19 January MW21
EMERY’S FIRST BLANK
Unai Emery’s proud/odd record of never having overseen a goalless draw in his Premier League career with either Arsenal or Villa, came to a stultifying halt at Goodison Park in his 97th match. It was the Spaniard’s 21st draw so you might say it was coming. Villa’s relatively poor away record combined with Everton’s recent woes to provide only the sixth 0-0 of the season and a mere 3% of the 203 matches played so far.
Jordan Pickford’s seventh clean sheet of the season nudges him one ahead of Alisson and Onana in the Golden Gloves contest. If Everton do survive this season, point deductions and all, Pickford will have been instrumental in keeping them up.
HALF-TIME HEROES?
Chelsea have not had too much to shout about in the last few seasons but having scored the only goal of the game just before half-time against Fulham they extended their record of not being behind at the break to 21 matches. Although, in less good news, it was only the sixth time they had led at the interval.
By comparison Manchester City have been behind in five of their twenty matches so far and Tottenham were closest to Chelsea in terms of not trailing at half time but they did so at Old Trafford, which was the third time this season. Liverpool and West Ham are also on three, so still some way behind the Blues.
The Football Mine 