End of Guardiola’s streak, no capital gains for Palace, history for Firmino – Unusual facts in the Premier League

Manchester City saw their main rivals for the Premier League title get off to a good start on Saturday before the champions stumble at Tottenham on Sunday.

Son Heung-min continued his recent phenomenal record against City with the lone goal, while Pep Guardiola’s men went blank for a third straight game in all competitions. Maybe there is someone in North London who could help them with that?

Manchester United and European champions Chelsea reveled in packed halls and Liverpool gave newly promoted Norwich City a reality check.

But these are the hard facts. Let’s dig a little deeper into some of the weirdest events of the Premier League opening weekend.

Hesitant start for City

Guardiola suggested his stars returning from Euro 2020 and Copa America might be undercooked and it turned out. The 1-0 defeat at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium puts City in territory they are not used to.

You have to go back to 2008-09 and a 4-2 loss to Aston Villa for the last time City lost their Premier League opener.

During that same campaign, Guardiola’s new tenure at Barcelona got off to an unsuccessful start with a setback against Numancia which indicated little about the hat-trick that was about to unfold. Since then, the Catalan had overseen 11 wins on Matchday 1.

Perhaps it would still be the Spurs stopping his run, Guardiola has now lost more away games to Tottenham (five) in all competitions than any other opponent in his career.

It is also worth considering whether he is chasing bad Spurs forward. Only Jamie Vardy (nine) has more than Son’s seven goals against City since Guardiola took over in 2016.