Alan Shearer finally reaches 100 goals for Newcastle but there were several other features to this match
• He took 185 games to reach the target with Newcastle compared with only 124 with Blackburn, which was easily the quickest

• Only five players have scored 100 goals for a club in the Premiership and he has done it twice. The others are Fowler (Liverpool 120), Wright (Arsenal,104) and Le Tissier(Southamton, 101). Michael Owen can be expected to join the club later this season

• No other player has even reached 50 goals for two different clubs. None of his closest rivals, Yorke(60/48), Cole(95/43) or Ferdinand(60/41) are currently with a club that gives them much chance of reaching that level in the forseeable future

• Shearer also became only the seventh player to reach 100 assists. He extended his points total to 312, 55 more than closest rival, Andy Cole

• United maintained their record of scoring five or more goals in at least one game every season. Their 25th nap hand far surpasses the nearest rival, Liverpool (14)

• Somewhat surprisingly, van Nistelrooy's hat-trick was only the 14th by the club and they trail both Liverpool(17) in total and Arsenal in number of different players who have performed the feat (7 versus 9). However, no other team can boast four multiple hat-trickers as he joins Cole, Solskjaer and Yorke in this category

• Forlan and Silvestre both record their first three-assist games. United now having a league-leading 23 occurrences in Premiership history. It is the ninth match in which two players have achieved the feat. Mark Hughes and Ryan Giggs each put up four in the thrashing of Ipswich but only Nottingham Forest have had three players do it in a single game

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