United's 10,000 goals: How they break down
Given the drama around the match-winning penalty that later followed it, you could be forgiven for missing the milestone that was reached by Marcus Rashford’s superb solo effort at Brighton.
As we reported in the aftermath of Saturday’s crazy 3-2 victory, Manchester United’s second strike of the afternoon was, according to logs kept since 1886, officially the club’s 10,000th goal.
But what are the numbers behind that landmark figure? How does the tally break down by competition, opposition, scorer and venue? Read on for the answers to all of these and more…
All the Angles: Rashford v Brighton
Watch every angle of Marcus Rashford scoring our 10,000th goal, away to Brighton in September 2020...
COMPETITION
Naturally, the vast majority of our first 10,000 goals were scored in the bread-and-butter of league football – almost exactly 80 per cent in fact. Those 8,014 strikes can be broken down further; when Scott McTominay netted against Norwich City in last October’s 3-1 away win, we toasted our 2,000th Premier League goal. Rashford's historic effort at Brighton took that tally up to 2,058, which can be added to 4,523 and 1,433 in the old First and Second Divisions respectively.
OPPONENTS
The 10,000 goals were scored against 218 teams and as you might expect, our most frequent opponents, Arsenal, have conceded more than any other side – 353 goals in 232 games. However, the Gunners could relinquish that distinction in the not-too-distant future, as Aston Villa have only shipped six short of their number, despite facing the Reds much less often (347 goals in 188 games).
SCORERS
Fred became the 500th different United player to find the net when the Brazilian opened his account two years ago, against Wolves. Another 10 Reds have since got off the mark, with scoring debutant Donny van de Beek being the latest on that long list. Those 510 men, led by Wayne Rooney on a club record 253, have mustered 9,808 goals between them, including 463 penalties. Meanwhile, 192 own goals have been donated by opposition players. Thanks guys!
NATIONALITIES
Our first 10,000 goals have been scored by players of 39 different nationalities, with 85 per cent coming from the boots and heads of men hailing from the United Kingdom or Republic of Ireland. As for countries from further afield, van de Beek nudged Netherlands closer to Anthony Martial and Paul Pogba's France as the biggest contributor when he netted during his first appearance. Portugal and Norway are also in triple figures, largely due to Cristiano Ronaldo and current manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer respectively.
VENUES
We scored 4,034 of our first 10,000 goals in away games, and 200 in neutral fixtures but of course, the lion’s share were registered at home - 5,766 to be precise. But did you know more than 1,000 of these were grabbed at grounds other than Old Trafford?
Before the Theatre of Dreams opened in 1910, the club was based at North Road (19 goals) and Bank Street (771). We’ve also hosted fixtures at Maine Road (194), after our stadium was damaged during the war, as well as playing one ‘home’ game apiece at Anfield, Goodison Park, Home Park, Leeds Road and Victoria Ground for various reasons. All five of those games were won with a total of 13 goals for the Reds.
Other venues where we have been prolific include Villa Park but the home team haven't been on the receiving end of all our strikes there. It was, of course, the scene of numerous FA Cup semi-finals, including that iconic replay in 1999 when Ryan Giggs scored arguably the greatest of our 10,000 goals.
Data sourced from MUFCinfo.com.
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