The new Premier League season may only be four games old but there has already been plenty of drama right across the opening month of the new campaign.
From Liverpool winning their opening four fixtures - the only top flight club to have done so - to a host of controversy surrounding VAR, the opening month of the 2019/20 campaign has certainly been filled with excitement.
And there, too, has been plenty of drama when it has come to the dispatching of penalties. In the opening four rounds of top flight fixtures a total of nine spot kicks have been awarded - five less than what had been given in the Premier League at this stage last season.
So far this term, Manchester United have been awarded the most penalties by Premier League referees, with them having been handed one in three of their opening four fixtures. However, United’s conversion rate stands at just 33.3%, with the Red Devils having missed two of their three awarded penalties.
Marcus Rashford coolly dispatched the Old Trafford club’s first penalty of the campaign in their 4-0 win over Chelsea on the opening weekend of the campaign, only to be guilty of missing from 12 yards less than a fortnight later, striking the post in their 2-1 home defeat to Crystal Palace.
And Rashford’s miss from the spot proved all the more controversial after he had retaken the responsibility of taking penalties after Paul Pogba was denied by Wolves goalkeeper Rui Patricio less than a week prior in a 1-1 draw at Molineux, which sparked a whole host of debate over the Red Devils’ designated penalty taker.
But whilst Rashford and Pogba are the only two players in the Premier League to have missed so far this season, Arsenal goalkeeper Bernd Leno, unfortunately for him, is the goalkeeper that has been beaten most from the spot so far this term.
The German has conceded penalties to both Liverpool sensation Mohamed Salah and Tottenham striker Harry Kane, both in the Gunners’ last two matches.
Elsewhere, Bournemouth’s Josh King, Sergio Aguero of Manchester City, who is already top of the Golden Boot list this season with six, Mark Noble of West Ham United and Wolves’ Mexican forward Raul Jimenez have all dispatched penalties so far this season.
That means that United are the only club in the Premier League this season that have been awarded a penalty not to have scored it.
FULL LIST OF PENALTIES SCORED:
Marcus Rashford - Manchester United v Chelsea
Sergio Aguero - Manchester City v West Ham United
Josh King - Bournemouth v Aston Villa
Mark Noble - West Ham v Watford
Mohamed Salah - Liverpool v Arsenal
Raul Jimenez - Wolves v Burnley
Harry Kane - Tottenham v Arsenal
FULL LIST OF PENALTIES MISSED:
Paul Pogba - Manchester United v Wolves
Marcus Rashford - Manchester United v Crystal Palace
