Fourteen of the weekend's forty three completed matches were won by the away team. Thirteen were won by the home team. Sixteen finished level.


That is the shape of the last two and a half days across the top five leagues, and it is not how a football weekend usually reads.


The away teams had the better of it


Manchester City won at Old Trafford with ten men. Arsenal won at Sunderland, Brighton won 5-0 at Coventry, Nottingham Forest won at Aston Villa, Ipswich won at Crystal Palace. That is five of the nine Premier League fixtures won by the visiting side.


Atlético Madrid won 3-0 at Real Sociedad and Barcelona won 4-2 at Levante. Bayern Munich won at Elversberg, Eintracht Frankfurt won 3-1 at Mainz, Schalke won 3-1 at Union Berlin. Paris Saint-Germain won at Brest, Fiorentina won 4-2 at Venezia, Cagliari won at Atalanta.


Sixteen draws, and four of them goalless


Liverpool and Fulham finished 0-0 at Anfield, Tottenham and Everton 0-0, Paris FC and Lyon 0-0, Le Havre and Angers 0-0.


Ligue 1 produced five draws in nine matches. The Premier League had four in nine: Chelsea 2-2 with Hull City, Bournemouth 2-2 with Brentford, and the two goalless ones. La Liga had three, and all three of them finished 1-1.


The goals were still there


One hundred and twenty four goals in forty three matches, 2.88 a game, which is an ordinary return for a weekend in which more than a third of the fixtures could not be separated.


Freiburg and Leipzig both won 5-0. Brighton won 5-0. Barcelona scored four, Real Madrid scored four, Fiorentina scored four. The scoring was concentrated rather than absent.


What it probably means


Not much on its own. One weekend of 37 per cent draws is inside the range of ordinary variance, and the top five leagues are four or five matches into a season.


It is worth noting for one reason: the fixtures that looked most predictable on Friday were not. Juventus lost at Sassuolo, Aston Villa lost at home to Forest, Chelsea drew at home with Hull City, and Manchester City won a derby with ten men. A weekend where the favourites collected less than usual is the sort that decides tables in May.