Stat, Viz, Quiz is the Opta Analyst football newsletter. This week’s edition looks at Arsenal being top at Christmas, Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s goal map, and Aston Villa’s impressive form.
Being Christmas number one is a big deal. We’re not entirely sure why, it’s a relatively arbitrary staging post, but we’re more than happy to indulge people. After all, it’s Christmas.
Arsenal will lead the way in the Premier League as people tuck into their Brussels sprouts, but does that mean they’re likely to go all the way and lift the title in May? We look at the data behind festive table-toppers in this week’s Stat, Viz, Quiz.
We have a viz that shows just how consistent Dominic Calvert-Lewin has become for Leeds United of late, and because it’s this time of year, we’ve decided to treat our subscribers to a bonus stat about Kylian Mbappé.
As always, we have a quiz to see where your Premier League memory is at, while our Ask Opta question queries where Aston Villa’s winning run compares historically.
And don’t worry, folks. We won’t leave your inbox empty next week either. You’ll receive a fresh SVQ next Tuesday with even more stats and viz, and perhaps even a special end-of-year quiz…
If you haven’t done so already, you can subscribe below for free to receive SVQ every Tuesday.
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Mikel Arteta can sit down to watch Home Alone on Christmas Day safe in the knowledge that his Arsenal side are top of the Premier League.
Will they go on and finally win their first league title since 2003-04, though, or will Manchester City and Aston Villa sneak up on them like a couple of Wet Bandits?
Arsenal, like Kevin McCallister when he first realized he ‘made his family disappear’, have every reason to be excited. Their form across the first 17 matchdays of the 2025-26 season has seen them at the summit for most of the campaign. Now they just have to stay there.
They can’t just sit around eating ice-cream and jumping on the bed, though. There’s two ominous figures lurking and looking to break in (apologies if you’ve never seen Home Alone and all of this means nothing to you).
Manchester City have won their last five league games, including their last three each by a 3-0 scoreline, while Aston Villa have won their last seven in the league. Arsenal were comfortably the better team in their 1-0 victory at Everton on Saturday night but still relied on quite a bit of fortune in both penalty areas, and without the three points, they would have lost top spot to City. The margins are already that fine.
And what won’t help confidence at the Emirates is the fact that this will be the fifth season Arsenal sit top of the Premier League table on Christmas Day (also in 2002-03, 2007-08, 2022-23 and 2023-24), and the Gunners have never gone on to win the title in any of the previous four.
You can add to that three seasons in the old Division One (1951-52, 1986-87 and 1989-90) when they also failed to hold on to top spot and it means the last seven times they have been top at Christmas, they ended up empty-handed.
However, unless you believe that shows something fundamentally wrong with Arsenal as a club, they can still take solace in the overall conversion rate of league leaders at this time of year.
In the 126 English top-flight football seasons prior to this one, the team at the top of the table on Christmas Day have gone on to win the title on 56 occasions (44.4%). That percentage increases if you look at just the Premier League era, with the side spending Christmas top going on to win 17 of the 33 completed seasons to date (51.5%).
Will City or Villa steal it from them, or can the Gunners see them off with proverbial paint cans and tactically placed toy cars?
Sorry, we’ll leave the incredibly laboured Home Alone references there, but you can read more about teams who top the table at Christmas here.
VIZ – When Form Actually is Linear
Strikers are odd creatures. They feed on confidence, and few players epitomise that as much as Dominic Calvert-Lewin.
Leeds United signed the former Everton man on a free transfer in the summer, and it’s safe to say he didn’t hit the ground running. On his debut, Calvert-Lewin came off the bench at Sheffield Wednesday in the League Cup and had four shots with a combined xG of 1.44, failing to score before also missing his penalty in the shootout as Leeds crashed out to their struggling Yorkshire rivals.
He scored just once in his first 11 appearances for the club, which came against Wolves – and let’s face it, finding the net against the Premier League strugglers is nothing to write home about this season.
However, Calvert-Lewin then scored in Leeds’ 3-2 loss at Manchester City, which was the start of an impressive run of form for him and Daniel Farke’s men.
From that game at City to now, he has six goals in five games, scoring in the 3-1 win over Chelsea, the 3-3 draw with Liverpool, the 1-1 draw at Brentford and then recording a brace in the 4-1 victory over Crystal Palace on Saturday. He has now scored in five consecutive games, equalling his best run in the Premier League.
Arguably more remarkable than his sudden volume of goals is how consistent Calvert-Lewin has been in terms of where he’s finding the net from. We’ve heard of central strikers, but this is frankly ridiculous.
In fact, his penalty against Liverpool remains the furthest out he has scored from this season.
It appears that a change of scenery has done Calvert-Lewin the world of good. He hasn’t hit double figures for goals since his outstanding 2020-21 campaign when he scored 21 in 39 games for Everton, only managing 18 in 100 outings for the Toffees since then. He has seven goals in 16 games for Leeds, only needing two more for this to be his top-scoring season since 2020-21.
If he can also add scoring goals from a bit of an angle to his arsenal, just imagine how many Calvert-Lewin could score.
For now, he can continue his apparent dedication to making his goal map look as much like Robert Pires’ beard from 2002 as possible (Google it, kids).
BONUS STAT AND VIZ – Mbappé Equals Ronaldo Record
We always like to acknowledge impressive goalscoring landmarks in SVQ, and there are few more impressive than Kylian Mbappé’s efforts in 2025.
Real Madrid’s 2-0 win over Sevilla on Saturday was their final game of the calendar year, and their French superstar scored from the spot late on to seal things for Xabi Alonso’s side.
It wasn’t just any goal, though. Mbappé’s success from 12 yards was his 59th goal of 2025 for Madrid in all competitions, equalling the club record set by Cristiano Ronaldo in 2013.
It should be said that Mbappé took nine more games to reach the total than his idol, with Ronaldo playing just 50 games to score his 59 goals, while Mbappé totalled 59 outings.
The former Paris Saint-Germain striker performed Ronaldo’s famous ‘siu’ celebration in honour of the achievement, and acknowledged the Portuguese legend after the game, saying: “Today, and because of the record, it’s incredible, in my first [calendar] year [at Madrid] to be able to do what Cristiano did. My idol, the best player in the history of Real Madrid and a reference in world football. It’s an honour for me.
“Normally I have my own celebration, but I wanted to share that with him, and like I said, he’s been my idol since I was a kid. I have a very good relationship with him, he’s a friend now.”
Unsurprisingly, Mbappé has the most goals to his name of any player from Europe’s top five leagues in all competitions this year, ahead of Harry Kane (51 goals in 56 games), Erling Haaland (40 goals in 45 games) and Serhou Guirassy (35 goals in 50 games). Haaland still has the chance to add to that when Manchester City play Nottingham Forest on 27 December, but Mbappé, Kane and Guirassy are done for the year now after the weekend.
How many will Mbappé get in 2026? His race to improve further still and hit 60 goals begins on 4 January when La Liga returns and Madrid host Real Betis.
QUIZ – Boring Brighton, Haaland’s Haul, and Romero Reds
Merry quiz-mas, everyone. Five questions gift-wrapped for you to tear open and solve. Answers at the bottom.
Robert Sánchez’s assist for João Pedro in Chelsea’s draw at Newcastle United was the fourth time a goalkeeper has assisted a Premier League goal for the Blues, and the first since who set up Didier Drogba against Tottenham Hotspur in December 2010? Since their promotion in 2017, no team have had more goalless draws in the Premier League than Brighton (30), level with which other team? Manchester City’s Erling Haaland has scored 19 Premier League goals already this season; a joint-most by a player in a campaign before Christmas in the competition’s history along with three others. Can you name them (a point for each)? Xavi Simons and Cristian Romero were both shown red cards for Tottenham in their 2-1 loss to Liverpool. In the only other Premier League home game in which Spurs have had two players sent off, Romero also received his marching orders (vs Chelsea in November 2023). Who was the other Spurs player sent off in that game? Dominic Calvert-Lewin is the first Leeds player to score in five successive Premier League appearances since who did so in 2003?If you want an even greater challenge, you can take this year’s Opta Analyst Football Quiz, made up of 10 rounds and with a total of 100 questions.
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Our question this week comes from Wesley K, who asks: “How many Premier League teams have previously won more consecutive games in all comps than Aston Villa have now?”
Do you have a stat-based question you’d like Opta to answer in a future edition of SVQ? Email us at editors@theanalyst.com or message us on X @OptaAnalyst with #AskOpta and we’ll pick the best one.
Answer:
What a run it has been from Aston Villa. Since their 2-0 defeat at Liverpool on 1 November, Unai Emery’s men have won 10 consecutive games in all competitions.
A brace from Morgan Rogers helped them to a 2-1 victory over Manchester United on Sunday, keeping them very much in the conversation for the Premier League title as they try to chase down Arsenal and Manchester City.
It is the first time Villa have won 10 consecutive matches as a top-flight team since March 1914 (a run of 11).
However, they remain some way short of the record for longest winning streaks in all competitions by a Premier League club.
Manchester City won 21 games in a row in the 2020-21 season, starting with a 1-0 win at Southampton on 19 December 2020 and ending with a 2-0 defeat at home to Manchester United on 7 March 2021.
There have been eight other instances of a Premier League team winning 10 games in a row in all competitions, a further six who won 11, while Arsenal are the only other team to have won more (13 once and 12 twice).
So, should Villa win their next four games against Chelsea, Arsenal, Nottingham Forest and Crystal Palace, they will have the outright second-longest win streak in the Premier League era.
That will obviously be a big ask, but then so was reaching 10 wins.
Quiz Answers
1. Robert Sánchez’s assist for João Pedro in Chelsea’s draw at Newcastle United was the fourth time a goalkeeper has assisted a Premier League goal for the Blues, and the first since who set up Didier Drogba against Tottenham Hotspur in December 2010?
Petr Cech
2. Since their promotion in 2017, no team have had more goalless draws in the Premier League than Brighton (30), level with which other team?
Crystal Palace
3. Manchester City’s Erling Haaland has scored 19 Premier League goals already this season; a joint-most by a player in a campaign before Christmas in the competition’s history along with three others. Can you name them (a point for each)?
Andy Cole (1993-94), Kevin Phillips (1999-00) and Luis Suárez (2013-14)
4. Xavi Simons and Cristian Romero were both shown red cards for Tottenham in their 2-1 loss to Liverpool. In the only other Premier League home game in which Spurs have had two players sent off, Romero also received his marching orders (vs Chelsea in November 2023). Who was the other Spurs player sent off in that game?
Destiny Udogie
5. Dominic Calvert-Lewin is the first Leeds player to score in five successive Premier League appearances since who did so in 2003?
Mark Viduka
Before You Go…
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Arsenal Are Top at Christmas, But Does it Matter? Opta Analyst.
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