Sunday 27 September 2015 12:27, UK
As Wayne Rooney, Harry Kane and Alexis Sanchez all score, we look at their long waits for a goal.
Going into the weekend, Rooney, Kane and Sanchez were all waiting for their first Premier League goal of the season.
All three men ended their goalless streaks on Saturday by scoring in victories for their respective sides, with Sanchez even scoring a hat-trick.
Here, we look at the stats behind their dry spells and whether we can expect a flood of goals to follow…
Wayne Rooney
The England captain had scored a hat-trick in Manchester United's Champions League play-off against Club Brugge and netted in both of his country's European Qualifiers earlier this month. There was even a fine goal in United's Capital One Cup win over Ipswich in midweek.
However, it's in the Premier League that Rooney has been struggling - a particular worry given that senior strikers Robin van Persie, Radamel Falcao and Javier Hernandez were allowed to leave the club in the summer.
Rooney had failed to score in his last 11 Premier League matches prior to Saturday's game against Sunderland, a sequence that meant he'd spent more than 15 hours on the pitch without finding the net.
When it came, it wasn't particularly pretty. Anthony Martial showed strength, skill and speed to fashion the opening from which Rooney bundled the ball over the line from close range. The relief on the skipper's face suggests he'd have taken any type of goal.
History also offers hope. The last time Rooney had such a run without scoring in the Premier League, he netted four in the next five; the time before that preceded a period when he scored eight goals in his next eight Premier League appearances. Is there another goal glut on the way?
Harry Kane
Like Rooney, fellow England forward Kane also scored in both of his international appearances in September but had been unable to replicate that at club level. For Kane, that was a particular worry given the growing speculation that he could prove to be a one-season wonder.
The 22-year-old had attempted 21 shots in the Premier League season ahead of Saturday's game against Manchester City and when he snatched at a chance just after the half-hour mark with Tottenham already a goal down, it seemed as though it might be another frustrating afternoon.
But after 748 minutes without a goal for Spurs in all competitions, a run dating back to last season, Kane managed to control the ball after it had ricocheted off Willy Caballero's post from Christian Eriksen's free-kick.
It was the sort of chance that a player lacking in confidence might have missed but Kane had made a contribution for his side - winning the free-kick for the goal that put his team in the lead - and will now hope to recover the form that saw him score 31 times for Tottenham last season.
Alexis Sanchez
Sanchez had played 437 Premier League minutes for Arsenal this season without scoring a goal going into their game against Leicester on Saturday. Add in last season, and the Chilean had gone more than 14 hours without finding the net in the Premier League.
According to Opta, he'd squandered five clear-cut chances in the process, including two in a particularly wasteful performance at Crystal Palace and there was a feeling that Sanchez had been struggling following his summer exertions with his national team at the Copa America.
All that ended in emphatic fashion at the King Power Stadium as he scored a hat-trick in Arsenal's 5-2 win over the Foxes. There was nothing too remarkable about the first two goals - a close-range finish and a header - but he was there to score them, and the hat-trick goal was vintage Sanchez.
Cutting inside from the left and firing a low shot into Kasper Schmeichel's net, this was more like it from a player who was the fifth highest scorer in the Premier League last season and the fourth highest scorer in La Liga prior to that. For Sanchez, Kane and Rooney, the drought is over.
