Opta's funniest April fools prank stats

As part of the April fools' celebrations, football data providers Opta entertained fans with hilarious faux facts about players in the Premier League on their Twitter handle @OptaJoe. 

The joke stats were delivered in typical Opta fashion and caught a few fans off guard before most people figured out the game that was afoot. 

Players like Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah, Newcastle’s Kieran Trippier and Paris Saint-Germain’s Lionel Messi were all part of the fun as Opta continued the yearly ritual of April fools' stats and data to entertain its followers on Twitter. 

The first tweet that went up was this one about Liverpool and phantom penalties in the Premier League. 

Some fun was also had at the expense of Manchester United defender Lisandro Martinez who was bamboozled by Salah when the Red Devils lost 7-0 to Liverpool. 

With the Reds facing Manchester City today as well, the Cityzen’s were also caught up in the tomfoolery thanks to this dubious stat about playmaker Kevin De Bruyne, who went on to get a goal in the Premier League’s big clash for the day. 

League Leaders Arsenal were ably represented in Opta’s festivity thanks to this stat about defender William Saliba that many Gunners would wish were more fact than banter. 

Defenders were easy targets for Opta as they had this in the locker for Newcastle's Kieran Trippier 

Finally, World Champion Lionel Messi also featured as Opta’s ‘The Analyst’ paid homage to the two greatest Argentine players of all time with their April fools’ post. 

Opta will be back again next year to titillate fans with more absurd and factitious stats that hopefully will be as comical as this year’s roll out.