Stat, Viz, Quiz is the Opta Analyst football newsletter. This week’s edition looks at Crystal Palace’s historic FA Cup win, a pair of busy Bees, and woodwork strikers.
Some argue that modern football can be too predictable. However, if you’d said at the start of the 2024-25 season that Liverpool would win the Premier League, Newcastle United would win the League Cup and Crystal Palace would lift the FA Cup, you would likely have been met with a quizzical eyebrow or perhaps light mockery.
Liverpool’s second league title in 35 years was one thing, Newcastle’s first major trophy in 70 years was another, but Palace winning the first major trophy of their 119-year existence was something else entirely, so we’ll be looking at some of the more interesting stats from their historic win at Wembley.
It was, though, a bad weekend for Brentford, whose hopes of European qualification took more than one blow. Yoane Wissa and Bryan Mbeumo combined for another goal in their 3-2 loss to Fulham, though, and we’ll look at their proficient partnership this season.
Our Ask Opta question this week queries woodwork strikes, while our quiz poses five brain-teasing questions about the upcoming Europa League final.
What more could a football fan with a few minutes to read a newsletter ask for?
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The neutrals all wanted it to happen, which we suppose means they weren’t neutral at all, but regardless, it happened.
Crystal Palace overcame Manchester City 1-0 in the FA Cup final to win their first ever major trophy. They became the first English club to win their first major title since Wigan Athletic in the 2012-13 FA Cup, who also beat Man City 1-0 in the final.
Eberechi Eze volleyed in Daniel Muñoz’s cross in the 16th minute at Wembley Stadium on Saturday, which turned out to be the only goal of the game on a famous and emotional day for the south-London club. Eze became the first player to score in five consecutive appearances for Palace since Darren Ambrose scored in six games in a row in 2009.
Man City had 76.7% possession, the most on Opta’s records (from 2014) in an FA Cup final. In fact, Rúben Dias completed more passes by himself (129) than Palace did in total (126), not that it mattered in the slightest.
Oliver Glasner’s men perhaps rode their luck somewhat when goalkeeper Dean Henderson stayed on the pitch despite what appeared to be a deliberate handball outside his penalty area to stop Erling Haaland from getting past him. In fairness, Palace would argue things were evened up when a penalty was awarded against them for a foul by Tyrick Mitchell on Bernardo Silva, despite replays seemingly showing the left-back getting the ball first.
Henderson saved the resulting kick from Omar Marmoush anyway, with Palace ultimately holding on for a famous win.
That penalty was one of City’s 23 shots in the game, which is the most on record by a side that failed to score in an FA Cup final.
Palace become the 45th different team to win the men’s FA Cup, and the most recent first-time winners since Leicester City secured their first in 2021.
As well as the joy of a trophy success, the win means Crystal Palace will play in major European competition for the first time ever, taking their place in next season’s UEFA Europa League.
It’s a testament to the work undertaken at Selhurst Park in recent years to put together a squad capable of delivering a trophy, especially when you consider the sale of star man Michael Olise last summer to Bayern Munich. Olise has thrived in Germany, becoming only the second player on record (since 2004-05) to both score and assist at least 12 goals in his debut Bundesliga season (12G 15A). To lose a player of that calibre and immediately deliver a trophy anyway is remarkable.
Saturday will live long in the memories of Crystal Palace fans, but could it just be the start as the Eagles look to soar even higher?
VIZ – Wissa and Mbeumo: Busy Bees
From Eagles to Bees, but these flyers had a far less enjoyable weekend.
Brentford came from a goal down to lead Fulham 2-1 at the Gtech Community Stadium on Sunday, only to slump to a 3-2 defeat. It will have particularly hurt them knowing that a win would have almost guaranteed eighth spot in the Premier League.
For a while, it seemed like eighth would likely lead to European football via a UEFA Conference League spot, but after Crystal Palace won the FA Cup, the only way Brentford or any of the other teams chasing eighth will get into Europe is if Chelsea win this season’s Conference League final AND finish either sixth or seventh.
That could still happen, but it is much less likely after the Blues beat Manchester United 1-0 on Friday.
However, despite all of that, we’re not here to discuss where Brentford will finish or their chances of jet-setting across Europe next season. We want to discuss two Bees who are so productive, it’s a wonder the Gtech hasn’t started smelling like honey this season.
Yoane Wissa and Bryan Mbeumo have 49 goal involvements between them in the Premier League in 2024-25, which has helped Thomas Frank’s side score 65 goals in total, the fifth most behind only Liverpool (85), Newcastle (68), Arsenal and Man City (both 67).
Mbeumo has 26 goal involvements (19G 7A), which only Mohamed Salah (46) and Alexander Isak (29) can better, while only those three along with Erling Haaland and Ollie Watkins (both 24) have more than Wissa’s 23 (19G 4A). In fact, all four of Wissa’s assists have been for Mbeumo, who has returned the favour twice himself.
Viz by Jonathan ManuelThey both added to their tallies against Fulham, with Wissa setting up Mbeumo to make it 1-1 in the 22nd minute, before Wissa scored himself just before half-time to give the hosts the lead.
Unfortunately for them, things unravelled for their team in the second half, but it was the eighth time this season that both Mbeumo and Wissa had scored in the same Premier League game; the most by a teammate duo in the same campaign since 2021-22 (10 for Salah/Sadio Mané and 8 for Harry Kane/Son Heung-min).
Mbeumo would have had another goal had Bernd Leno not saved his first-half penalty on Sunday, which incidentally was the first spot-kick the Cameroon international has missed in 11 attempts in the Premier League. He had previously been one of just three players to boast a 100% success rate having taken at least 10 penalties in the competition.
Whatever happens on the final day, it has been another excellent campaign for Brentford, who you suspect will have a long summer trying to keep their prize pair at the club.
QUIZ – Europa League Final Fever
With Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United looking to paper over their respective cracks with a big shiny trophy in Wednesday’s Europa League final, we wanted to whet your appetite with a quiz about both teams. Answers at the bottom of the page.
1. The 2024-25 Europa League final will be the sixth all-English major European competition final, and the third of those to involve Tottenham Hotspur. Which other two English teams have Spurs faced in major European finals?
2. This will be the fourth meeting between Spurs and Man Utd in all competitions this season. What is the aggregate score after the first three?
3. Manchester United remain the only unbeaten side in major European competition this season, winning nine and drawing five of their 14 Europa League games. They could become only the fourth side to win the Europa League without losing a single match that campaign. Name any of the other three teams to have achieved the feat.
4. Spurs are looking to win their first major trophy since the 2007-08 League Cup under Juande Ramos. Their last major European title was the 1983-84 UEFA Cup under which manager?
5. Ruben Amorim could become only the third manager to win a major trophy in his first season in charge of Manchester United, after which other two?
Ask Opta
This week’s question comes from Joe P, who asks: “Which teams/players have hit the woodwork the most this season?”
Do you have a stats-based football question you want to Ask Opta? If so, send it to editors@theanalyst.com and we’ll do our best to provide you with the answer in a future edition of SVQ.
Answer:
In the Premier League in 2024-25, no team has struck the post/bar as often this season as Bournemouth. The Cherries have heard the thud of the woodwork 22 times, ahead of Liverpool and Chelsea (both 21).
As for players, four have been denied by the frame of the goal on six occasions this season: Mohamed Salah, Cole Palmer, Mohammed Kudus and Nicolas Jackson.
Looking across Europe’s top five leagues, only Barcelona’s Robert Lewandowski has done so as often, hitting the woodwork six times in La Liga this season.
Barcelona have done so more often than any other team in Europe’s top five leagues, though that hasn’t stopped them from winning the title in Spain. The Blaugrana have been denied by the woodwork 26 times in the league. That puts them first, just ahead of Paris Saint-Germain (23) and Bournemouth.
Including all competitions, PSG (39) have struck the post or bar most often, one ahead of Barcelona. The Parisians have recorded 10 woodwork hits in the Champions League on their road to the final, the joint-most along with Manchester City, who reached that total despite playing six fewer games than PSG.
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1. The 2024-25 Europa League final will be the sixth all-English major European competition final, and the third of those to involve Tottenham Hotspur. Which other two English teams have Spurs faced in major European finals?
Wolves in the 1971-72 UEFA Cup final (won 3-2 on aggregate) and Liverpool in the 2018-19 Champions League final (lost 2-0)
2. This will be the fourth meeting between Spurs and Man Utd in all competitions this season. What is the aggregate score after the first three?
Tottenham Hotspur 8-3 Manchester United (3-0 and 1-0 in the Premier League, and 4-3 in the League Cup quarter-finals)
3. Manchester United remain the only unbeaten side in major European competition this season, winning nine and drawing five of their 14 Europa League games. They could become only the fourth side to win the Europa League without losing a single match that campaign. Name any of the other three teams to have achieved the feat.
Chelsea in 2018-19, Villarreal in 2020-21, and Eintracht Frankfurt in 2021-22
4. Spurs are looking to win their first major trophy since the 2007-08 League Cup under Juande Ramos. Their last major European title was the 1983-84 UEFA Cup under which manager?
Keith Burkinshaw
5. Ruben Amorim could become only the third manager to win a major trophy in his first season in charge of Manchester United, after which other two?
José Mourinho in 2016-17 (League Cup & UEFA Europa League) and Erik ten Hag in 2022-23 (League Cup)
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Stat, Viz, Quiz: Crystal Palace Win Their First Ever FA Cup Opta Analyst.
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