The final round of Premier League fixtures before the longer than usual international break produced goals galore, with some eye-catching scorelines.
Five sides found the net three times or more, with 27 goals going in at an average of 2.7 per game – and that’s including the weekend’s one 0-0 between Leeds and Crystal Palace.
Here, we take a look at the top performers in various key attacking metrics during Matchweek 5…
Premier League most goals: Brobbey back amongst it with a bang
On an individual level, Matchweek 5 was all about the Brian Brobbey show as Sunderland’s battering-ram striker opened his account for the season with a hat-trick.
It wasn’t enough for Sunderland to get anything out of the game – they went down 5-3 at Manchester City, with Brobbey becoming just the sixth player to score a Premier League hat-trick and end up on the losing side – but they’ll be happy to see their No.9 firing on all cylinders again.
The Netherlands international scored twice in the first half at the Etihad Stadium and made sure he went home with the match ball by making it three in the second, each goal coming from his right foot.
Incidentally, the only other player to bag multiple goals this weekend was playing in the same game: Man City’s Antoine Semenyo, who put the league leaders 3-2 and 4-2 up.
Player | Goals |
Brian Brobbey (Sunderland) | 3 |
Antoine Semenyo (Man City) | 2 |
Premier League most shots: Brobbey always lurking but outshot by trio
It’s a mark of how clinical Brobbey was on the day that he wasn’t one of the three players with the most shots in the Premier League in Matchweek 5 (he ranked joint-second with five).
Three players had six shots this weekend: Marcus Rashford, Nicolas Jackson and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall.
However, of the three, only Jackson found the net, putting Aston Villa 3-0 up on their way to a 3-2 win at Tottenham.
Dewsbury-Hall was also on the winning side as Everton beat Ipswich 1-0, but Rashford’s Manchester United had to settle for a point in a 1-1 draw away to Fulham.
Player | Shots |
Marcus Rashford (Man United) | 6 |
Nicolas Jackson (Villa) | 6 |
Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall (Everton) | 6 |
Mohamed Belloumi (Hull) | 5 |
Brian Brobbey (Sunderland) | 5 |
Bryan Mbeumo (Man United) | 5 |
Premier League most shots on target: Brobbey either beating or testing the ‘keeper
However, Brobbey did top the charts for shots on target with four – three of which, as we’ve seen, went in.
His Sunderland teammate Malick Fofana was one behind with three shots on target, as was Spurs’ Savio – though neither of them was able to get themselves on the scoresheet.
A host of players recorded two shots on target, with six of them scoring: Johan Manzambi, Jackson and Emiliano Buendia (all Villa); Charalampos Kostoulas (Brighton, who beat Arsenal 3-0 in arguably the result of the weekend); Matheus Cunha (Man United); and Semenyo.
Player | Shots on target |
Brian Brobbey (Sunderland) | 5 |
Malick Fofana (Sunderland) | 4 |
Savio (Spurs) | 4 |
Premier League highest xG: Brobbey again ole ole
We did say it was the Brobbey show… And, probably unsurprisingly given his goals output, he finished with more Expected Goals (xG) than anyone else in Matchweek 5.
Brobbey’s total of 2.35 xG was more than twice that of the next highest-ranked player in that regard, City’s Erling Haaland (a regular occurrence for the three-time Premier League Golden Boot winner, who scored his team’s fifth goal on Sunday).
Only one other player came within 0.16 of recording 1.0 xG: Brentford’s Jaidon Anthony (0.96), who broke the deadlock in the Bees’ impressive 3-0 home triumph over Chelsea on Friday night.
Player | xG |
Brian Brobbey (Sunderland) | 2.35 |
Erling Haaland (Man City) | 1.09 |
Jaidon Anthony (Brentford) | 0.96 |
Yoane Wissa (Newcastle) | 0.84 |
Brennan Johnson (Everton) | 0.82 |
Premier League most big chances scored: Brobbey’s finishing masterclass
And in another mark of how ruthless he was in front of goal, Brobbey had three big chances – and scored them all.
Only one other player was presented with three big chances to score in Matchweek 5: Thierno Barry of Everton, who netted with one of them – his second league goal of the campaign – to secure the three points against Ipswich.
By contrast, Barry was one of three players who missed three big chances – along with Sunderland duo Fofana and Nilson Angulo.
Top FPL forwards and midfielders in Matchweek 5: Brobbey believers’ faith repaid
No prizes for guessing who came out on top here. Brian Brobbey more than tripled his season total in Fantasy Premier League with 17 points in Matchweek 5 – much to the delight of the relatively small 6.5% of FPL managers who selected him.
Charalampos Kostoulas (selected by 3.1% of FPL players) was the only other forward to hit double figures for points this weekend, scoring and assisting for Brighton against Arsenal to finish with 10.
But seven players classed as midfielder by FPL chalked up 10 or more points – and, unsurprisingly, Semenyo (selected by 15.2% of FPL players) was the best of them, picking up 17.
