Goals, goals, goals: why have there been so many in the Premier League?

[CharlieH]

 

After a record-breaking round of games we assess the key factors, including the impact of new added-time directives

 

 

Once Phil Foden completed his hat-trick at Brentford to secure Manchester City’s 3-1 win, he set a record collective 45-goal haul for a Premier League round. It followed a weekend where only West Ham, losing 3-0 at Manchester United, and Sheffield United, beaten 5-0 by Aston Villa, failed to score.

It eclipsed two weeks of 44 goals, the first in front of Covid-restricted empty stadiums in the second round of the 2020-21 season, and then last season’s 34th round, which included Brighton’s 6-0 walloping of Wolves and Crystal Palace’s 4-3 defeat of West Ham. Saturday’s haul of 26 goals over five matches was a record for a single day, heavily nudged towards that by Newcastle and Luton’s 4-4 draw.

 

The 2023-24 season has brought comfortably the highest rate of goalscoring in Premier League history, with 730 goals rattled in from 228 matches, an average of 3.20 per game. Last season’s 380 matches delivered a previous record rate of 2.85 goals per game for 1,084 goals; no season’s matches have averaged above three goals per game. The self-proclaimed best league in the world just got better, though a statistical curiosity is that after last weekend the Bundesliga had a near-identical rate of 571 goals in 179 matches – 3.19 – and the Dutch Eredivisie had witnessed 577 goals at a 3.21 average. La Liga’s 2.64, Ligue 1’s 2.51 and Serie A’s 2.55 rates show no vast difference from last season. Only the Premier League has made such a leap.

 

The Guardian.