Cole Palmer Can Put Penalty Pain Behind Him ...0

Stat, Viz, Quiz is the Opta Analyst football newsletter. This week’s edition looks at comebacks, penalties, and multiple scorers.

Penalties are pressure situations, but few have handled them better than Cole Palmer in the last couple of years.

However, Chelsea’s usually ice-cold star was foiled from the spot for the first time in his professional career on Sunday. In this week’s SVQ, we’ll see where Palmer ranks for consecutive penalty perfection.

The weekend’s Premier League action also saw runaway leaders Liverpool beat bottom-place Southampton, albeit having to come from behind to do so, and not for the first time. Comebacks have generally been plentiful this season, which we’ll also be getting into.

As well as our weekly quiz we have an Ask Opta question on Arsenal’s thrashing of PSV, or rather, similarly emphatic Champions League wins involving lots of different goalscorers.

Before we get going, if you read last week’s SVQ you’ll remember us discussing a strange quirk in the Bundesliga where there weren’t any home wins on Matchday 24. You may have noticed it happened AGAIN this weekend, making it 18 games in two weeks where not a single home side enjoyed victory.

Unsurprisingly, that’s a Bundesliga record. There had never been two consecutive matchdays in the competition without a home win. We’ll be keeping a keen eye on next weekend to see if anyone finally enjoys some home comforts.

If you haven’t done so already, you can subscribe below for free to receive SVQ every Tuesday.

STAT – Comebacks Make Kings

Most will have had Liverpool down to beat Southampton comfortably on Saturday. Full disclosure, we made sure we knew where our list of biggest Premier League victories was just in case.

However, this is the Premier League, and despite the 58-point gap between the two teams heading into their meeting at Anfield, you never know exactly how things will pan out.

When Southampton went in at half-time leading 1-0, there were a few nerves jangling among the home fans, with Arne Slot reportedly giving his team rather angry feedback at the break.

Sure enough, Liverpool were 2-1 ahead within 10 minutes of the restart, and ultimately sealed a 3-1 win to go 16 points clear at the top of the league (reduced to 15 the following day with Arsenal’s 1-1 draw at Man Utd).

It was another comeback victory in a Premier League season that’s seeing plenty of them, as we observed back in October. After 281 games, there have been 48 comeback wins in 2024-25 (17.1%), the highest percentage in Premier League history. Only five seasons in the competition’s history have seen more, and there are 99 games remaining in this campaign.

Liverpool have won 19 points from losing positions in 2024-25, more than any other team (ahead of Aston Villa and Newcastle – both 18), which has helped them to pull away in the title race.

It should be mentioned that they have also been ruthless when in front. In fact, they have won 21 of the 24 games in which they have led (D3), and 18 of the 19 in which they scored the first goal (D1).

The most points won from losing positions in a single Premier League season came from Newcastle in 2001-02, with their 34 points accounting for almost half their final total of 71 and aiding a fourth-place finish.

We wanted to look specifically at whether Premier League champions have often accrued several of their points from behind, though.

The most points won from losing positions by Premier League champions was Manchester United in Sir Alex Ferguson’s final season at Old Trafford (2012-13), when they won 29. That’s five more than the next most, which was also United in the 1999-2000 season (24 points) as well as Man City last term (24).

It has, of course, largely depended on how often the eventual champions have fallen behind. For example, City only won four points from losing positions in 2018-19, but that was because they were only behind in six of their 38 games. Liverpool have already trailed in double that amount, with nine games remaining.

Ultimately, football is about who is winning at the final whistle. The mettle it takes to recover is what can so often separate the wheat from the chaff, and why the Premier League remains a competition you can’t take your eyes off.

VIZ – Potent Penalty Takers

Chelsea’s 1-0 home win against Leicester City on Sunday was otherwise a game that won’t live long in the memory.

Marc Cucurella’s goal was pretty much the only highlight of an otherwise unremarkable afternoon. Or at least Cole Palmer will wish it had been.

The England international has been one of the Premier League’s biggest success stories in the last two seasons, but he’s going through something of a barren spell. Palmer hasn’t recorded a goal involvement in any of his last nine games in all competitions but had a great chance to remedy that when Chelsea were awarded a penalty against Leicester.

Stamford Bridge awaited their goal, knowing Palmer had taken 12 penalties in the Premier League prior to Sunday, converting the entire dozen. He had scored the most consecutive penalties in the competition without missing, but his faultless run came to an end as Mads Hermansen got down to his left and made the save.

It means Yaya Touré has his crown back (prepare a cake, somebody) as the player with the best 100% record from Premier League penalties, converting all 11 of his.

But we wanted to look at those who had the longest runs without missing in the competition’s history.

Prior to Sunday, Palmer was just the fourth player to score each of his first 12 Premier League penalties after Frank Lampard, Ruud van Nistelrooy (both first 12) and Leighton Baines (first 14).

But looking beyond runs starting with players’ first penalties in the competition, both Luka Milivojevic and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink managed 13 in a row between misses, while Alan Shearer recorded 14, and Mohamed Salah and Harry Kane both racked up 15.

The king of consecutive successful penalties remains Matt Le Tissier, though. The Southampton legend scored 25 of the 26 penalties he took in the Premier League, only denied by Nottingham Forest’s Mark Crossley in March 1993. He then went on to score 23 successive penalties in the competition.

Perhaps Palmer can take inspiration from that. It’s never too late to start a new run.

QUIZ – Pedro’s Penalties, Glasner’s Glee, and Bruno’s Best

After a Champions League detour last week, we’re back in the Premier League for questions this week. Answers at the bottom of the page.

1. Morgan Gibbs-White has been directly involved in 39 goals (15 goals, 24 assists) for Nottingham Forest in the Premier League. Who is the only player with more for the club in the competition?

2. Since the start of last season, Brighton’s João Pedro has won more penalties than any other Premier League player in all competitions (9). Who is the only Premier League player to have scored more penalties than the Brazilian (13) during this period, though?

3. With a win over Ipswich on Saturday, Oliver Glasner recorded his 17th win in his 41st Premier League game for Crystal Palace. Name the only two managers to have won more in charge of the Eagles in the competition.

4. Mohamed Salah now has 32 goals for Liverpool this season, only scoring more in 2017-18. How many goals did he score that season (all comps), his first at the Merseyside club?

5. Bruno Fernandes has scored two goals from direct free-kicks in the Premier League this season (vs Everton and Arsenal); it’s the first time a Manchester United player has netted more than one in a league campaign since 2013-14. Name either of the two players who achieved the feat that season. 

Ask Opta

This week’s question comes from Timo Schöning, who asks: “After Arsenal smashing PSV in the first match in Eindhoven with six different goalscorers for those seven goals, what’s the most different scorers ever in a Champions League match?” 

Do you have a stats-based football question you want to Ask Opta? If so, send it to [email protected] and we’ll do our best to provide you with the answer in a future edition of SVQ.

Answer:

Arsenal’s six different scorers in their 7-1 win at PSV last week was the 12th time that 6+ players have found the net for one team in a single Champions League game (excluding own goals).

They were, though, the first team in the competition’s history to have six different scorers (excluding own goals) in an away knockout stage game.

It was also the second time the Gunners have had that many different scorers in a UCL game, having also had six players notch in their 6-0 home win over Lens in November 2023.

In answer to your question, Timo, only one team has ever had as many as seven different players find the net in a single Champions League game, and it should be fairly memorable as it only occurred a few weeks ago.

Paris Saint-Germain may have struggled to score against Liverpool last week despite peppering their goal, but they had no such issues against Brest, with seven different players scoring in the 7-0 win over their fellow Ligue 1 side in the recent knockout play-off round.

Bradley Barcola, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Vitinha, Désiré Doué, Nuno Mendes, Gonçalo Ramos and Senny Mayulu all got on the scoresheet for PSG, sealing a 10-0 aggregate success.

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Quiz Answers

1. Morgan Gibbs-White has been directly involved in 39 goals (15 goals, 24 assists) for Nottingham Forest in the Premier League. Who is the only player with more for the club in the competition?

Ian Woan (44)

2. Since the start of last season, Brighton’s João Pedro has won more penalties than any other Premier League player in all competitions (9). Who is the only Premier League player to have scored more penalties than the Brazilian (13) during this period, though?

Mohamed Salah (18)

3. With a win over Ipswich on Saturday, Oliver Glasner recorded his 17th win in his 41st Premier League game for Crystal Palace. Name the only two managers to have won more in charge of the Eagles in the competition.

Roy Hodgson (59 in 182) and Alan Pardew (25 in 73)

4. Mohamed Salah now has 32 goals for Liverpool this season, only scoring more in 2017-18. How many goals did he score that season (all comps), his first at the Merseyside club?

44 goals

5. Bruno Fernandes has scored two goals from direct free-kicks in the Premier League this season (vs Everton and Arsenal); it’s the first time a Manchester United player has netted more than one in a league campaign since 2013-14. Name either of the two players who achieved the feat that season.

Wayne Rooney (3) and Juan Mata (2)

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