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The Premier League is already steam-rolling its way into the busy festive period where the fixtures come thick and fast and there is no room for complacency for the teams at the top of the table. The midweek fixtures on match day 17 yet again underlined the fact that there is no alternative to the beauty of English football under the lights.
There were a lot of significant winners and losers on the occasion as clubs battled their way through the cramped up schedules of December in a bid to keep their season alive, for obvious reasons.
Here we take a look at the 5 interesting stats that caught the eye during the recently concluded midweek fixtures:
#5 The Asian connection
Leicester City's thumping 4-1 win over Southampton at the St. Mary's meant that the Foxes' manager Claude Puel had the last laugh over his former employers. Goals from Shinji Okazaki (2), Riyad Mahrez and Andy King ensured that the visitors eased past their opponents on the night.
However, Maya Yoshida pulled one back for the hosts in the second half and the goal meant that this was the first time that two Japanese players managed to score for opposing sides in the history of the Premier League.
#4 Jack Wilshere's first full game in ages
Arsenal fans were left disappointed on their travels yet again as the Gunners failed to overcome David Moyes' West Ham United, who are currently enjoying a rich vein of form after beating Chelsea last weekend.
In a bid to test and try out new things while rotating his first team players throughout the busy festive period schedule, Arsene Wenger named Jack Wilshere in the starting eleven for the first time in since May 15th, 2016 (vs Aston Villa); 577 days ago to be exact.
The Englishman justified the faith shown by the manager by completing the full 90 minutes of the game, for the first time since scoring in their 2-2 draw against Manchester City back in September 2014 and boasted of the highest successful pass completion rate among the 22 players who started the game.
#3 The curious case of Wayne Rooney
Wayne Rooney's goal against Newcastle United ensured that Everton remained in the top half of the table. The 32-year-old broke the deadlock for the visitors in the 27th minute and continued his scintillating form against the Magpies.
The goal took the former Manchester United man's goal tally for the season to 9, on par with his former club's talisman Romelu Lukaku. Rooney has now been involved in 23 goals in his 23 appearances against Newcastle United (15 goals and 8 assists) - more than any other opposition in the competition.
The result also meant that Rafa Benitez tasted defeat against Everton for the first time in the league and leaves his side in an alarming situation after a poor run of form that has seen the Magpies muster only a single point from a possible 24 in their last 8 games.
#2 Arsenal uneasy on their travels
Arsenal's disappointing 0-0 draw against West Ham United meant that the Gunners are now without a win in their last three games in the competition. Arsene Wenger cannot afford to keep dropping points if they are to achieve their target of finishing in the Champions League qualification spots.
A disappointing outing at the London Stadium has now highlighted another issue of their poor form on the road. Eight different clubs have won more points away from home in the Premier League than Arsenal (9) this season - Man City, Chelsea, Man Utd, Liverpool, Burnley, Watford, Leicester and Spurs to name them all.
With respect to the points tally, the Gunners are more closer to Swansea City at the bottom of the table than to Manchester City at the top who are dominating the league at the moment.
#1 Guardiola aka mastermind
Ever since their scintillating start to the season, Pep Guardiola and Manchester City have been breaking numerous records at will, week in and week out. The Blues from Manchester are yet to taste defeat in the league and are currently leading their arch-rivals Manchester United by 11 points at the top of the table, thanks to their derby win at Old Trafford last weekend.
Guardiola's men showed no signs of slowing down on match day 17 when they dismantled a struggling Swansea City who had no answer to City's dominating performance which resulted in a 4-0 win on the night.
The win meant that City have now won a record 15 consecutive games on the spin at the English top division overcoming the previous record (14) set by the Invincibles of Arsenal back in 2002/03.
That's a fact we all talked about but what many people still don't know is that Guardiola currently holds the record for the longest winning streak in 3 of the 5 big leagues in Europe: 19 wins with Bayern Munich, 16 with FC Barcelona (joint best) and 15 with Man City, a streak that has more scope for improvement.
