2019 – In losing against Maritzburg United last month & Sekhukhune today, Orlando Pirates have lost back-to-back away games in the league for the first time since September/October 2019 under Rulani Mokwena. Stung.

4 – Orlando Pirates have conceded four goals in the final 10 minutes of matches this season, more than any other side. They conceded three goals after 80+ minutes throughout all of last season. Switch-off.

100% – Sekhukhune have scored in every home game this season (5/5), the best record of all #DSTVPrem sides. Trend.

5 – No player has provided more assists in the #DSTVPrem than Iqraam Rayners this season (5). Layoff.

3 – Stellenbosch have equalled their biggest top-flight winning margin since their 2019 promotion, following two 3-0 victories last season and a 4-1 win in 2019/20. Gliding.

6 – TS Galaxy have failed to score in their last six #DSTVPrem games, the Rockets longest such run since their 2020 promotion. Malfunction.

2 – Grant Magerman has scored two goals in his last two games, having managed 2 goals in his previous 68 top-flight games. Upturn.

1 – Marumo Gallants have won their first game of the season in their ninth attempt, the last team to register a first win. Last season, they were also the last team to get a first win (MD10), doing so immediately after Dan Malesela joined the club. Déjà-vu.

17 – Maritzburg United have failed to win any of their last 17 away games (D7 L10 since September last year), the longest such run for the club in its PSL top-flight history. Woeful.

8 – Arrows have now scored 8 goals at home this season. Only Sundowns (10) have more home goals in the league.

Trendsetters

Sundowns earned their 1500th point in the PSL over the weekend, the first top-flight side to reach that total, and one of only five teams with more than 1000.

Others past 1000

Only 5 teams have passed the 1000 point mark in PSL history – namely Sundowns, Chiefs, Pirates, SuperSport and Wits.

Who got there first?

Kaizer Chiefs were the first team to 1,000 points in April 2014, followed by Pirates and Sundowns in September of the same year. Chiefs were the 1st team to 500 points in November 2004.

Who is close?

Golden Arrows (801) are the only active PSL side that is nearest to 1,000 points, but judging by recent season, it could take them another 5 campaigns to get 200 points.

100 – Sinethemba Mngomezulu’s opener for Stellenbosch v Swallows FC was the 100th goal scored in the league this season.

100% – Chippa United have scored in each away game they have played this season (5 out of 5), the best 100% record of all PSL sides.

5 – No player has been involved in more goals for Stellenbosch in the league this season than Junior Mendieta (3 goals, 2 assists).

5 – Orlando Pirates have kept five clean sheets in their opening eight league games, the club’s most at this stage of a season since 2011/12, when they went on to lift their last title.

13 – Sundowns are now unbeaten in 13 home matches against Golden Arrows (W9 D4), last losing at home in this fixture to Manqoba Mngqithi’s Arrows in October 2008.

Photo credit: @orlandopirates

Immediate response

80 – There were just 80 seconds between Thatayaone Ditlhokwe goal putting SuperSport ahead and Lucky Baloyi equalising for Maritzburg United.

Rare goal

2 – Onismor Bhasera has scored only his second league goal and his first since June 2021 vs Chippa United.

Assist King

4 – No PSL player has made more assists than Iqraam Rayners this season (4). Indeed, he has three in the last two matches.

Hunt(ing) ground

16 – Gavin Hunt remains unbeaten in league matches away to Maritzburg United (P16 W6 D10 L0 at four different clubs), extending his longest unbeaten run away to a single PSL opponent.

Veteran scorer

36y 8m 2d – Aged 36 years, 8 months & 2 days, Onismor Bhasera is the third oldest player to score a league goal for SuperSport in the PSL, after Grant Johnson (37y 19d) and Sibusiso Zuma (38y 5m & 6d).

Bonus:

0 – Maritzburg United are now winless in their last nine home league matches played on Friday nights (P9 W0 D5 L4), last winning in their final league game pre-lockdown v Polokwane City (March 2020).

Photo: @SuperSportFC

Maritzburg host SuperSport United on Friday evening at Harry Gwala stadium. There is a myth about Friday nights at the stadium, but as the stats below show, nothing can be taken for granted.

0 – Maritzburg are winless in eight home league matches played on Friday nights, drawing five and losing the other three.

Their last Friday night home win came in March 2020 against Polokwane City, which happened to be their last match before Covid 19. Hmmm?

Coach Hunt has a good record v Maritzburg

0 – Gavin Hunt has never lost a league game away to Maritzburg United (P15 W5 D10 L0 at four different clubs), his longest unbeaten run away to a single PSL opponent.

48% – Hunt has won 48% of his league games against the Team of Choice (P31 W15 D13 L3).

Of teams currently in the top-flight, this is his 3rd best record – 51% v Arrrows, 52% v AmaZulu.

The man does well against KZN based sides.

But has a bad record against his opponent

0 – Gavin Hunt is winless as a coach against John Maduka (P5 W0 D4 L1).

Of currently active coaches, he only has a worse record against Kaitano Tembo

0 – Gavin Hunt is winless as a coach against Kaitano Tembo (P8 W0 D3 L5).

Photo credit: @SuperSportFC

The three midweek matches produced a measly two goals in the DSTV Premiership this week, which could easily have been one goal. Only Peter Shalulile’s late winner ensured Sundowns left Port Elizabeth with three points. Here are five stats from the midweek action.

5 – Only Themba Zwane (7 in 2020-21) & Daniel Mudau (8 in 2000-01) have scored more league goals for Sundowns in the opening seven games of a PSL season than Peter Shalulile (5 this term).

Season	Player	Goals after MD7
2000-01	Mudau Daniel	8
2020-21	Zwane Themba	7
2009-10	Mphela Katlego	5
1998-99	Mudau Daniel	5
2021-22	Shalulile Peter	5
2011-12	Mphela Katlego	5
2022-23	Shalulile Peter	5

5 – Chippa United have won five points from their opening seven games on the PSL campaign, as many as they had at this stage in the 2020/21 & 2021/22 seasons (W1 D2 L4 on all occasions).

Seems that is a favoured total after 7 games, something that has happened four times now.

Chippa record after seven games:

	Played	Points
2012/13	7	5
2014/15	7	10
2015/16	7	10
2016/17	7	9
2017/18	7	7
2018/19	7	8
2019/20	7	4
2020/21	7	5
2021/22	7	5
2022/23	7	5

90+ – Since Peter Shalulile joined the club, Sundowns have scored three 90th minute winning goals in the Premiership, with all three coming from Peter Shalulile (also v Leopards & Stellenbosch in 2021).

In fact, Downs have scored seven 90th minute goals in the league since he joined the club (including non match-winning goals), with Shalulile responsible for six of those.

0 – Chippa are still winless against Sundowns since their 2012 promotion (P19 W0 D7 L12), the longest any top flight team has gone before winning a league game against The Brazilians.

13 – 13 points from seven games is Sundowns’ lowest total at this stage since 2018/19.

Sundowns points totals after 7 games in the last 5 seasons:

	Played	Points
2018/19	7	11
2019/20	7	17
2020/21	7	17
2021/22	7	19
2022/23	7	13

Image credit: @Masandawana

Richards Bay Football Club are already carving out a niche in the local football scene as everyone’s second favourite team. The newly-promoted side won 1-0 against Royal AM on Tuesday to make it four wins from seven games. If you’re looking for signs on whether they are safe from relegation, let’s start here:

4 – Richards Bay FC have now won as many games after seven rounds this season as Swallows FC managed throughout all of last season (also 4).

Swallows survived. Just.

Which is a painful contrast to the Swallows the season before. Swallows 2020-21 hold the PSL record for most points by a newly-promoted side in their opening seven games. 1999 Tembisa Classic were joint-second all along, with Kaizer Chiefs coach Arthur Zwane (3 goals) top scoring for them on their way to 12 points from seven games. 2012 UP were the other 2nd placed team on this table, coached at the time by Stellies coach Steve Barker. Richards Bay are now outright 2nd.

MOST POINTS FOR NEWLY-PROMOTED SIDES AFTER SEVEN GAMES:

Forget safety, is Top-half possible?

Why focus on survival. How high can they really go? After all, in the last two seasons, only three teams have won more than 4 of their opening seven games. Two of those sides (Sundowns 20-21 and Sundowns 21-22) went on t win the title. The 3rd was SuperSport 20-21 who won five of their opening seven games, only to end up in 5th. The Natal Rich Boyz would take that.

Richards Bay had 10 points from six games before Tuesday night. No newly promoted side has ever finished in the bottom-half of the PSL table having won 10+ points in their opening six games.

Of the three teams that had 12+ points after seven games, none of them finished in the bottom half either – Arthur Zwane’s Classic were 9th in a 18-team league, while Steve Barker’s University of Pretoria were 8th in a 16-team league. 40 points is the average needed for Top 8 in a 16-team PSL, Richards Bay need 27 points from the final 23 games to feature in next season’s MTN8.

Sundowns beat Chiefs, Pirates lost to Chippa, Richards Bay went top of the league, joint-top with TS Galaxy. Gavin Hunt lost while Daine Klate won his first game as a coach goal. You’ve probably seen the post match reactions, comments and big opinions. But here, we try and find the most interesting stat from the weekend.

1 – Abubeker Nasir’s goal is the first league goal for Sundowns by a player from Ethiopia, the 35th different nationality to appear for them in the PSL.

Can you name the other 34 countries?

Ethiopia is the 23rd country to have a player score for Sundowns in the PSL era. Other countries with one goal for Sundowns include:

DR Congo
New Zealand
Botswana
Senegal
Kenya
Portugal

Can you name those players?

6 – Abubeker Nasir is the sixth player to score his first league goal for Sundowns in a game against Kaizer Chiefs, after Clayton Daniels, Sibusiso Vikakazi, Kermit Erasmus, Peter Shalulile & Grant Kekana.

6 players have also opened their accounts against Pirates, but it’s far from the most. 10 Brazilians broke their duck against Free State Stars & SuperSport, 11 against Wits and 12 against AmaZulu. But the club that leads here is now (well technically) defunct.

13 – 13 players scored their 1st Sundowns goal against Moroka Swallows, the most among all of Sundowns’ PSL opponents.

Headline Photo: @Masandawana

Sundowns beat TS Galaxy 3-0 on Wednesday night, as they marched closer to yet another title. In doing so, they went past the 50 point mark, becoming the first side to do so this season. Here are 5 stats from the midweek games

50-point mark

2017/18 – This is the first time since 2017/18 that Sundowns reach the mark before anyone else, with Pirates (18/19), Chiefs (19/20) and AmaZulu (20/21) doing so in the last three seasons.

22 – Chiefs (21 games in 2014/15) are the only side in PSL history to have reached 50 points quicker than this current Downs side (22 games).

Pirates draws

6 – Only once before in PSL history have Orlando Pirates been involved in more 0-0 draws in a single season than the six they have in this campaign (9 in 2009/10). The last time they had three successive goalless home draws was 2017.

Goal difference

+29 – Sundowns’ goal difference of +29 at this stage of the season is a first; with the 3-0 win helping eclipse the +27 goal difference after 22 games set by three other sides (Chiefs 96/97, Downs 98/99, 16/17). The goal difference record for a PSL season is +44 (98/99 Sundowns), while the record for a 30-game season is 35 (Downs in 15/16 and 18/19).

Desmonds

AmaZulu & Stellenbosch were involved in a 2-2 draw for the second time this season (the reverse leg also ended 2-2). It is only the 13th time in PSL history that both legs of a top-flight fixture end as 2-2 draws.

Sundowns strolled to a 2-0 win over Chippa last night, in the first league game of the year. Here are 5 stats on that game!!

18 – Chippa remain winless against Sundowns ever since they were first promoted in 2012 (D7 L11 in 18 attempts), the longest any top-flight team has gone before winning a league game against Sundowns.

They are also yet to win against TTM, Royal AM and Swallows FC, but those are newer sides. Chippa have won more games against AmaZulu than any other side (7).

1 – Sundowns have lost the first league match of a new year just once in the last eight years (W5 D1, L1).

Their only defeat in that time when starting a new year was 3-2 to Polokwane City in 2018.

47 – Downs have collected 47 points from 20 league games, their best total at this stage of a PSL season.

In PSL history, only Manning Rangers (48 in 1996/97) had more after 20 games.

12 – Teboho Mokoena scored his 1st goal for Sundowns, becoming the 12th different player to score for The Brazilians this season.

No team has more different scores (Arrows & Royal AM also 12).

3 – Teboho Mokoena was scoring his 5th goal of the season (4 for Supersport, 1 for Sundowns). All of his last three goals have come from outside the box.