On Saturday 10th June 2023, we reached the climax of the longest season when Manchester City won the Champions League (European Cup) against Inter Milan in the Final at Ataturk Olympic Stadium, Istanbul and by claiming their first Champions League Title also completing the “Treble”, becoming on the second English Team to complete this remarkable feat.
I wanted to follow my overview of the kits worn in the Group Stages with a Kit Overview of the Knock Out Stages of the competition, as well as a final overview of the competition from The Group Stages
Knock Out Round Kit Stats
30 Kits worn in Knock Out Stages – 29 games
18 Home Kits (14 first choice / 4 variations)
4 Away Kits (3 first choice / 1 variations)
7 3rd Kits (7 first choice)
1 Cup Kit
6 New Kit Variations used in Knock Out Stages
Overall Kit Stats (Including Group Stages)
87 Kits worn – 125 games
38 Home Kits (29 first choice / 9 variations)
26 Away Kits (20 first choice / 6 variations)
19 3rd Kits (16 first choice / 3 variations)
4 Cup Kits used (3 first choice / 1 variation)
Kit Overview
Group A / Group B
Group C / Group D
Group E / Group F
Group G / Group H
The 6 “New Kits Variations” seen in the Knockout Stages:
Napoli in Away kit with home shorts to give an all white look against Eintracht Frankfurt in the Last 16 game
PSG wore their home kit in 7 of their 8 games in the Champions League this season, their only alternative look came in their final game of this season’s competition when they wore their 3rd kit.
Real Madrid wore their Home Kit with 3rd Kit socks in their Quarter-Final game against Chelsea..
Eventual winners Manchester City, used their 3rd Kit in their Quarter-Final match against Bayern Munich, the first used in their Champions League and their 4th Kit Variation of the Competition.
One of my favourite Kit Tales of the Champions League this season was the Semi-Final / Milan Derbies, with both Milan teams opting for alternative (away kit) white shorts and socks in both games, each giving the teams new looks not used in the competion this season.
Kit Variations Stats
Looking in more detail at the Kit Variations worn by the Champions League Teams
There was a reduction in overall kits used from last season, reducing from 96 to 87 (10%) this can been seen in the reduction of variations of default looks used with only 13 teams using variations of their default looks.
Only one team, Borussia Dortmund wore just the one kit in the Competition this season, wearing their “Cup” Kit in their 8 games
Every game in Group C had a team in a change kit…..
Let me know you favourite kits, kit highlights and kit match ups of the 2022 / 23 Champions League in the comments below or over at @Kit_Geek
The 2022 / 23 Premier League season ended on Sunday 28th May 2023 with Manchester City securing their 3rd Premier League in a row with 3 games still to play. At the foot of the table, Everton survivied with a final day victory which means that Leicester City and Leeds United will be joining already relegated Southampton.
As the season has ended, I will follow my tradition of taking a more in depth look into the kits worn through this season, some stats and information behind these kits.
Kit Stats
760 Kits worn (380 Games)
Home Kit used 73% of the time (67% Default, 6% Variations)
Away Kit used 15% of the time (12% Default, 3% Variations)
3rd Kit used 12% of the time (9% Default, 3% Variations)
109 different Kit Variations worn by the 20 teams
Home Kits – 43.1% of total Kit Variations used:
25 Home Kits worn (5 teams wearing 23/24 Home Kit this season)
22 Home Kit variations used
Away Kits – 29.4% of total Kit Variations used:
19 Away Kits worn
13 Away Kit variations used
Aston Villa did not use registered Away kit, wearing 2 different variation
3rd Kits – 26.6% of total Kit Variations used:
19 3rd Kits used
10 3rd Kit variations used
Manchester United did not use registered 3rd kit, wearing alternative shorts
Goalkeeper Kits:
68 Goalkeeper used
2 Teams (Liverpool and Manchester City) in 5 different Goalkeeper Kits
4 Teams in 4 Goalkeeper Kits (Arsenal / Leicester City / Liverpool in 23/24 GK Kits)
Overview of Kits Used
Kit Overview
Kit Log, Match 1 to Match 19
Kit Log, Match 20 to Match 38
Kit Variations
Looking in more detail at the Kit Variations worn by the Premier League Teams:
Two Teams in 9 Kit variations
Manchester United – Home Kit x6, Away Kit x2, 3rd Kit
Newcastle United – Home Kit x3, Away Kit x3, 3rd Kit x2, 4th Kit
Two Teams in 8 Kit variations
Leeds United – Home Kits x2, Away Kit x2, 3rd Kit x4
Southampton – Home Kit x4, Away Kit x3, 3rd Kit
West Ham United in 7 Kit variations – Home Kit x3, Away Kit x2, 3rd Kit x2
Arsenal – Home Kit x2 (including 23/24 Kit), Away Kit x2, 3rd Kit
Liverpool – Home Kit x2 (including 23/24 Kit), Away Kit, 3rd Kit x2
Four Teams in 4 Kit variations
Four Teams in 3 Kit variations
Most variations of Home Kit – 6
Manchester United
Most variatons of Away Kit – 3
Newcastle United
Southampton
Most variations of 3rd Kit – 4:
Leeds United
Six Teams did not wear any Kit Variations, just default Home, Away or 3rd Kits
AFC Bournemouth
Brentford
Leicester City (Including 23/24 Home Kit)
Manchester City (Including 23/24 Home Kit)
Nottingham Forest
Wolverhampton Wanderers
Most worn Home Kit – 31, Wolverhampton Wanderers
Most worn Away Kit – 9, Nottingham Forest
Most worn 3rd Kit – 9, Brentford and Manchester City
Most worn 4th Kit – 1, Newcastle United
Liverpool and Manchester City used 5 Goalkeeper Kit variations including 23/24 GK Kits
Most worn GK Kit – 31, Tottenham Hotspur (Yellow GK Kit)
Kit Grid
Below is a graphic of what kits where worn against what teams, its one that I share on a weekly basis on my Twitter Account – @Kit_Geek
Kit Tables
One area I like to look at is a team’s performance in their kit, I have created the below tables (Home, Away and 3rd Kit), all shirt variations are included in each section, e.g. Manchester United’s 6 Home Kit variations are all included in the “Home Kit” Table and based on “Points per Game” used ratio.
Home Kits
No surprises at the top of table, with Manchester City heading the table up with 2.48 points per game in their Home Kit, followed by Arsenal (2.31) and Manchester United (2.21). Both Manchester Clubs scoring 62 Points in Home Kits.
Chelsea can sum up their disappointing season by scoring less 1 point per game (0.93), only managing 28 points in their 30 games in their home kit, one of four teams (Everton, Leicester City and Southampton) in managing less than 1 point per game.
Away Kits
Newcastle United’s Champions League qualifying season was supported by their performance in their Navy Away kit, worn in 3 different variations The Magpies managed 2.67 points per game in their 6 games.
Arsenal scored the most points in an Away Kit, they managed 18 points in their two away kit looks which was used across 10 games in total.
Only 7 teams managed more than 1 point per game, with Everton who only secured their Premier League status on the final game scored 1.4 points per game in their away kit and remained unbeated in their two away kit looks this season.
Fulham, who used their away kit 3 times, did not manage to score any points in these games.
3rd Kits
Rumour has it that Mikel Arteta did not like the Arsenal Pink 3rd kit this season, however in its two appearences they won both games giving the kit a maximum 3 points per game.
Champions Manchester City, who were the joint highest wearers of a 3rd kit this season score 20 points in total, finishing 2.22 points per game.
Fulham were more productive in their 3rd kit, were the 4th highest points per game scorers in 3rd kits, with a total of 9 points won in 5 games wearing 2 variations of their 3rd Kit.
There were 3 teams that did not score any points in their 3rd Kit (Leeds United x5, Southampton, x5 and Nottingham Forest x2).
Summary and Highlights
There were plenty of discussion points through the season with the kits used, some of the highlights for me are the following:
Lets start with Manchester United, who wore a staggering 6 variations of their Home Kit, the key to this was the socks… they started the season using alternative black away socks and it was not until teams returned from the World Cup on 27th December where the default Home Socks were finally used… see the difference in the socks below? One of the Kit Mysteries of 2022/23 Season
The other four looks for Manchester United were…
As briefly mentioned above, another Kit Mystery for the season is Arsenal 3rd Kit, initally popular with fans when it was first released, however it only made two appearences this season (both victories) and was used in two of Arsenal’s first three games, so its final use in the Premier League was on 20th August in the game against Bournemouth… rumour was the Mikel Arteta did not like the kit but there is no confirmation of that!
Newcastle United ended the season unbeaten in their change kits, they played a total of 12 games in change kits.
6 games in Away Kit (3 Variations)
5 games in 3rd Kit (2 Variations)
1 game in 4th Kit
Leeds United, ended the season with the most variations of a 3rd Kit, using 4 different looks in just 5 games unfortunatley not scoring a point in any of these looks but as a Kit Geek, I did enjoy they use of this kit!
This season was the first since 2019/20 where a 4th Kit was used. However Newcastle United’s 4th was not a traditonal 4th Kit but a training shirt that was matched prepared and partnered with Home Shorts and Socks, the reason being that their designated kits of this season were all considered to clash when they visited Brighton & Hove Albion in just the second game week of the season and their first away game!
Crystal Palace did not use their 3rd Kit in the Premier League in 2021/22 season and it took until their 23rd game of this season against Brentford in February to wear one this time, a total of 651 days and 64 League games between wearing 3rd Kits (both Black with Red / Blue details).
There were some interesting Kit Mash Ups used this season…
Arsenal, using grey Goalkeeper Socks with their Black Away kit… a look they used three times against Manchester United, Liverpool and Brentford!
When Manchester City visited Crystal Palace, their goalkeeper socks were considered a clash with Crystal Palace’s, so Ederson took to the field in white outfied away socks of Palace!!
Leeds United, followed a similar look to Arsenal when they played Manchester United with their Goalkeeper look using grey socks with their black keeper kit, they wore this look in both games against Manchester United… which were in the space of 4 days!
There we have it, The Premier Leagues’s End of Season Kit report for 2022/23, please let me know your favourite kit highlights from this division on the comments below or over at Twitter – @Kit_Geek
On Wednesday 15th Decemeber 2021 Sergio Aguero announced his retirement from professional football after being diagonsed with a heart condition.
Aguero was a player that I always enjoyed watching through out his career after discovering the “Wonder Kid” being one of those must have players in Football Manager 2004 and 2005 games as a teenager from Independiente.
Although retiring at the tender age of 33, Aguero’s career last 18 years where he played for four teams across three different countries but will always be remember for 10 successful years at Manchester City winning the Premier League five times including his first and last seasons, as well the FA Cup and six League Cups.
A selection of Kits worn by Sergio Aguero
Aguero played 685 club games, scoring a total of 386 goals which included a club record 260 goals at Manchester City, added this to International career with Argentina that spanned 15 years with 101 Caps and 41 goals at full Senior Level and representing the country at three World Cups on three different continents, as well as appearences and goals for his national team at Under 17, Under 20 and Under 23 level. This meant Aguero ends his career with well over 400 goals.
A wonderful career for World Class player…. some of Aguero’s Kit Highlights below.
Celebrating with Independiente
In the classic Atletico Madrid colours
Manchester City’s Nike Vapor Template
In Paisley in 2020
In one of his final appearences, wearing Barcelona’s Champions League kit for 2021
What are your favourite Aguero Kit Highlights, let me know in the comments below or over at @Kit_Geek on Twitter.
Football Kit Geek - @Kit_Geek 