Thursday 27 August 2015 17:52, UK
This week, Martin Tyler's column looks at the longest passing moves ending in goals, successive clean sheets and hat-tricks against Chelsea...
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Martin's starting stats
It's remarkable we have seen only six home wins in 30 Premier League games so far - the previous low was last season when there were nine.
I was at the Emirates on Monday night. This was the fourth time in last six seasons that Arsenal and Liverpool have met during the opening three games. In August 2010 at Anfield it was the opening day and Laurent Koscielny and Joe Cole were sent off.
Arsenal have hit a bit of a brick wall at home. Their last defeats in all competitions have been at home - against Monaco, Swansea and West Ham. Their last six home games finished 0-0 v Chelsea, 0-1 v Swansea, 0-0 v Sunderland, 4-1 v West Brom, 0-2 v West Ham and 0-0 v Liverpool. They have only scored in one of their last six home games in the Premier League, which is remarkable.
Liverpool couldn't quite emulate their start of two years ago when they won their opening three games 1-0, but they have replicated the three clean sheets. Liverpool have only once in 13 visits to the Emirates all competitions. That was 2-0 in 2011 - both goals coming after Emmanuel Frimpong was sent off.
The game marked the end of Gabriel's run of eight appearances and eight wins - but he is still unbeaten in nine. Aaron Ramsey's disallowed goal denied him the chance to improve his strange record that only two of his last 16 goals have been at the Emirates.
I was commentating with Alan Smith and two things tickled me as I thought back to the famous 1989 meeting between Arsenal and Liverpool. It was Michael Thomas' 48th birthday on Monday and he scored the famous goal that night. Also, as in that year, Arsenal needed to win by two to go above Liverpool in the table.
Pass masters
Cesar Azpilicueta's goal at West Brom came after a 25-pass move. When's the last time we saw that many passes before a goal? Jack Horwood
MARTIN SAYS: What a way to score your first ever Premier League goal - in torrential conditions the rain favoured the men from Spain as Pedro and naturalised Spaniard Diego Costa also scored.
However, the 25-pass move leading to Azpilicueta's goal is nothing compared to some of the goals we have seen in the last 12 months.
The last time we saw more than 25 passes leading to a goal was when Stevan Jovetic scored for Manchester City in a 4-1 win against Sunderland on December 3. There were 29 passes in the build-up to that one.
Before that we saw an incredible 40-pass sequence when Morgan Schneiderlin scored for Southampton against Newcastle on September 13.
But an even more impressive sequence came in August last year when Tottenham's Nacer Chadli finished off a 48-pass move to score against QPR in a 4-0 win. According to Opta, that's the longest run of passes leading to a goal in the last five seasons.
Successive shutouts
Manchester City have kept three successive clean starts to start the season; what's the longest run of consecutive clean sheets starting on the opening day of the season (or during the season even)? @mufc_fan_saf
MARTIN SAYS: Liverpool have also kept three clean sheets. The longest run of clean sheets to start a season was recorded by Chelsea in 2005/06 when they didn't concede a goal in their first six games against Wigan, Arsenal, West Brom, Tottenham, Sunderland and Charlton.
The run came to an end in the Blues' seventh match when Aston Villa's Luke Moore scored at Stamford Bridge - a match Chelsea won 2-1.
Manchester United and Portsmouth both managed to start with five consecutive clean sheets in 1997/98 and 2006/07 respectively. Liverpool recorded four clean sheets in a row to start the 2005/06 season so Man City and Liverpool will equal that tally if they can keep out Watford and West Ham this weekend.
In terms of longest successive shutouts during a season, Manchester United hold the record with 14 in a row during the 2008/09 campaign.
That impressive run lasted from November 15, 2008 all the way to February 21, 2009 when Blackburn Rovers finally managed to breach the United backline.
Chelsea managed 10 in a row during their title-winning season of 2005/06 while Liverpool recorded eight in succession in the same campaign.
Trebles against Chelsea
James Morrison might have had a hat-trick against Chelsea – who was the last player to score one against them? @jamouse21
MARTIN SAYS: It might surprise you to know that not many players have scored a hat-trick against the Blues - only four have done so in the Premier League since it began in 1992. If James Morrison had scored from the spot on Sunday he would have become the fifth.
The most recent player to do it was Robin van Persie in October 2011 when he bagged a treble to inspire Arsenal to a 5-3 win at Stamford Bridge.
Prior to that, you have to go back to October 1999 when another Arsenal player, Nwankwo Kanu, scored three times in the second half to help the Gunners beat Chelsea 3-2.
The other two hat-tricks scored against Chelsea were both in the 1996/97 season.
Dion Dublin netted a treble to give Coventry a 3-2 victory over the Blues on the opening day and Patrik Berger repeated the feat a couple of months later with three goals in a 4-2 win for Liverpool.
I commentated on three of those four hat-tricks - Dublin's was the only one I missed!
Hat-tricks for new boys
Callum Wilson scored a hat-trick for Bournemouth at West Ham - how many players have also netted hat-tricks for newly-promoted clubs in the Premier League era? Robert Bird
MARTIN SAYS: Wilson's treble at the weekend means there have now been 25 hat-tricks scored by players for promoted clubs.
One name that stands out on the list is Kevin Nolan, who has netted hat-tricks for two different newly-promoted sides.
In 2010/11 he grabbed a treble for Newcastle against rivals Sunderland and then in 2012/13 he scored three times as West Ham beat Reading 4-2 on the final day of the season.
The only player to score two hat-tricks in a season for a promoted side in the Premier League is Andrew Cole for Newcastle in 1993/94 (against Liverpool and Coventry).
The most recent player to do it before Wilson was QPR striker Charlie Austin against West Brom last season while the first player to achieve the feat was Middlesbrough's John Hendrie, who did so against Blackburn.
Among the other players to achieve the feat are Teddy Sheringham for Portsmouth, Paulo Wanchope for Manchester City and Andy Carroll for Newcastle - but here's the full list:
1992/93: John Hendrie (Middlesbrough) v Blackburn
1993/94: Peter Beardsley (Newcastle) v Wimbledon
1993/94: Andrew Cole (Newcastle) v Liverpool
1993/94: Jan-Aage Fjortoft (Swindon) v Coventry
1993/94: Andrew Cole (Newcastle) v Coventry
1996/97: Ian Marshall (Leicester) v Derby
1998/99: Clive Mendonca (Charlton) v Southampton
1999/00: Kevin Phillips (Sunderland) v Derby
1999/00: Dean Windass (Bradford) v Derby
2000/01: Paulo Wanchope (Manchester City) v Sunderland
2000/01: Marcus Stewart (Ipswich) v Southampton
2001/02: Fredi Bobic (Bolton) v Ipswich
2003/04: Teddy Sheringham (Portsmouth v Bolton)
2003/04: Yakubu (Portsmouth) v Middlesbrough
2004/05: Robert Earnshaw (West Brom) v Charlton
2005/06: Marlon Harewood (West Ham) v Aston Villa
2005/06: Henri Camara (Wigan) v Charlton
2007/08: Mikael Forssell (Birmingham) v Tottenham
2010/11: Andy Carroll (Newcastle) v Aston Villa
2010/11: Kevin Nolan (Newcastle) v Sunderland
2010/11: Leon Best (Newcastle) v West Ham
2010/11: Somen Tchoyi (West Brom) v Newcastle
2012/13: Kevin Nolan (West Ham) v Reading
2014/15: Charlie Austin (QPR) v West Brom
2015/16: Callum Wilson (Bournemouth) v West Ham
Don't forget to answer our hat-trick teaser to complete a hat-trick of hat-trick questions on this week's column.
