Which players reached Premier League milestones this weekend?

Gameweek 16 in the Premier League again didn’t fail to throw up more surprises. Bournemouth capped of the finest week in their history when they followed up their win over Chelsea with victory against Manchester United, whereas Newcastle continued their astonishing turnaround with a win over Spurs and Leicester returned to the Premier League summit thanks to a 2-1 win over the reigning champions.

There was also similar joy for Crystal Palace, who moved to within three points of the top four and Arsenal overcame their injury crisis to keep pace with Leicester when they beat a struggling Aston Villa 2-0. Included in that victory, saw Olivier Giroud become the third quickest Arsenal player to reach 50 Premier League goals.

The France international has courted a lot of criticism from Arsenal fans since joining from Montpellier in 2012, but he is now starting to deliver important goals on a regular basis. In fact, only Thierry Henry (50 goals in 83 appearances) and Ian Wright (50 goals in 87 appearances) have required fewer games than Giroud (113) to reach a half-century of league goals for the club.

Giroud wasn’t the only player to reach a Premier League milestone this weekend. There hasn’t been a lot to shout about for Aston Villa this season; they are currently without a win since the opening day of the season. However, in Rudy Gestede, they have a player that has become the first player to win 100 aerial duels this season, at least 10 more than any other player.

Norwich City fans have also been disgruntled at times this season with the football they’ve seen from Alex Neil’s side. Perhaps best summed up by the fact Sebastian Bassong has made at least 29 clearances more than any other player in the Premier League and the first to reach 150 (151).

For more stats on the Premier League, click here to visit the Premier League player statistics page