coming within the 3-0 victory over Sunderland.
Cherki created six possibilities in open play, the joint most by a participant in a Premier League sport this season, whereas at 22 years and 111 days on Saturday he was the second-youngest Manchester Metropolis participant to realize that in a Premier League sport, older solely than – possibly surprisingly – Mario Balotelli in February 2012 towards Blackburn Rovers.
Amongst gamers to play 300 minutes within the Premier League, no participant has created extra possibilities per 90 minutes than Cherki (3.4) and solely 4 have had extra touches within the opposition field per 90 minutes (7.7). The Frenchman is at present helping a objective, on common, each 80 minutes – additionally a league finest.
Bruno Guimaraes
Bruno Guimaraes has taken 10 corners within the Premier League this season and it’s clear which a type of was most memorable – his in-swinging supply on Saturday towards Burnley caught his former team-mate Martin Dubravka out to provide the Magpies the lead.
It was not the primary Premier League objective direct from a nook (or ‘Olympico objective’ because it’s identified) however it was Newcastle’s first ever nook to be put instantly into the opponent’s objective within the Premier League, to provide Guimaraes a slice of Magpies historical past. Given the time period Olympico objective originates from South America, it appears apt that 4 of the previous seven direct nook objectives have been scored by gamers from that continent – all, actually, from Brazil. These scorers are Matheus Pereira, Douglas Luiz, Matheus Cunha and Guimaraes.
Other than swinging corners instantly into the web, Guimaraes has been in wonderful current type – he now has 4 objectives and two assists throughout his previous 9 Premier League appearances, scoring 5 in whole this season. Solely in 2023-24 has he ever scored extra in a single season, netting seven occasions.
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