Football Features

Premier League players to watch in GW6: Will Haaland, Saka or Duran make history?

By Will Hall

Published: 21:41, 27 September 2024

The 2024/25 Premier League season enters its sixth gameweek this weekend and already, some players are starting to stand out over others. Let’s take a look at them.

Erling Haaland has already netted an astonishing 10 goals in just five games, becoming the first player in competition history to hit double figures within that timeframe. He is also now two games from erasing his Manchester City predecessor from the history books by setting a new record.

Meanwhile, Unai Emery is wielding magic with his substitute’s bench (more on that shortly) and an in-form Arsenal forward has been displaying creative brilliance.

Aguero record in Haaland’s sights

Sergio Aguero is currently the only player to score in the opening six games of a Premier League season. Haaland, as you are probably aware, is on five in five.

Manchester City play Newcastle in Saturday’s early kick-off, an opponent Haaland has failed to score against in his last thee appearances

Good news for Aguero’s hopes of keeping his achievement unique? Well, it’s also true that Haaland’s post-shot xG per 90 minutes — a metric that measures finishing — is the best in Europe’s top five leagues right now (1.4).

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Jhon Duran, the ultimate Premier League ‘super sub’?

We’re only five games into the season, so it’s almost unthinkable that Aston Villa striker Jhon Duran could become the most effective ‘super sub’ over a single campaign in Premier League history.

And yet already the former Colombia striker has scored three match-winners from the bench in 2024-25.

  • West Ham 1-2 Aston Villa (79′)
  • Leicester City 1-2 Aston Villa (63′)
  • Aston Villa 3-2 Everton (76′)

No one has ever scored four winning goals as a substitute in Premier League history. Duran will get many chances to be the first over the course of the season. However, his first comes in the former of Sunday’ 2pm kick-off, as Villa travel to Ipswich (unless he gets the bitter-sweet news he’ll be starting that game).

More generally, no Premier League manager gets more joy from their substitutes than Emery right now. His subs have been directly involved in 27 top-flight goals since the start of last season, level with Newcastle boss Eddie Howe as the league-high figure among ever-present managers.

Mohamed Salah to level with Thierry Henry?

Mohamed Salah can go level with Premier League hall-of-famer Thierry Henry if he sets up a goal during Liverpool vs Wolves.

It would take Salah to 74 Premier League assists in 268 appearances. He has five assists across his 12 league appearances against Wolves. The only teams he has a better record against are Manchester United (of course), Brighton and Newcastle United.

Henry finished his English football career with 258 top-flight appearances and famously set the single-season record by teeing up 20 goals for Arsenal in 2002-03. Manchester City midfielder Kevin De Bruyne equalled that in 2019-20 but will we see it broken in 2024-25?

Thanks to the next player you’re going to read about, we haven’t been more optimistic since Paul Pogba made seven assists across his first four games of 2021-22 (he would go on to add only two more, unfortunately).

Bukayo Saka’s perfect assist streak

Bukayo Saka is on a five-match assisting streak. Much of this is owed to his crossing ability. He has set up two goals from set-plays this season, both corners headed in by Gabriel against Tottenham and Manchester City respectively.

If he assists in Arsenal vs Leicester on Saturday afternoon, Saka would become the first player in Premier League history to do so in all six opening matches of a top-flight campaign.

You don’t need a calculator to work out that would maintain a 38-assist season trajectory. That’s an implausible figure. Far less implausible, though, is that Saka could steal the crown from Henry and De Bruyne.

One streak Leicester City will want to see continue is Jamie Vardy’s record at the Emirates. He has 11 goals in 16 games against Arsenal, five of which were scored as a visitor.

Danny Welbeck > Eric Cantona?

Danny Welbeck has scored more league goals overall for Brighton than any other club in his career (26).

With Manchester United, Sunderland, Arsenal and Watford, he never hit double figures within a single Premier League campaign. Currently he’s on three goals in five and well on his way to achieving this.

What’s more, if he scores when Brighton travel to Chelsea this weekend, Welbeck will be able to say he scored more Premier League goals (71) than Eric Cantona (70) and the already-surpassed Luis Suarez (69).

Dominic Calvert-Lewin, the other cursed man

Last week we mentioned Ben Brereton Diaz’s winless streak in the Premier League. This time, we’re asking you to please spare a thought for Dominic Calvert-Lewin.

Scoring but losing is one of the most frustrating things that can happen to a striker. Calvert-Lewin has had to put up with it as many times as any player in Premier League history. It happened to the former Sheffield United forward in Everton’s 3-2 collapse against Bournemouth. Then it happened to him again a week later, in Everton’s 3-2 collapse against Aston Villa.

If it happens again when Everton host Crystal Palace on Saturday afternoon, he’ll become the first player in club history to lose in 15 Premier League games that he’s scored in.

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