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.

2001 – SuperSport came from behind to win over TS Galaxy after conceding the first goal in the 63rd minute. It’s the latest they have conceded the opening goal & gone on to win a league game since September 2001 v Black Leopards – a match Kaitano Tembo played in.

25 – Downs have won 25 points in their opening nine league games. This equals the best ever start by a top-flight side in PSL history (Chiefs 96/97, Downs 99/00, Chiefs 14/15, Downs this season).

16 – Marumo Gallants were the 16th different team Sundowns have won against this year, the most different teams they have won against in a single calendar since 1999 (19 teams).

10 – Seven points in the opening 10 league games at Chippa is Gavin Hunt’s worst ever start to a top-flight season.

20 – Marumo Gallant were the 20th different top-flight side Shalulile has scored against in his PSL career. He has scored against every single club he has played at least 90 minutes against in his top-flight career except for Platinum Stars & TTM (though he’s scored against Gallants).

*The only other team he has not scored against are Ajax Cape Town, but he only played 59 minutes against them. 

27 – Sundowns are unbeaten in their last 21 away league matches (W14 D7), equalling the longest away unbeaten in PSL top-flight history, set by Kaizer Chiefs between January and December 2005.

Games	Team	Ended
21	Chiefs	December 2005
21	Sundowns	*ongoing
17	Pirates	January 2005

21 – Altogether, Downs are unbeaten in their last 21 away league matches (W14 D7 since August 2020), the longest such run for the club in their PSL history. Three of the away games were in the PSL bio-bubble, their record would be 20 if bio-bubble matches are removed.

10 – Sundowns have now kept a 10th consecutive clean sheet in the league, equalling the all-time PSL record set by Wits in 2003.

7 – This is also the first time in Downs’ history they have opened a PSL season with 7 consecutive clean sheets in the league, bringing them level second with 2009 Orlando Pirates for consecutive clean sheets from the start of a season. Wits hold the record on 10

Number	Team	Season	Coach
10	Wits	2003/4	Roger De Sa
7	Pirates	2009/10	Ruud Krol
7*	Sundowns	2021/22	Mngqithi & co.
4	Wits	2008/9	Roger De Sa

19 – 19 points from their opening seven games is Sundowns’ joint-best start at this stage of a PSL campaign (19 also in 1999). Only 2014 Chiefs (21 from 7) have previously won more points at this stage in PSL history.

Chiefs got back to winning ways with a 4-0 thumping of Chippa. Keagan Dolly & Khama Billiat stole the limelight, but all in all it was a solid performance (in attack and defence) for the team. Here are 5 stats from the Saturday that was..

92 – With his goal against Chippa, Khama Billiat has gone past Wilfred Mugeyi as the top-scoring Zimbabwean player in the PSL era (92 goals, all comps). He is now 6th highest overall in PSL history

Player	Nationality	Goals
Siyabonga Nomvete	South Africa	123
Daniel Mudau	South Africa	110
Mabhuti Khanyeza	South Africa	110
Tico-Tico Bucuane	Mozambique	104
Collins Mbesuma	Zambia	103
Khama Billiat	Zimbabwe	92

100 – Khama Billiat’s goal was also the 100th scored in the league this season. Coming in the 50th league games, it’s the slowest since 2016/17 (also 50 games).

15 – Supersport have 15 points from their opening seven games, their joint-best total at this stage in their PSL history (also last season & 2011/12)

5 – This was the first time Kaitano Tembo used all 5 subs in a league game this season, and only the second time since the start of last season.

4-0 – The 4-0 loss to Chiefs is Chippa’s joint-biggest losing margin in their PSL top-flight history (5-1 v Maritzburg in April this year).