Premier League Opta Stats Match Day One: The Opener, from OPTA and bettingexpert

Premier League OPTA Stats Intro

Premier League OPTA stats, anyone?

So then, here we are, on the cusp of the Premier League season, with an article brought to you by the people at OPTA and the footballing minds at yours truly, bettingexpert. What you are reading is a weekly article poised to deliver OPTA’s best and most mind-bending stats for each Premier League matchday.

It feels only right to kick things off in a way which we’ll continue for the entirety of 2023/24 – with an OPTA stat, of course; This coming Friday presents the first occasion where the top-flight victors from the previous season kickstart a Premier League campaign in the opening fixture since 2016/17. The now-relegated Foxes were the last to do so up against Hull City (losing 2-1), a team they’ll face in the Championship sooner rather than later.

Oh, if you wanted to tuck into an ante-post view of the Premier League betting landscape whilst you’re here, we’ve got you covered on that front, too.

In This OPTA Stats Article

• Burnley vs Manchester City Opta Stats Premier League Preview
• Arsenal vs Nottingham Forest Opta Stats Premier League Preview
• Newcastle vs Aston Villa Opta Stats Premier League Preview
• Brentford vs Tottenham Opta Stats Premier League Preview
• Chelsea vs Liverpool Opta Stats Premier League Preview
• Responsible Gambling

Burnley vs Manchester City: It’s almost humorous

England, Premier League, Friday, August 11th, 20:00 (UK)

The opener. The curtain-raiser. A first foot in the Premier League door for Vincent Kompany and his new-look Burnley side.

The former Manchester City central defender, the heir to Pep’s throne, perhaps, is in line to be the first Burnley manager to win their initial top-flight fixture (0W/3D/1L) at the club.

It’ll be challenging, of course, and they’ll need to keep Erling Haaland quiet. The reigning Premier League and Champions League top goalscorer netted a brace in City’s first fixture last term. Not only that but in his solitary match-up against Burnley in last season’s FA Cup, the Norwegian plundered three strikes.

In what is almost humorous, Manchester City finds themselves in the grips of a winless run rarely seen at the club. The failure to beat both Brighton and Brentford at the back end of last season, the latter completing a historic win double over the Champions, means it’s their longest winless run in the competition since 2017.

Arsenal vs Nottingham Forest: Dwight York and Taiwo Awoniyi

England, Premier League, Saturday, August 12th, 12:30 (UK)

It was a season of two halves for Forest, if splitting the season between Home and Away form. At home (W8/D6/L5), great, enough performances of a certain level to warrant a Premier League stay. Away from home (1/19 wins)? Not so much.

However, as Premier League fat would have it, as the season ticked down to a close with survival dangling like a carrot on the end of a stick, Forest pushed on in unfamiliar settings. The Tricky Trees netted more goals in the last four fixtures away from Nottingham (6) than in the previous 15 matches (5). Talk about a spirited turnaround.

This will be tough, though, no matter what happened nearer the business end in 2022/23. The Gunners enter the fixture without a loss on their scorecards in nine matches on home soil against their opening opposition. Their last defeat came in 1989 – an OPTA stat that may cause a sense of fear to set in for any travelling away support.

Dwight York (1999) is the only Premier League footballer to score the first goal in five matches on the bounce. What is the relevance, we hear you ask – well, Taiwo Awoniyi has opened the scoring in his last four appearances. If he can do so again, not only will he be sharing a record with a sharp-shooting Premier League great, but he’ll put Forest in a much-clamoured position at the Emirates.

Newcastle vs Aston Villa: A sugary tapas-style dessert

England, Premier League, Saturday, August 12th, 17:30 (UK)

The opening match day throws up a fixture of two European-competing teams. No, we’re not talking about Chelsea vs Liverpool just yet. Instead, the Villa make their way North as they start the new Premier League season doused with European hopes and dreams – something that felt a million miles away for both clubs not long ago.

The proof is in the pudding, so they say. And the pudding is precisely what Unai Emery brought with him (some kind of sugary tapas-style dessert, one assumes) from sunny Spain. Only the Champions have produced more points (53) and wins in the division (17) than Newcastle’s opening-day opponents this calendar year. That’s pretty remarkable – their 43-point return in 2023 is already more than they posted in 2022.

The visitors will be hopeful of not losing in three successive opening-day fixtures in Newcastle. Aston Villa have avoided as much since 1970, and you can be sure they don’t plan on digging up old ground. Interestingly, their two recent losses in the previous two seasons came against newly-promoted sides.

Newcastle have lofty plans and expectations of their own. Magpies forward Callum Wilson will be central to such aims alongside Alexander Isak in attack. The Englishman has scored 11 goals in his most recent 12 Premier League matches. Wilson is on fire. That’s an average of a goal every 58 minutes. It’s no surprise that Callum Wilson is the leading goal-getter in the top flight from April onwards.

Newcastle supporters will be hopeful that the summer break hasn’t blunted Wilson’s attacking output. Be wary, Aston Villa, be wary.

Brentford vs Tottenham: Bark loud enough so that André Villas-Boas hears

England, Premier League, Saturday, August 13th, 14:00 (UK)

An all-London affair in the capital to whet the appetite. Fantastic.

Ivan Toney will be sat on the sidelines (probably scrolling through bettingexpert.com, thinking about it) whilst Harry Kane lines up for Spurs, maybe somewhat reluctantly, as a new manager barks orders from the dugout.

This is a test for Tottenham. Brentford have avoided defeat in their previous nine London derbies (W5/D4/L0). They’ve won their last four in a row, too, by the way, so don’t think those are numbers plucked from their Championship stay.

Brentford will need to be wise to any Spurs advances, of course. After all, Tottenham have fallen to defeat in only one of their curtain-raisers in the previous seven seasons. New Spurs gaffer Ange Postecoglou will be desperate to make that opening-day run even more palatable for away supporters making the short trek.

The former Celtic head-honcho is set to become the only Australian to ever manage in the Premier League. No pressure, but André Villas-Boas was the last Tottenham boss to lose the first fixture of a Premier League campaign (2012), the only manager in the previous 10 (W6/D3/L1) Spurs have employed to do so.

Chelsea vs Liverpool: Something has to give

England, Premier League, Saturday, August 14th, 16:30 (UK)

Now, we realise this isn’t exactly selling Premier League and Sky Sports’ offering of half of Super Sunday, but this meeting has finished 0-0 in each of the last four occasions Sunday’s pairing has met. There has been no fixture in English football that has ever finished goalless across five consecutive competitive matches. Wow.

On a brighter note, and one which should reassure any Liverpool fans reading, their Egyptian King, Mohamed Salah, has notched in the season opener in every single campaign as a Liverpool player.

Something has to give. Does Salah score, or are we to witness a ‘bore draw’ on Sunday?

Pochettino lines up in the Chelsea dugout, that we do know. Interestingly, the last ten managers whose opening fixtures fell against the Reds have failed to win (W0/D4/L6). Chelsea’s new man will be praying for a little more luck than those before him.

RESPONSIBLE GAMBLING

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