Highlighted: Tough hurdle for invincible PSV in record run

After 23 match rounds, the lead of number one PSV over number two Feyenoord is ten points. Only in the 2014/15 season, this gap after so many matches was also this large in an Eredivisie season, when PSV had a twelve-point lead over Ajax. The largest lead a champion ever had over the number two at the end of an Eredivisie season was seventeen points (converted to the three-point system). This was achieved by AZ in 1980/81 (over Ajax), Ajax in 1997/98 (over PSV), by PSV in 2000/01 (over Feyenoord), and by PSV in the aforementioned 2014/15 season (over Ajax).

For PSV fans, this has been a season to never forget so far. The Eindhoven-based team has only had four points dropped in this Eredivisie season and, for the first time in the club's history, accumulated 65 points after 23 Eredivisie matches (+66 goal difference). Converted to the three-point system, PSV could become the second team ever to have 68 points after playing 24 Eredivisie matches, following AZ in 1980/81 (68 points, +57).

That PSV Eindhoven are almost untouchable this Eredivisie season is reflected in the number of minutes they have been trailing. PSV has only been behind for 75 minutes this Eredivisie season, ninety fewer than second-placed Feyenoord. Only Ajax (34 minutes), Vitesse (29 minutes), and FC Volendam (12 minutes) know what it's like to lead against PSV this Eredivisie season. In this century, only Ajax in 2021/22 also trailed for such a short time after 23 match rounds in an Eredivisie season (43 minutes). For comparison, in the previous season, by match round 23, PSV had been behind for 339 minutes.

Should PSV manage to prevent a defeat next Sunday, all eyes will be on an undefeated season in the Eredivisie, something only Ajax achieved so far in 1994/95 (27 wins and 7 draws). PSV has already scored 77 goals this Eredivisie season (3.35 goals per match), and if they maintain this pace, they will end up with 114 goals. Only four teams have scored at least a hundred goals in one season this century: Ajax in 2009/10 (106), PSV in 2012/13 (103), Ajax in 2018/19 (119), and Ajax in 2020/21 (102).

PSV still have this goal total in sight, thanks in part to the excellent form of Luuk de Jong. The 33-year-old striker has scored 12 goals in his last eight Eredivisie games. However, Feyenoord has managed to keep Luuk de Jong from scoring in the Eredivisie for some time now. The PSV striker has not scored in his last 925 playing minutes of Eredivisie football against the Rotterdam club. The last time he managed to do so was on December 17, 2014 (scoring 3 goals).

Undefeated PSV vs Feyenoord: Who will walk away with the victory?