burnley manchester united Ruben Amorim Fastest to Lose Five Home League Games for Manchester United
Stat, Viz, Quiz is the Opta Analyst football newsletter. This week’s edition looks at Ruben Amorim’s dreadful home record as Manchester United manager, Arsenal’s passing against Man City and Burnley’s remarkable defensive record.
Another home game, another setback for Manchester United and Ruben Amorim. It’s all becoming very concerning, isn’t it? Or maybe you’re enjoying every second of it…
Either way, Sunday’s 2-0 defeat at the hands of Crystal Palace was Amorim’s fifth home Premier League defeat at the helm. He’s hit that mark all too soon, and we put his tough start into context.
Elsewhere, in this week’s edition of our newsletter, we dive into Arsenal‘s silky passing from their humbling of Manchester City. We’re also addressing Burnley’s remarkable defensive numbers in this week’s Ask Opta question, and, of course, we’ll have a quiz for you to get stuck into.
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STAT – More Man Utd Home Woes
After a run of three consecutive wins in all competitions, Manchester United were brought back down to earth with a bump by Crystal Palace at Old Trafford on Sunday. In a game where Ruben Amorim experimented with deploying midfielder Kobbie Mainoo as a central striker – leaving Rasmus Højlund and Joshua Zirkzee on the bench – it was an actual striker in Jean-Philippe Mateta who did the damage. The Frenchman scored a second-half brace to seal Palace’s fourth victory at Old Trafford in the last six seasons.
This latest setback marked United’s fifth home league defeat under Amorim, which is fairly concerning given he’s only overseen seven such matches. No Manchester United manager has reached five home losses in fewer home games in their Premier League history.
Amorim has hit five home defeats twice as fast as the much-maligned David Moyes, while Erik ten Hag took 28 home matches to suffer the same number. Neither José Mourinho nor Ralf Rangnick ever reached five home league defeats during their Old Trafford tenures.
United have now lost seven of their first 13 league home matches this season, their joint most at this stage of a league campaign, along with 1893-94 (also seven home defeats in 13).
Since the beginning of last season, only Wolves (16) have lost more Premier League home matches than Manchester United’s 13.
It’s the Theatre of Dreams alright… just for the opponents.
VIZ – Silky, Silky Arsenal
Ethan Nwaneri capped off a dominant Arsenal display with a stoppage-time goal in their emphatic 5-1 victory over Manchester City at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday.
His strike – Arsenal’s fifth of the match – came at the end of a 36-pass sequence involving all 10 outfield players, lasting just two seconds shy of two minutes. To add to City’s frustration, the full-time whistle blew immediately after Nwaneri’s goal, meaning Pep Guardiola’s side never touched the ball again.