EPL

Premier League data dive: Kane continues scoring streak as Tottenham march on

By Sports Desk October 15, 2022

Harry Kane was on target again as Tottenham's fine start to the Premier League season continued with a 2-0 win over Everton on Saturday.

Kane's penalty just before the hour mark at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium means he has scored in each of his last five Premier League appearances for Antonio Conte's side – his longest ever scoring run in the competition.

Wolves edged past Nottingham Forest 1-0, while Fulham and Bournemouth drew 2-2 at Craven Cottage. Leicester City and Crystal Palace, meanwhile, drew 0-0 at the King Power Stadium.

Here, Stats Perform picks out the best facts from the day's Premier League action.

Tottenham 2-0 Everton: Lampard's men punished by Kane again

Tottenham got over the line against a dogged Everton side in the day's late game, meaning Conte's team have now taken 23 points from 10 league games. It is their highest points tally at this stage of a top-flight campaign since 1963-64 (24 points – considering three points for a win).

Kane's opener from the spot was his 14th Premier League goal against Everton, with Leicester the only team he has scored against more often (18).

The England captain has now scored 30 of the 34 penalties he has taken for Tottenham in the Premier League, becoming just the fourth player to score 30+ penalties for a single side in the competition after Frank Lampard (41 for Chelsea), Alan Shearer (37 for Newcastle) and Steven Gerrard (32 for Liverpool).

Everton, who conceded a late second to Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, have won just two of their 14 away Premier League games under Lampard (D3 L9), with two defeats at Tottenham (also 5-0 in March).

Wolves 1-0 Nottingham Forest: Hosts come out on top in penalty battle

It was a tale of two penalties at Molineux as Wolves edged out fellow strugglers Forest.

The hosts ended a run of 370 minutes without a Premier League goal thanks to Ruben Neves' second-half penalty kick – only Raul Jimenez (seven) has scored more goals from the penalty spot in English top-flight history than the Portuguese (six).

Brennan Johnson then squandered the chance to level from the spot, becoming the first Forest player to fail to score a penalty in the Premier League since Stuart Pearce against Coventry City in December 1994.

His attempt was saved by Jose Sa, who has now kept out each of the last two penalties he has faced in the Premier League, after conceding nine of the 10 previous spot-kicks he faced in the competition (one hit the post).

Fulham 2-2 Bournemouth: Mitrovic seals point for Cottagers

Fulham ended a run of 18 consecutive Premier League home defeats when conceding the first goal as they played out an entertaining draw against Bournemouth.

Dominic Solanke gave the visitors an early lead, taking his goal involvement to five goals (two goals, three assists) in his last five Premier League games. That already his best such tally for goal involvements in a single campaign in the competition.

Issa Diop pulled the hosts level, before Jefferson Lerma restored Bournemouth's advantage with a cool finish. However, Aleksandar Mitrovic the sealed a point for his side from the penalty spot.

The Serbia international has scored five of his seven Premier League goals this season in his five appearances at Craven Cottage – as many goals as he had scored in his previous 30 home games in the competition combined.

Leicester City 0-0 Crystal Palace: Bore draw keeps Foxes in trouble

A dismal goalless draw at the King Power Stadium means Leicester have only won five points from 10 games in the Premier League this season.

Accounting for three points per win all-time, only in 1983-84 have they had fewer points at this stage of a league campaign (two).

It was Palace's sixth goalless draw in the Premier League under Patrick Vieira. Indeed, they have played out more goalless draws than any other team in the competition since the start of last season.

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  • Title-chasing PSG ready for tough game at Lorient, says boss Luis Enrique Title-chasing PSG ready for tough game at Lorient, says boss Luis Enrique

    Paris Saint-Germain could secure their third straight Ligue 1 title if they defeat Lorient and Monaco fail to beat Lille – but Luis Enrique is not expecting his struggling opponents to hand them any favours.

    If Monaco draw or lose against Lille on Wednesday and PSG win away at 17th-placed Lorient, the Parisians would clinch their record 12th league title.

    Luis Enrique's side have an 11-point lead over second-placed Monaco with five matches remaining, and a far superior goal difference having lost just one game.

    "It's going to be a very difficult game," Enrique told reporters on Tuesday. "When you're at the bottom of the table, you don't have much to lose.

    "Generally, teams at the bottom of the table manage to get unexpected results at the end of the season.

    "There's a lot at stake. The possibility of being crowned champions is enough to make you pay attention."

    The former Barcelona boss, who moved to the French capital last July, is chasing a possible quadruple after PSG booked a Champions League semi-final berth and a spot in the Coupe de France final. PSG secured the Trophee des Champions title in January.

    "It motivates us but for the moment, we only have one title, we have to win the league and keep fighting to win it all. It's a long and winding road ahead," Luis Enrique said.

    Luis Enrique once again declined to comment on the future of Kylian Mbappe, Ligue 1's highest scorer for the last five seasons.

    France captain Mbappe, 25, has been heavily linked with a move to Spanish giants Real Madrid.

    PSG, formed in 1970 via the merger of Paris Football Club and Stade Saint-Germain, have won nine of the last 11 Ligue 1 titles.

    Mbappe's frustration lies with their performances in the Champions League, however, a trophy they have never lifted despite huge amounts of investment in the squad.

    "When Kylian speaks in public, I'll do the same," Luis Enrique said.

  • Enzo Maresca delighted as ‘fantastic’ Leicester move to brink of promotion Enzo Maresca delighted as ‘fantastic’ Leicester move to brink of promotion

    Enzo Maresca praised his Leicester players for the 5-0 thrashing of Southampton that put the Foxes a win away from clinching automatic promotion.

    Ghana winger Abdul Fatawu scored three of them, with Wilfred Ndidi and Jamie Vardy also on target.

    Leicester need only to win at Preston on Monday, or at home to Blackburn on the final day, to make sure they will finish ahead of at least one of Leeds or Ipswich. Indeed, if Leeds lose at QPR on Friday Leicester will be up before they take to the field again.

    Maresca, in his first season as City manager, said: “I don’t think that was the best performance of the season but the performance was fantastic, very good on and off the ball.

    “We could have been better on the ball but we are all very happy because the opposition are a fantastic team.

    “The good thing about tonight is that now we know that with one win we get promoted.

    “It was a good feeling at the end, the fans have been fantastic.”

    Fatawu, on loan from Sporting Lisbon, opened the scoring in the 25th minute when Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall played him through. The 20-year-old might have been offside but the flag stayed down. Southampton manager Russell Martin was also aggrieved that a challenge on Saints striker Che Adams by City defender Wout Faes was not given as a foul by referee Robert Madley.

    The second half belonged to Leicester though, with Ndidi charging in to head home a cross from Stephy Mavididi to double the lead.

    Fatawu struck again in the 75th minute when he accepted a pass from substitute Hamza Choudhury before smashing past goalkeeper Alex McCarthy.

    Fatawu set up Vardy for a well-taken fourth and completed the rout with an emphatic finish after the former England striker returned the favour.

    Maresca, however, joked: “I just said ‘next game you will be on the bench’ because with Abdul and young players especially, after three goals he is already thinking he is a top player.”

    Saints – famously beaten 9-0 by Leicester in the Premier League in 2019 – must now pick themselves up for the play-offs barring an extraordinary combination of results and scorelines.

    Martin made it clear he would not be doing that for them though, so disappointed was he with their capitulation.

    “The players need to show a bit of love for each other and pick each other up, I’m fed up of doing that,” he said.

    “They need to feel some pain – the same pain that I’m feeling right now.

    “Rolling over like that, it’s actually pathetic, losing 5-0. They have to rally round as a group and show some care for each other.

    “I did not like what I saw from my team one bit at 2-0 down. Self-preservation, our body language and people throwing their hands up in the air.

    “It surprised me actually. What can you do? I told them I didn’t like it.

    “I told them Che Adams is out of contract this summer and the one person who has the excuse if he didn’t really want to be all in and not work hard for his team, but he did that more than anyone. So it was inexcusable for anyone else not to do that.

    “The fans were amazing, they were still clapping at the end and deserved better than that.”

  • Grant McCann hails ‘outstanding’ response as Doncaster close on play-off spot Grant McCann hails ‘outstanding’ response as Doncaster close on play-off spot

    Grant McCann was a proud man after Doncaster won 4-1 at Colchester to register a 10th straight victory and move into the play-off places.

    Colchester took a ninth-minute lead through Jayden Fevrier, who converted Tom Hopper’s cross at the far post, but remain in relegation danger after Rovers’ emphatic comeback.

    Luke Molyneux equalised after collecting Jamie Sterry’s short free-kick and scoring with a low 25-yard shot and Doncaster took a 22nd-minute lead through Harrison Biggins, who netted from close range from Molyneux’s delivery.

    Tom Anderson netted a third in the 76th minute at the near post from Hakeeb Adelakun’s pass, and Joe Ironside sealed victory when he converted after Sam Hornby had tipped James Maxwell’s shot onto a post.

    A point on the final day against Gillingham will seal a play-off spot regardless of results elsewhere and McCann said: “I’m really proud.

    “Obviously conceding early wasn’t ideal for us but the response was outstanding.

    “We scored two very good goals, the first one from Mols (Molyneux) and the second one was another very good goal and something we knew could help us in the game, Biggo’s (Biggins) runs from the centre circle in between the posts after good play by Mols.

    “In the first half, we were a little bit edgy and it was a little bit even Steven in the game.

    “But in the second half, we were really comfortable and scored another couple of really good goals.

    “We always play for more goals; we never sit tight and take what we’ve got – that’s just the way we like to go about things.

    “We came up against a team that’s obviously down the wrong end of the table and we knew it was going to be tough.”

    Fevrier had Colchester on track to secure survival but they go into Saturday’s final game just three points above the drop zone, with their goal difference superior by four over Sutton.

    Colchester boss Danny Cowley said: “It was a tough night for us.

    “We have the ability to self-harm, to self-destruct, in a game where we let four terrible goals in.

    “For 75 minutes, it was 2-1 and they’ve had three shots at goal, two from 30 yards, and somehow they’re winning the game.

    “We were 2-1 down at half-time where we felt we shouldn’t have been, as we’d done a lot right.

    “We were in total ascendency and they don’t even want to score any more goals, they want to hang onto what they’ve got and we gift them another two goals.

    “I’ve just looked back at the goals and they’re very hard to defend.

    “We actually played well box to box but you can’t say you’ve played well when we’ve conceded the goals that we have.

    “It’s a damaging night and I’m really angry. We just did the basics so poorly.”

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