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Premier League: Facts and figures from Sunday's games

Arsenal’s midfielders provided the creativity and Burnley’s men gave us the hard graft on a tightly-fought afternoon of Premier League action.

Here, we take a look at the facts and figures to pick out the Premier League’s star performers on Sunday according to the numbers…

Goals

Image: Mame Diouf: Two goals

After 27 goals on Boxing Day, Premier League defences tightened up on Sunday with just 17 goals in the nine games – including three goalless draws. That made the efforts of Mame Diouf at the Britannia Stadium all the more eye-catching as the Stoke forward scored twice in a 2-0 win over West Bromwich Albion.

Diouf even started the game playing in a wide position in support of Peter Crouch but did his best work when moved to a central role. “We know where his best position is and it’s down the middle,” said Stoke boss Mark Hughes. He’ll expect more opportunities there in future.

Creativity

Very few teams got their passing game going on Sunday with neither Tottenham nor Manchester United having a single player attempt 50 passes at White Hart Lane in the early kick-off.

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Santi Cazorla: Good day for Arsenal

David Silva did manage 72 passes for Manchester City, while Nemanja Matic made 67 of them for Chelsea but the man with the most completed passes was Aston Villa’s Carlos Sanchez who found a team-mate on 85 occasions at Villa Park. All three of those teams had to settle for a point.

The most creative player on view on Sunday was Arsenal’s Santi Cazorla who made seven key passes in the 2-1 win over West Ham. There were four more players who created five openings with Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain among them, an indication that the Gunners had some joy at Upton Park.

Running

Burnley's George Boyd celebrates scoring against Man City.
Image: George Boyd: Top runner

Burnley produced the result of the day in the Premier League and that’s a reflection of the work their players put in for their 2-2 draw with City at the Etihad Stadium. The player who covered the most ground and the man with the most high-intensity sprints both wore Burnley shirts.

George Boyd scored their opener to help spark the comeback and was tireless throughout despite having been in action on Boxing Day, covering 12.96 kilometres for his team. Midfielder Scott Arfield made 88 sprints too so a point was well deserved for the hard-working duo.

Defending

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Ron Vlaar: Pleased with point

There were plenty of crunching performances as you’d expect on a day when defences dominated. QPR’s Mauricio Isla made 10 tackles, the third most by a Premier League player in a game so far this season.

As for interceptions, fellow Hoops defender Richard Dunne and Aston Villa captain Ron Vlaar each produced seven of them to help their teams to clean sheets. Paul Konchesky also reached that total before being red carded in Leicester’s win at Hull.

Goalkeeping

When the defence was breached, there was a last line to stop teams making the breakthrough and Tottenham’s Hugo Lloris was the pick of the goalkeepers on Sunday.

The Frenchman made five saves to deny Manchester United, standing up well to Robin van Persie at close quarters as well as producing a fine diving stop to keep out Ashley Young’s long-range curler.

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