Toure and United set unwanted records

Yaya Toure: Without a goal or assist in four games

Yaya Toure's poor form and another unwanted first for Manchester United feature in our review of the weekend's Premier League statistics.

We look at the statistics from a Premier League weekend which saw Chelsea surrender their 100% record at Manchester City, and Liverpool, Manchester United, Tottenham and Everton all suffer shock defeats.

Queens Park Rangers 2 Stoke City 2

Mame Biram Diouf's goal was the first that Stoke City have scored before half-time in the Premier League this season.

After 10 Premier League appearances without a goal or assist, Peter Crouch scored & assisted for Stoke in this match.

The last three occasions that Crouch has scored and assisted in the same Premier League match have come against former sides (Aston Villa twice, QPR).

Six of Steven Caulker's eight Premier League goals have been headers.

Jordon Mutch's last six assists in the PL have come in home games (five for Cardiff and one for QPR).

Niko Kranjcar scored his first Premier League goal since February 2012.

Kranjcar has now scored three Premier League goals against Stoke City; making them his favourite opponents in the competition.

Stoke are now unbeaten in their last five Premier League away games (W2 D3); their best run since April 2010 (six games). Indeed it is only the second time in PL history that they have gone five away games without defeat.

Aston Villa 0 Arsenal 3

Mesut Özil scored and assisted a goal in the space of one minute & 20 seconds.

This is only the second occasion that Özil has scored and assisted in the same Premier League game.

There were just three minutes & 15 seconds separating the three Arsenal goals against Aston Villa.

Arsenal benefitted from an own goal in a Premier League game for the first time since January 1, 2013.

Danny Welbeck has scored four goals in his last three Premier League starts against Aston Villa.

Welbeck has now scored more goals in the PL against Aston Villa (4) than any other opponent.

Arsenal made more passes (814) than in any Premier League game since April 2012 (828 v Wolves).

Aston Villa have attempted just eight shots on target in five Premier League games this season, fewer than any other side.

Burnley 0 Sunderland 0

Burnley attempted six shots on target in this game, twice as many as they have in any of their other PL matches this season.

The Clarets scored with their first shot on target in the Premier League this season, but have not scored with any of their 14 since.

Burnley have won just one of the last 13 matches in all competitions against Sunderland (W1 D6 L6).

Burnley have become the first team to draw three PL games 0-0 in a row since Blackburn Rovers in December 2009.

Sunderland are yet to win (four points from five games) in 2014-15 - last season they took only one point from their opening eight PL games.

Sunderland have failed to score in consecutive Premier League away games for the first time in 2014.

There were 26 shots (excl. blocked) in this game - no PL goalless draw has seen more since Norwich 0-0 Cardiff (29) in October 2013.

Newcastle United 2 Hull City 2

Nikica Jelavic has scored three goals in his last four PL appearances, after scoring three times in the previous 13.

Only Geovanni (11) has scored more Premier League goals for the Tigers than Jelavic (7).

Hull have scored at least once in nine of their last 10 Premier League away games.

Jack Colback was caught offside in the 54th minute in this game, becoming the first Newcastle player to be caught offside in the league all season (in their 414th minute of action).

Stephen Quinn has provided an assist in all three away appearances in the Premier League this term.

Mohamed Diame has scored in his first two PL appearances for Hull City; he never managed to score in consecutive games in 167 apps for Wigan and West Ham.

Papiss Cisse's first goal was the second fastest by a substitute in the Premier League this term (excluding own goals).

Cissé scored as many goals today as he had in his last 30 Premier League appearances (2).

The Magpies came from two goals down to claim a point in the top flight for the first time since the famous 4-4 draw with Arsenal in February 2011.

None of the last seven competitive meetings between Hull and Newcastle have ended as a home win (four away wins and three draws).

Alan Pardew's side have conceded two or more goals in 10 of their last 13 league games.

Swansea City 0 Southampton 1

Five of Swansea's last six PL red cards have come at home; the other one came at Welsh rivals Cardiff.

Victor Wanyama scored his first goal for Southampton.

Wanyama became the first Kenyan player to score in the Premier League. Players from 91 different nations have now scored in the PL.

Graziano Pelle has scored three goals and assisted one more in his last three Premier League appearances.

Swansea City have gone 377 minutes of league football without a goal against Southampton.

Saints are unbeaten in six league meetings against Swansea now, winning three and drawing three.

There have been just six goals scored in the five Premier League meetings between Southampton and Swansea City.

Southampton have won three successive games for only the third time since returning to the Premier League in August 2012.

Ten points from five games is Southampton's best start to a top-flight season since 1988/89 (also 10).West Ham United 3 Liverpool 1

Liverpool conceded two goals inside the opening 10 minutes of a single PL game for only the second time and for the first time since February 1994.

Raheem Sterling has been involved in nine goals (six goals, three assists) in his last 10 Premier League apps.

Liverpool have lost three of their first five PL games of the season - only the second time that this has happened (2012-13 the previous).

Mario Balotelli has scored just one goal in his last 19 Premier League games, this despite attempting 37 shots (excl. blocked) in these games.

Stewart Downing has more assists this season in five games (3) than he did in the whole of 2013-14 (2 in 32 apps).

Liverpool have set a new club top-flight record of scoring in 17 consecutive away games.

West Ham have only kept one clean sheet in their last 17 Premier League games.

Leicester City 3 Manchester United 5

The Foxes had netted just one goal in their last eight Premier League matches against Manchester United before Sunday.

Manchester United have won only four of their last 18 Premier League games on a Sunday (D7 L7).

For the first time in their 853-game PL history, United threw away a two goal lead to lose.

Leicester are only the sixth team to score 5+ goals vs Man Utd in a PL game (+ Newcastle, Southampton, Chelsea, Man City & WBA).

David Moyes did not see United concede more than four goals in a league game in his time at the club.

The Foxes scored with all five of their shots.

Radamel Falcao provided his first league assist for over two years (last one came for Atletico vs Levante).

This is the first time United have conceded more than three goals in a PL game against a newly-promoted side.

Three of Leonardo Ulloa's five Premier League goals this season have come within two minutes of the opposition scoring.

No Premier League team has conceded more penalties in 2014 than Man Utd (six, level with Tottenham).

Tottenham Hotspur 0 West Bromwich Albion 1

West Bromwich Albion won against Tottenham in the league for the first time in 10 attempts (D5 L4).

This ended a run of nine away league games for WBA without a win at Spurs - they last won at White Hart Lane in November 1984 (D4 L5).

Etienne Capoue has attempted (440) and completed (392) more passes than any other Premier League player this season.

West Brom have won 34 corners this season - only Manchester City (37) and West Ham (36) have been awarded more.

Tottenham had one shot on target in this game - since the start of last season the only other team they have managed one or fewer against in a game is Liverpool (twice, one of which was in their preceding home match).

Tottenham have failed to score in consecutive home games for the first time since August 2010.

Everton 2 Crystal Palace 3

Crystal Palace scored with all three of their shots on target.

Everton have conceded 21 home league goals in 12 Premier League games in 2014 - in 19 matches at Goodison Park in 2013 they leaked 14.

Only Newcastle (25) have conceded more league home goals than Everton in 2014.

The Eagles have scored in their last seven league away games, finding the net 16 times; in their preceding seven away assignments they scored twice.

Palace have scored more goals in their last seven PL away games (16) than their previous 25 (15).

Everton have conceded at least two goals in four consecutive PL home games for the first time since October 2008.

Leighton Baines has scored all 14 of his PL penalties - the player with the next most without missing is Dimitar Berbatov (9).

Leon Osman (26) went clear of Thomas Gravesen and Nick Barmby in fifth place on the list of Everton players with most PL assists.

Tim Howard made his 302nd PL appearance for Everton, drawing him second with David Unsworth - only Osman (325) has made more for the club.

Everton have lost four of their six previous PL home meetings with Palace, winning the other two.

Manchester City 1 Chelsea 1

Manchester City have only failed to score in two of their last 72 home league games.

Yaya Toure has failed to score or assist a goal in four successive PL apps for the first time since between Nov-Dec 2012.

Manchester City have drawn successive matches for the first time since February 2013.

Chelsea have missed out on winning a sixth consecutive league game by drawing against Manchester City.

Frank Lampard has now scored against a record 39 different Premier League clubs.

Frank Lampard scored his first Premier League goal versus Chelsea, in his 11th match against them.

Eight of André Schürrle's 10 Premier League goals have come in away games.

Eight of the last nine Premier League goals scored by Chelsea have been in the second half.

City have conceded exactly one goal in each of their last three home PL games.

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Admin nk jumpa Stevie G n Kolo Toure. LFCM crew? EF

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Transfer news: Daniel Agger left Liverpool after Brendan Rodgers rift

Daniel Agger: Defender left Liverpool and returned to Brondby in the summer

Daniel Agger insists he left Liverpool because of a rift with Brendan Rodgers and did not feel 'appreciated' by the Reds manager.

The Denmark defender had been a preferred choice of previous Anfield bosses, but he called time on his Reds career after falling out of favour last season.

Agger returned to former club Brondby in the summer after eight years on Merseyside and claimed he could no longer work with Rodgers after a breakdown in their working relationship.

"Let me put it this way, me and the manager were perhaps not on the same page last season. For most of the season at least," he told Danish sports channel TV3 SPORT.

"He and I maybe went wrong with each other because I am very direct. I say things as they are, so I expect people will be the same to me. Maybe it's wrong to expect this sometimes.

"There was much (distance) between us, and for me it was just enough. I felt he didn't appreciate the things I could do and contributed. When I feel that, then it's time to move on.”

Agger was unable to hold down a regular role in the last campaign, despite featuring in some impressive wins, including both Premier League victories over Manchester United.

The 29-year-old Denmark international felt that Rodgers did not value his contribution, forcing him to consider his future.

“When you are a part of the starting 11 for several games in a row and the team have performed well, and you feel that you have played well, then you are left out of the team and don’t feel appreciated, it starts to prey on your mind and you wonder," he said.

“Then at the same time you see the statistics from your game - which are so important all around the world of football - and you don’t understand why you weren’t used more often.”

But Agger still respects the coaching abilities of Rodgers, who so nearly ended the club’s long wait for a league title.

"I think he is an incredibly talented manager. You can't take that away from him. He's good in the way he trains and he is clever in the way he sets the team up. He's an extremely, extremely competent coach," he added.

"The things that went wrong between us is that I say things the way they are and I expect others to treat me the same way. Maybe it is wrong to always expect this.”

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Daniel Agger claims he left Liverpool after falling out with Brendan Rodgers

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Monday Moan: Problems rife at top clubs

Liverpool: Look on as Gabriel Agbonlahor scores

Mark Holmes assesses the problems of the Liverpool and Manchester clubs, blasts some inconsistent refereeing, but praises Newcastle's fans.

Problems widespread among top clubs

Where on earth do you start in summing up that weekend of Premier League football? The self-proclaimed 'best league in the world' almost always throws up at least one talking point per game week, but the start to this season has been quite extraordinary.

Liverpool, last season's runners-up, have lost three of their first five games. Manchester City, the reigning champions, have won only two of theirs, as have Tottenham, while new-look Manchester United and ever-consistent Everton have just one win to their names.

Conversely, Southampton sit in second place despite having the heart of their team ripped out over the summer, while Aston Villa, among the relegation favourites before a ball was kicked, are just below them in third.

Rather than attempt to look for crises, it would perhaps be more sensible to acknowledge this pattern will not continue for much longer.

There are clearly problems for Brendan Rodgers, Louis van Gaal and co. to address, but quality will ultimately tell over 38 games. Chelsea are understandably most people's tip for the title, but Manchester City, Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester United, Everton and Tottenham will almost certainly complete the top seven behind the Blues. Despite the crazy start to the season, it would take a brave man to predict anything different.

However, with problems so widespread among those six clubs aside from Chelsea, foreseeing the exact order of them at this stage is rather more difficult.

Manchester City boast the only squad that comes close to Chelsea's in terms of quality depth, but their struggle to break down Jose Mourinho's men on Sunday will certainly have concerned Manuel Pellegrini after they had failed to find their way past a similarly obdurate Stoke City side in their previous home game.

The Chilean's comments after the Chelsea game may have been equally concerning for the club's supporters.

"I said last week that it will be very difficult for us to defend the title because every team will play the way Chelsea did," he said.

Concerning because it is hardly a tactic City are only just having to deal with at the Etihad Stadium, yet Pellegrini seemed to be suggesting it is a tactic his side are going to struggle with this season. They were not the comforting words the Blues faithful will have wanted to hear.

Similarly, Liverpool fans will not have been jumping for joy to hear Rodgers discuss the difficulties of competing on two fronts after the Reds followed up a Champions League win over Ludogorets with a Premier League defeat to West Ham.

"It's a tiring competition," said the Northern Irishman.

He is right, of course, but the procurement of eight new players over the summer was meant to relieve such stresses on the squad.

Perhaps Rodgers' mistake has been integrating new players to a successful side too quickly. Six of the summer signings started in the recent defeat to Aston Villa - injuries and the sale of Luis Suarez notwithstanding, such a drastic change was surprising given the success of last season's side.

Arguably even more worrying is that the biggest change has taken place in the defence, which was a problem area last term yet has looked no less of one in the early part of this campaign.

Rodgers' vow to work on defending set pieces will have come as a relief to fans, but many are now beginning to question the role of Steven Gerrard in protecting the back four. The stutters of rivals is allowing Rodgers time to get to the bottom of the problem, but get to the bottom of it he certainly must do if Liverpool are to challenge for the title again.

Although they struggled last season, it is arguably the early poor form of Manchester United under new manager Louis van Gaal that has attracted most attention of all.

The big worry for the Red Devils is clearly that, having spent a huge amount of money in the transfer window, they have addressed the problem of creativity and goalscoring, netting seven times in two games, but have merely replaced attacking issues for defensive ones, with Leicester City putting five past them on Sunday.

Like Liverpool, United's backline is vastly different to last season, and Van Gaal will hope that the problems so far are simply a case of new players bedding into the team - and existing ones getting to grips with a new system and way of playing.

Given the amount of changes they have made, the problems at Old Trafford are arguably the least surprising and least worrying of all the top teams, but that should not detract from the fact that Van Gaal has some serious work to do on the training ground to avoid a second consecutive season without Champions League football.

For Tottenham, the problems are familiar. They won their opening two games only to be dismantled by the first top team they faced, Liverpool, and then followed up a Europa League game with a desperately disappointing Premier League performance which resulted in a 1-0 home defeat to West Brom.

The side that started against Albion showed 10 changes to the one which started against Partizan Belgrade on Thursday night, yet Spurs looked leggy, short of ideas, and were deservedly beaten.

Whether the problem be related to the Europa League or simply to breaking down resolute opponents, it is one Mauricio Pochettino needs to work out if he is to avoid going the way of so many previous Spurs bosses under Daniel Levy.

Everton's inconsistent start, meanwhile, is perhaps the most surprising of all, and certainly the hardest to explain.

Roberto Martinez has changed little at Goodison Park, but nine goals conceded in two home games would certainly suggest there is a problem defensively. Were those goal-laden defeats to Chelsea and Crystal Palace simply early-season anomalies? Is age getting the better of the Phil Jagielka and Sylvain Distin partnership? Is there a different problem altogether?

Martinez will be keen to find out the answers sooner rather than later, but the Premier League has been so brilliantly unpredictable so far this season that we're likely to be mulling over a completely different set of questions this time next week.

Refereeing shambles

While it was a bad weekend for many of the big clubs, it was equally bad for many of the country's top referees.

There seemed to be big decisions in every Premier League game leaving various teams feeling hard done by this Monday morning, but the ones that have understandably attracted the most attention were those to award Leicester their first penalty against Manchester United and to send off Manchester City's Pablo Zabaleta for a second yellow card against Chelsea.

At the King Power Stadium, Mark Clattenburg's decision to penalise Rafael for bringing down Jamie Vardy was not actually that controversial. It was the sort of soft penalty I have said already this season should be stamped out, but it is common to see referees blow up when a forward gets in front of a defender and falls to the floor following contact. Rightly or wrongly, those sort of penalties are given regularly.

The controversy, of course, came because Vardy had got away with giving Rafael a much stronger and much more obvious shove seconds before to get himself into the position. You will struggle to ever witness a referee showing such a lack of inconsistency in such a short space of time.

The Zabaleta red card, meanwhile, was yet another example of a yellow card being shown too easily. The second booking he received was fair, but they are being handed out so easily these days that far too many players are seeing red for two pretty minor infringements.

It is a subject that always divides opinion on these pages - some will argue that the rules are there to protect players, and that Zabaleta, for example, only has himself to blame for committing a risky challenge whilst on a yellow card - but surely every football fan would prefer games to finish 11v11 unless absolutely necessary?

Unfortunately, the results of far too many games are being affected by soft decisions, and the situation looks certain to get worse rather than better.

Praise for Newcastle fans

Regular readers will know I am not the biggest fan of Alan Pardew, but I find it ridiculous that any manager should find himself under pressure after just four games of a league season.

In Pardew's case, it must be particularly galling that, having kept the club in the Premier League despite a lack of transfer funds, some fans have given him remarkably little time to bed in new signings after finally being allowed to spend some money.

A massive well done must go, therefore, to the vast majority of Newcastle fans that ignored the 'Sack Pardew' protests during Saturday's game against Hull City to instead focus on giving the team the support it needed.

It paid off in the end, and the likelihood is that Newcastle will soon begin to climb the table and make the early-season panickers look rather foolish.

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