diff -u b/core/lib/Drupal/Core/Entity/entity.api.php b/core/lib/Drupal/Core/Entity/entity.api.php
--- b/core/lib/Drupal/Core/Entity/entity.api.php
+++ b/core/lib/Drupal/Core/Entity/entity.api.php
@@ -1246,7 +1246,7 @@
     ->fetchField();
 
   // Log the count in a table that records this statistic for deleted entities.
-  \Drupal::database()->merge('example_deleted_entity_statistics')
+  $connection->merge('example_deleted_entity_statistics')
     ->key(['type' => $type, 'id' => $id])
     ->fields(['count' => $count])
     ->execute();