Worst collapse in PL history? Five things you might have missed today

It was business in the Premier League, with seven matches played on Saturday.

The day began with Arsenal hosting Brighton, followed by five 3 p.m. games featuring newly promoted Southampton, Ipswich, and Leicester City.

This was a precursor to a contest between Spanish managers when West Ham welcomed champions Manchester City in the late kickoff.

With many fixtures being played, missing a significant or memorable event is natural. But don’t worry – Squawka is here with a few stats and stories you might have missed from this latest round of mid-afternoon Premier League games.

Home comforts

Aaron Ramsdale had a debut to forget with Southampton after completing his move on deadline day. The former Arsenal shot-stopper conceded on three occasions in their loss at Brentford this afternoon. Among those who netted past him was Yoane Wissa, who has now been involved in seven goals in his last eight home Premier League starts for Brentford (five goals, two assists), scoring and assisting in each of the last three. The last player to score and assist in three home appearances in a row was Leroy Sané for Manchester City in September/October 2017.

The only way is up

Everton supporters must wonder if their club has done something to displease the football gods. Cruising at 2-0 and heading into the final stretch, Bournemouth mounted the unlikeliest of turnarounds. Still feeling aggrieved after last weekend’s controversial disallowed goal against Newcastle, the Cherries netted three unanswered goals in the 87th, 92nd, and 96th minutes. It’s the latest a team has ever been two or more goals ahead in a game they have gone on to lose in Premier League history.

“We did so much right until they scored their first goal. I think they had one shot on target before then. The game should have been out of sight. We conceded one and then threw it away. I can’t put my finger on it right now,” Toffees head coach Sean Dyche reflected afterwards.

“They kept raining it forward and got their reward in the end. The Premier League you have to play to the last breath of the game and we simply didn’t but they did. They were playing it forward and crossing it into the box and we didn’t deal with it. Simple stuff but we threw it away. It is the third game we have thrown away this season.

“You have to kill teams off at every level, but particularly at this level. Everyone was looking at someone else to deal with things and that is when there is trouble. You could see the body language change. You have to see games through and we have enough experience to do that, but today we didn’t.”

Even more damaging is that up to the night of August 31, Everton will have spent 15 days at the bottom of the Premier League in 2024-25, their most in a season since 2009-10 (14). They also become the third side to be at the bottom of the table at the end of August in consecutive seasons, along with Wimbledon (1996-97/1997-98) and West Ham (2017-18/2018-19).

The faithful at Portman Road will have to wait a bit longer to see their side win a Premier League game. Following a 1-1 stalemate with Fulham, the club is winless in each of their first three league games of a top-flight season for the first time since 1984/85 (three draws), while the seven goals that they have conceded are their most at this stage of a season in the top tier since 1973/74 (also seven). That being said, Ipswich is the first side to see each of its first two goals in a Premier League season come from outside the box since West Brom in 2020/21.

Hungry like the wolf

Each of the last four league games between Nottingham Forest and Wolves have now ended in draws after today’s 1-1 result, the most in succession during this fixture’s history. It’s also the same number of stalemates as across their 20 league meetings combined. Breaking the deadlock, before Jean-Ricner Bellegarde’s equaliser, was Chris Wood, who netted his seventh Premier League goal against Wolves – the joint-most he’s netted against any opposition in the competition (also seven vs. West Ham).

Super-sub

Among players to have scored seven or more Premier League goals, only Matt Derbyshire (90% – 9/10) has seen a higher percentage come as a substitute than Aston Villa’s Jhon Durán (86% – 6/7). Meanwhile, among players with five or more goals in the competition, only Erling Haaland (one every 82 minutes prior to their game with West Ham this evening) has a better minutes-to-goal ratio than the Colombian (96).

Durán netted to put Villa 2-0 up at Leicester with substitute Facundo Buonanotte (19y 252d) pulling one back for the hosts. He subsequently became Leicester’s youngest Premier League scorer since Jonathan Stevenson (19y 189d), who also netted against Aston Villa back in April 2002.

Hattrick Haaland

A goal at Stamford Bridge on the opening weekend for Erling Haaland was just the beginning. Ipswich and West Ham have since been put to the sword with the Norwegian machine registering back-to-back trebles. Indeed, he’s the first player to score a hat-trick in two of a team’s first three league games in a season since Paul Jewell for Bradford in 1994-95. Furthermore, this is an unprecedentedly fast-scoring start to a Premier League season; no one had ever netted at least seven goals (like Haaland has) after the opening three matchdays, with the previous best being his City predecessor Edin Džeko (six) in 2011/12.

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