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 573 goals in 180 matches – 3.18 – and the Eredivisie had 577 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.
Where might this season’s glut have come from? More attacking football from managers, better forward play, the rise of counterpressing, the decline of the classic defender, clubs struggling at the bottom, including Sheffield United who have conceded 59 goals and are in danger of setting a 38-game record? (The Blades are conceding at a rate of just over 2.56 goals a game; Derby, the holders of that 38-game record, let in 89 goals in 2007-08 at 2.34 per match.)
The answer may be as simple as the 20 teams playing more football than before. Directives brought in at the start of the season, where officials are instructed to add the exact time lost to the end of each half rather than the previous nominal additions for subs and injuries and VAR checks, have led to much longer halves.
Opta statistics show this Premier League season has featured by far the highest amount of added time, 11min 41sec a game on average. Last season, it was 8min 27sec. Incidentally, during that 2020-21 season without crowds, when it was suggested players were able to get away with less play-acting and time-wasting was similarly reduced, the average was as low as 6min 34sec.
Those time directives, following those employed by Fifa for the 2022 World Cup, seek to keep the ball in play for longer. The more exacting time additions have had the desired result. This Premier League season, the ball has been in play for an average of 58min 31sec when compared with 54min 52sec last season. The previous highest came – that statistical outlier again – from the closed-door season in 2020-21.
More added time leads to higher fatigue from defenders, more margin for errors, as matches lengthen. There have been 67 goals scored beyond the 90th minute – the record since Opta started recording this in 2006-07 is 72 – and the rate of 9.2% towers above the record of 6.7% set in the 2021-22 season.
As might be expected, teams towards the top of the Premier League, with stronger – perhaps younger, more athletic? – squads are the beneficiaries of bonus football, with Liverpool and Arsenal level on eight goals scored beyond the 90-minute mark. Wolves and Aston Villa, two teams in fine form, have five each. Only Nottingham Forest have failed to score in time added on and one surprise lies in Manchester City, champions and looming title favourites, having scored only twice beyond the 90th minute. Perhaps they are saving theirs for later.
