“Has any club in a major league ever gone top of the table after the opening round of games and stayed there all season?” asks Joel Mahoney.
“No team has been been top after every round of matches, in the English top flight,” writes Chris Roe. “It has happened only once in the Football League: Tottenham Hotspur in Division Two in 1919-20.” Spurs won their first seven games, including a 5-0 victory at Coventry on the opening day, and eventually finished six points ahead of Huddersfield.
Barcelona finished a whopping 15 points clear of Real Madrid in 2012-13, regaining the title in spectacular style. Tito Vilanova’s side blootered Real Sociedad 5-1 in their opening game and won 18 of their first 19 games to leave everyone else fighting for second place.
Last season, both Celtic and Paris Saint-Germain led their respective leagues from week one. Celtic started the season with a 2-0 win over Aberdeen, which was enough to put them top on goal difference. That was the first of six straight victories, including a 9-0 romp at Dundee United, and overall they won 30 of the first 32 league games.
PSG’s start was even more emphatic: they won 5-0 at Clermont on the opening day, and massaged their goal difference by beating Montpellier 5-2 and Lille 7-1 in their next two games. They won 14 of the first 16 matches, which gave them enough leeway to faff around after Christmas and still win the title with a game to spare.
The closest we have found in the English top flight is Liverpool going on to win the league from matchday two in 2019-20. They were third on goal difference after the opening match despite beating Norwich 4-1.
Three-mendous hat-tricks of goals and assists
“If she hadn’t had a goal chalked off, Lauren James would have had a hat-trick of goals and assists against China at the World Cup. Has this ever been done before?” asks George Ronczy.
It has indeed – and by another Lioness. When England overwhelmed Latvia 20-0 in 2021, Beth Mead scored a hat-trick and got at least three assists (some sources credit her with four). With 40 goals and assists to share, the only surprise is that more England players didn’t achieve the feat. Ellen White, Lauren Hemp and Alessia Russo also scored hat-tricks; Georgia Stanway and Alex Greenwood managed a hat-trick of assists, a double hat-trick in Stanway’s case.
It’s easier to find examples in the men’s game because there is so much more data available. Knowledge regular Dirk Maas has written in with three examples from club football. First up is Timo Werner, who scored three and made three for RB Leipzig when they smashed Mainz 8-0 in November 2019.
When Barcelona beat Deportivo La Coruña by the same score in April 2016, Luis Suárez scored four and created three. And in October 2020, when Erik ten Hag’s Ajax romped to a 13-0 victory in their Eredivisie game at VVV-Venlo, the Burkina Faso forward Lassina Traoré scored five and set up another three.
Suarez has achieved the feat for club and country; he was involved in six of the goals when Uruguay beat Indonesia 7-1 in 2010. So has the mighty Karl-Heinz Rummenigge of Bayern Munich and West Germany, who tormented Borussia Mönchengladbach in March 1979 and Finland in September 1981. His team won 7-1 on each occasion.
Theo Walcott inspired Arsenal to come back from 4-0 down to beat Reading 7-5 in an absurd League Cup game in October 2012. Walcott scored a hat-trick and made three more, even if the last assist came from what was essentially a clearance. They all count.
Spanish legend Raúl had a hand in seven of Spain’s nine when they thrashed Austria in a Euro 2000 qualifier: he scored four, set up two and also put in the cross that was belted into his own net by Arnold Wetl. We’ll let you decide whether that counts as an assist.
And if you count winning a penalty as an assist, which some people do, then the original Ronaldo achieved the unusual feat of getting a hat-trick of goals and assists in a 3-1 win. To explain: in a World Cup qualifier against Argentina in June 2004, Ronaldo scored a hat-trick of penalties – and he was fouled for all three of them.
Win-averse survival experts
“What’s the fewest number of wins by a club that avoided relegation from the English top flight?” writes Glenn W.
It seems you can stay up after winning only four games or be relegated after winning 15 (lads, it’s Tottenham). There is a slight asterisk, though, because the teams who stayed up after winning only four or five times played fewer matches across the season and also had to apply for re-election. In the inaugural season of the Football League, Stoke finished bottom after winning four of their 22 games. But they, along with Notts County, Derby County and Burnley, successfully applied to have another go the following year.
Not much changed for Burnley, who were again re-elected after winning four games out of 22 and finishing second bottom. Then it was the turn of West Brom in 1890-91 (five wins out of 22, finished bottom) and Stoke again in 1891-92 (five wins in 26, second bottom).
The league was expanded after that, with at least 30 games in every top-flight season. Since then the fewest number of wins by a team that avoided relegation is six, a record shared by four clubs: Sheffield United in 1920-21, Southampton and Crystal Palace in 1969-70 (Sheffield Wednesday won eight matches and finished bottom) and, most recently, West Brom in 2004-05.
Bryan Robson’s Baggies famously stayed up despite being bottom of the table going into the last day of the season. They had won only one of their first 23 league games, but their form picked up in the new year and they beat Portsmouth 2-0 on the last day to avoid relegation.
The question was about the Premier League, but we can’t resist a detour to the golden age of Serie A. No, not the one with Diego Maradona, Marco van Basten, Lothar Matthäus and the rest; we mean the era of two points for a win and draws – lots and lots of draws. In the era of 30-game seasons, both Fiorentina (1970-71) and Udinese (1979-80) stayed up despite winning – and you’ll like this – only three matches. At one stage Fiorentina won only one league game in seven months. But they drew plenty, 19 in total, and that kept them up. Paradoxically, they won seven matches in the Coppa Italia that season, yet didn’t win the competition.
Knowledge archive
“What’s the most number of times that a team has hit the woodwork in the same game?” asked Ally McPhail in 2018.
Let’s start by looking at a couple of examples of teams who hit the woodwork multiple times in the same attack. Earlier this season Duisburg whacked wood four times in a few seconds against Fortuna Düsseldorf, and Brazil did so three times during the foreplay to Roberto Dinamite’s goal against Poland at the 1978 World Cup.
As for multiple woodwork-rattling across a whole match, the first game that comes to mind is from Euro 96. The Czech Republic drew 3-3 with Russia, a result that put them through to the quarter-finals ahead of Italy, and also hit the woodwork four times from a variety of angles and distances.
At least they got the result they needed – as did Chelsea in the 2010 FA Cup final, when they hit the woodwork five times in a goalless first half against Portsmouth. They eventually won the match 1-0 and did the double.
Manchester City battered Bolton at the Etihad Stadium at the start of the 2005-06 season. They hit the woodwork five times, and then lost 1-0 to an injury-time penalty from Gary Speed.
That tale of woe was topped in Nuremberg in 2012, when Germany beat Kazakhstan 4-1 in a World Cup qualifier – and hit the woodwork six times. The same happened in the Southern League West in January, when Evesham United repeatedly hit the woodwork in a 2-1 defeat at Yate Town.
Six times!
Can you help?
Who was the first substitute to have been sent off when not on the field of play?
— 4,000 Holes (@roversfanzine) August 29, 2023
“Scotland’s squad for the upcoming international games has only three Old Firm players: Callum McGregor from Celtic and Ryan Jack and John Souttar from Rangers. Is this a record low?” asks Rory Quigley.
Olimpija Ljubljana midfielder Saar Fadida scored hat-trick in slovenian league against NK Rogaska. Then next match left out on the bench whole 90 mins against Ludogorets in UCLQ.
— Alex Shwartser (@lemmacantor11) August 29, 2023
Any other examples when player didn't play next official match after scoring hat-trick,
“Seven London clubs played in the Premier League this weekend and none of them lost. Has that ever happened in the english top flight before?” asks Roland Tye.
@TheKnowledge_GU Leeds United's last 12 goals in competitive games have been scored by different players. How rare is this? Is it anywhere close to a record?
— Jonnie Dance (@hardtogethits) August 29, 2023
“In Leyton Orient’s 2-0 win over Cambridge United, Idris El Mizouni, on loan from Ipswich, captained the team due to injuries. Is this exceptional? How rare is it for a loanee to be captain?” wonders Ken Shadlen.
Now Jarrell Quansah has made an appearance Liverpool have fielded a player with a surname from every letter of the alphabet bar U and Y. Has anyone completed the set?
— Will Nichols (@WillNicholsEsq) August 29, 2023
“As I write this the ‘as it stands’ National League table has Southend bottom on -1 points with a goal difference of +6. Only one other team has a +6 goal difference (Solihull Moors) but have scored fewer goals. Is this the only example where a team have been bottom of the league whilst simultaneously having the best goal difference in the division?” – Martin Dixon.
Leicester have now won their first four league games while always being level or behind in the 70th minute.
— Doremus Schafer (@DoremusSchafer) August 29, 2023
What's the longest such streak of late winners?
Mail us your questions or tweet @TheKnowledge_GU.
