MOST GOALS SCORED THIS CENTURY AND THE LEAST GOALS CONCEDED IN THE LAST DECADE AT THIS STAGE

The international break is always an opportunity to look back and to reflect. When it comes to talking about the leader of La Liga Santander, it is not very difficult to find numbers that adorn the fantastic position that Pablo Machín's men find themselves at the moment. Even when we look at the statistics from all the official matches that they have contested, the figures are very encouraging. In fact, this season's Sevilla are the most prolific scorers of this century, ever since the team, with Joaquín Caparrós in the dugout, achieved their last promotion to the top division in the summer of 2001. The 42 goals scored in these 17 matches are a milestone in the 21st century, surpassing in that aspect the starts of the 13/14 and 09/10 seasons, which until were the records with 40 goals scored respectively.

Even defensively the numbers highlight the team's good work, with 14 goals conceded since the season began against Újpest in the second qualifying round of the UEFA Europa League, which are the best defensive figures by a Sevilla team in the last decade. These numbers were also achieved in the 09/10 and 11/12 seasons, but we need to go back to the 08/09 season to find better numbers when they conceded only ten goals by this stage. The record for the least number of goals conceded this millennium belongs to the team from the 05/06 season, in which after 17 official matches they conceded just 8 goals.

The record for the least goals conceded after 17 matches this century was in the 05/06 season, with just eight

Looking at the number of wins in these first 17 competitive matches, we see that such a high percentage is not something out of the ordinary. We must not forget that the Sevilla have already put together 12 wins and have only managed more wins in two other occasions at this stage. These were in the 09/10 season, whose starting eleven remain as one of the strongest from this century, as well as in the 06/07 season. In both occasions Sevilla managed 13 wins in 17 matches, a percentage of 76.5%, slightly better than the 70.6% match wins by the current team. All this in a season that is unlike most others, with a total of eight European matches played already. Furthermore, we must not forget that teams from big leagues around the world such as Burnley, Feyenoord and Atlanta failed to overcome the hurdle of three qualifying rounds to reach the group stage.

It must also be pointed out that in neither of those seasons with a greater match-win percentage did the team have to face FC Barcelona and Real Madrid as they have this season. Additionally, in almost every season of this century, in the first 17 matches, the team have faced at least one knockout round in the cup against a team from a lower division, something that is still a few weeks away in the 18/19 season. In conclusion, these numbers certainly do not guarantee anything at this early stage, but they testify to the exciting start by Machín's team in their effort to stay atop the First Division, to continue making progress in the Europa League and make a convincing start in the Copa del Rey.