Have Arsenal progressed under Unai Emery? Will the record for the youngest Premier League goalkeeper ever be beaten? And how close did Tottenham’s Juan Foyth get to matching Steven Gerrard’s infamous 38-second dismissal?
Here, BBC Sport takes a look at the key numbers from the 2018-19 Premier League season’s penultimate weekend.
Progress for Arsenal under Emery?
“They have blown it and only have themselves to blame,” said Chris Sutton on BBC Radio 5 Live, as Arsenal’s hopes of a top-four Premier League finish effectively ended with a 1-1 draw against Brighton on Sunday.
Requiring victory at Burnley, defeat for Tottenham and an unlikely eight-goal swing on the final day of the season, Arsenal’s hopes of securing Champions League football would appear to rely now on winning the Europa League.
The Gunners are winless in four league games, their longest run without victory in the competition since February 2016, while Glenn Murray’s penalty means they have conceded 50 goals in consecutive top-flight campaigns for the first time in 35 years.
Last season, as Arsene Wenger’s 1,235-game and 22-year reign came to an end, Arsenal finished sixth on 63 points – scoring 74 goals and conceding 51. With one game to go this time around, the Gunners under Emery have already bettered that points tally by four and sit one place higher in the table, despite scoring four goals fewer.
It’s certainly marginal progress compared with Wenger’s final season at Emirates Stadium, though across the Frenchman’s final five seasons, Arsenal averaged 72 points and only failed to surpass the 70-point mark once in his last seven campaigns.
Currently on 67 points with three points to play for, Emery could yet improve Arsenal’s final tally by seven points in 2018-19, demonstrating only slight variation from Arsenal’s 72-point average over the past decade.
The Gunners were 12 points adrift of fourth-placed Liverpool in 2018, but at the very worst could finish six points behind Tottenham in the final Champions League spot this season.
Youth takes to the stage
In a weekend when the world’s oldest professional football club – Notts County – exited the English Football League, Fulham’s Harvey Elliott set a new record as the Premier League’s youngest-ever player.
Aged 16 years and 30 days, the midfielder beat former Fulham player Matthew Briggs’ 12-year record when he was introduced in the 88th minute by manager Scott Parker against Wolves.
Born on 4 April 2003, Elliott will be sitting his GCSEs in just a few weeks’ time. Crazy.
Meanwhile, at the Vitality Stadium as Bournemouth hosted Tottenham, Cherries goalkeeper Mark Travers became the first teenage goalkeeper to start a Premier League game since Joe Hart for Manchester City back in October 2006.
Aged 19 years and 351 days – that’s 19 years and 87 days younger than Artur Boruc, the man he replaced – Travers became just the fifth teenage goalkeeper to earn a clean sheet on his Premier League debut, joining Hart, Ipswich Town’s Richard Wright, Leeds United’s Paul Robinson and Manchester United’s Paul Rachubka.
Neil Finn, who made a sole appearance for West Ham in January 1996, remains the youngest Premier League goalkeeper by a fair distance, while Travers joins the list at number 15.
| Youngest Premier League goalkeepers | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date | Player | Team | Opposition | Age |
| 01/01/1996 | Neil Finn | West Ham | Manchester City | 17 years and 3 days |
| 06/05/1995 | Richard Wright | Ipswich Town | Coventry City | 17 years and 182 days |
| 31/01/2004 | Scott Carson | Leeds United | Middlesbrough | 18 years and 150 days |
| 12/02/2000 | Stephen Bywater | West Ham United | Bradford City | 18 years and 250 days |
| 05/11/2005 | Ben Alnwick | Sunderland | Arsenal | 18 years and 308 days |
May the Foyth be with you… briefly
Juan Foyth was a man in a hurry on Saturday, as he offered his services for just 133 seconds after coming on as a half-time substitute for Tottenham.
His dismissal – a straight red which left Spurs with nine men following Son Heung-min’s earlier sending-off at Bournemouth – was the fastest for a sub in the Premier League since Liverpool’s Steven Gerrard was infamously sent off after 38 seconds in March 2015 against bitter rivals Manchester United.
With Foyth and Son condemned to the dressing room, Mauricio Pochettino’s side became the first team to receive two red cards in a Premier League game since Chelsea, against Burnley in August 2017, and the first to manage two straight reds since Manchester City pulled off the feat against Chelsea in December 2016.
Neither Spurs, nor Chelsea, nor City won those games. In fact, on the 64 occasions a Premier League team has finished with nine players, they have lost 49 times – winning only two.
And while we’re really milking this red card chat, Son followed in the footsteps of Sun Jihai, Li Tie, Hidetoshi Nakata and Maya Yoshida to become the fifth player from Asia to receive a red card in the competition.
English players (619) dominate the Premier League red cards stats, with the other home nations Scotland (87), Republic of Ireland (81), Wales (51) and Northern Ireland (30) all firmly in the top 10. But here are the other nations that really love their Premier League red cards:
Wolves eyeing title upset?
It may have already been mentioned that Wolverhampton Wanderers are having a truly excellent first season back in the top flight.
With victory over Fulham on Saturday, Nuno Espirito Santo’s side became the first promoted team to win 15 games since Reading in 2006-07.
Reading won 16 games that season, and Wolves must produce a victory at title contenders Liverpool on the final day if they are to match that.
Their current total of 57 points in the Premier League this season is also the most by a newly promoted side in 18 years, since Ipswich Town secured 66 in 2000-01, while victory against Jurgen Klopp’s side next Sunday would see them become the fifth most successful promoted side in Premier League history.
In a typically unpredictable campaign, many fantasy football managers have fallen in love with Wolves’ adventurous full-back Matt Doherty, who once again delivered this weekend.
The Republic of Ireland international registered his ninth goal involvement in the league this season as he teed up Leander Dendoncker’s winner, and only trails Liverpool duo Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andrew Robertson among defenders.
It was another productive weekend for Alexander-Arnold too, as the 20-year-old became just the second defender to exceed 10 assists in the top flight this season.
He matched, and then overtook, team-mate Robertson’s tally of 11 as Liverpool took the title race to the final day with victory over Newcastle on Saturday.
Only Leighton Baines, with 11 in 2010-11, and Andy Hinchcliffe, with 11 in 1994-95 – both with Everton – had previously made more than 10 in the illustrious history of Premier League defenders.
