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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    John Terry was banned for four matches and fined £220,000 after being found guilty of racially abusing QPR’s Anton Ferdinand, on this day in 2012.

    The Chelsea captain denied the charge but a Football Association regulatory commission ruled he was guilty of misconduct during his side’s 1-0 Premier League defeat to QPR at Loftus Road on October 23 2011.

    The 31-year-old England defender announced his retirement from international football a week before the FA’s decision and decided not to appeal against it.

    An FA statement read: “An independent regulatory commission has today found a charge of misconduct against John Terry proven and has issued a suspension for a period of four matches and a fine of £220,000, pending appeal.

    “The Football Association charged Mr Terry on Friday 27 July 2012 with using abusive and/or insulting words and/or behaviour towards Queens Park Rangers’ Anton Ferdinand and which included a reference to colour and/or race contrary to FA Rule E3[2] in relation to the Queens Park Rangers FC versus Chelsea FC fixture at Loftus Road on 23 October 2011.

    “The charge was the result of The FA’s long-standing investigation into this matter, which was placed on hold at the request of the Crown Prosecution Service and Mr Terry’s representatives pending the outcome of the criminal trial.”

    The incident occurred in Chelsea’s defeat to QPR when the pair clashed verbally on several occasions in the match.

    Terry was previously found not guilty – in Westminster Magistrates Court in July 2012 – of a racially-aggravated public order offence as the prosecution was unable to prove he had called Ferdinand a “f****** black c***” as an insult.

    Terry admitted using the words, but insisted he had only been repeating words he thought Ferdinand had accused him of saying.

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    The panel who handed Liverpool striker Luis Suarez an eight-match ban when they found him guilty of racially abusing Manchester United defender Patrice Evra the season before declared simply using racist language was enough to breach FA rules.

  • Victor Osimhen may sue Napoli over social media video mocking striker Victor Osimhen may sue Napoli over social media video mocking striker

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    Despite Osimhen singlehandedly bolstering Napoli with 31 goals across all competitions, he became the target of a strange, now-deleted video, shared to the Serie A club’s official TikTok account.

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    “A serious fact that causes very serious damage to the player and adds to the treatment that the boy is suffering in the last period between media trials and fake news.”

    Calenda added: “We reserve the right to take legal action and any useful initiative to protect Victor”.

    The video featured a clip of the striker’s penalty miss from their match against Bologna on Sunday, with an odd, sped-up voice dubbed over the top.

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  • Erik ten Hag demands more from Alejandro Garnacho after Carabao Cup strike Erik ten Hag demands more from Alejandro Garnacho after Carabao Cup strike

    Erik ten Hag says Alejandro Garnacho was “not good enough” in his previous starts this season after the Manchester United teenager scored in the Carabao Cup victory against Crystal Palace.

    Having secured a much-needed Premier League victory at Burnley on Saturday evening, the Red Devils ran out comfortable 3-0 victors against Roy Hodgson’s south Londoners on Tuesday night.

    Casemiro scored and then crossed for Anthony Martial’s goal on a night started by Garnacho impressively putting the Carabao Cup holders ahead from Diogo Dalot’s cutback.

    The 19-year-old began United’s first two matches of the season, but this was the first time he was named in the starting line-up since the defeat to Tottenham five weeks ago.

    “You have seen at the start of the season we played him and then his contribution was not good enough,” manager Ten Hag said of the Argentina international.

    “But he also had some good actions. You see always he is a threat in the game even when he is not playing that well.

    “He has to learn when he does his job in defending he will always have his moment and he will always be decisive because he has great qualities.

    “As well, it’s not only off the ball. But I want to see like today, he is entering the box in the right spot to finish.

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    United made seven alterations, as did Palace, ahead of Saturday’s Premier League reunion at Old Trafford.

    Ten Hag will hope Christian Eriksen and Scott McTominay can return from what the United boss called illness, so too left-back Sergio Reguilon.

    The on-loan Tottenham full-back’s absence meant Sofyan Amrabat filled in there on his first start for the club, before stepping into midfield at half-time.

    “Sofyan is a player, and that was one of the reasons we signed him, where the team needs him, he will play and he can play in more positions,” Ten Hag said.

    “Every player has his best position but he gives a certain dynamic in the game. We have seen today but also for him and many players, we just started.

    “That process was a little bit interrupted by the many injuries we have because when you can play a long time with the same team then you get routines, the players learn each other and it’s more automatic.

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    As for Palace, Roy Hodgson had no arguments with the result as his side made a meek Carabao Cup exit in the third round.

    “I thought we were well beaten, basically,” said the Eagles boss, who saw Dean Henderson go off injured on his debut at former club United.

    “I thought they attacked better than we did, defended the few attacks we were able to mount quite comfortably.

    “As a result, unfortunately, you tend when that happens to only be looking at one possible result and that was the result they came up with.”

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