Early Season Patterns

Who likes a few early season knee jerk reactions? We all do!

As the stats on this site probably need to have 10 rounds of fixtures before the Top 6 / Bottom 6 start to take shape, now’s a good time to see how some of the early season activity might unfold for the rest of the season.

Havertz — further proof of a big game player?

Kai Havertz scoring against Chelsea isn’t a shock, it’s becoming a habit. Sunday’s equaliser at the Emirates was his third Premier League goal against the club that sold him just over three years ago. This was undoubtedly a big game — a London derby against two big and successful clubs, with some calling it an early season decider.

For the winner, he created the goal for Martin Ødegaard without touching the ball. Christos Tzolis gets the assist, but Havertz made the goal. Another big game involvement — albeit not in the records.

And he has history for this. Whilst he can undoubtedly be inconsistent, and has had his injury challenges — stepping up in the big games is not new. Only a handful of players in history have scored in the Champions League final for two different clubs:

• Cristiano Ronaldo 2008 Man Utd vs Chelsea
• Cristiano Ronaldo 2014 Real Madrid vs Atletico Madrid
• Cristiano Ronaldo 2017 Real Madrid vs Juventus

• Mario Mandžukić 2013 Bayern Munich vs Borussia Dortmund
• Mario Mandžukić 2017 Juventus vs Real Madrid

• Kai Havertz 2021 Chelsea vs Man City
• Kai Havertz 2026 Arsenal vs PSG

And before the CL era, as football didn’t begin in 1992:

• Velibor Vasović 1965 Partizan Belgrade vs Real Madrid
• Velibor Vasović 1969 Ajax vs AC Milan

It’s a rare achievement and shows a big mentality.

Our Other Big Games board (quarter-finals onwards) has him on 5 goals in 15 knockout appearances. Could be a big season if he can stay fit.

*2021 final sits just before the 21/22 sample. The rest are on his player page.

Dimarco, hiding in plain sight

Saturday night at San Siro saw an early season cracker in this game against the two teams that have shared the last four titles between them. Napoli raced into a two goal lead before Inter turned the game on its head through two Lautaro Martínez goals and one from Thuram. If the turnaround was surprising, the man who got things rolling wasn’t. Federico Dimarco from left wing-back, found himself getting onto the end of a back-post cross, to send it back across the goal for a tap in for Lautaro.

Dimarco also hit the bar from a free kick. Despite being a wing-back, he had 23 goal involvements in the league last season. That was the joint highest in Serie A. From wing-back, and none of them were penalties.

This won him Serie A Player of the Season, a record assist haul from the left side of a 3-5-2, and — this is the bit people skip — he still put up clean sheets like a proper defender. 16 in total.

GI Goal involvements (goals + assists)·CS Clean sheets (GK and DF)

Six of those goal involvements came against the Top 6 opponents. He is one of the most productive players in Italy, at either end. Napoli just got the latest reminder. And he’s still to sign a new contract. He won’t be short of takers.

Aubameyang, 37, still a rocket

Briefly, but the most surprising statistic this season was seeing who was troubling the top of the Goal Involvements in the Top 5 leagues. A familiar name from years gone by, but not expected for this metric. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has 4 goals and 2 assists — 6 goal involvements — in 4 games in La Liga. Deportivo were expected to struggle in their first season back in the top flight since 2017-18, but currently sit unbeaten on 8 points. Scoring in each of his first four for Dépor is a club record, beating Bebeto — decent company. He is 37, he should be slowing down. Marseille had 15 GI from him last season in 30 games; he is running at a goal involvement every 60 minutes in Spain. He won’t be able to keep up those numbers but Dépor fans are enjoying the ride. And Adama Traoré will be very thankful….

Back to form? Isak and Ødegaard

Alexander Isak has three Premier League goals already. That is as many as he managed in the whole of last season for Liverpool (3 in 14). Two of this season’s three arrived in the first nine minutes at Ipswich on Friday. His previous best in this league was 23 in 34 for Newcastle in 2024/25, and 21 the year before. Last season was the injury-and-limbo one. This looks like the player they paid for.

Ødegaard has gone one better than matching. One league goal in 24 appearances last season, two in three already this — including the winner against Chelsea. His high-water mark is 15 in 2022/23, then 8, then 3, then 1. The drop was availability as much as quality (24 games, 16 starts). Three games into a proper pre-season and the captain is scoring again.

*Through Sunday 6 September 2026. League only.

Havertz is on the same list, which is the pattern. Two league goals in 12 games last season; two in three already, both in meaningful fixtures, plus that Community Shield strike against City. Three players, three injury-or-limbo seasons, three early tallies that already sit on last year’s total.

Is it “back to form”? For Isak and Ødegaard the previous peaks are still a long way off — 23 and 15 are not three-game numbers. But the direction of travel is the one you wanted in August.

Early days but it’s great to have club football back.