Premier League 23/24

Six clubs (namely Arsenal, Man City, Liverpool, Aston Villa, Spurs and Newcastle) are averaging scoring more than two goals a game. To put that in perspective, in any "normal" season, only two or three do so in the PL and in 2015-16, when Leicester were crowned Champions, not a single team managed to do that.  In Leicester's winning season there were an average of 2.70 goals in total per game and so far this season that average has gone up to 3.23 per game. 

That increase is probably a reflection of a few of things that have changed - yes goals have been ruled out as a result of VAR but have been allowed to stand and more penalties have been awarded as a result of "going upstairs". Players are less likely now to go down as a result of the potential of a yellow card, Refs are also less inclined now to be conned into stopping play for "contact" and a player rolling around as a result, the offside flag doesn't automatically go up now and there is now more added time than there has ever been. That all has to be for the good of the game as we all want to see more goals don't we? 

Chris_from_Sidcup said:

Addick Addict said:

Six clubs (namely Arsenal, Man City, Liverpool, Aston Villa, Spurs and Newcastle) are averaging scoring more than two goals a game. To put that in perspective, in any "normal" season, only two or three do so in the PL and in 2015-16, when Leicester were crowned Champions, not a single team managed to do that.  In Leicester's winning season there were an average of 2.70 goals in total per game and so far this season that average has gone up to 3.23 per game. 

That increase is probably a reflection of a few of things that have changed - yes goals have been ruled out as a result of VAR but have been allowed to stand and more penalties have been awarded as a result of "going upstairs". Players are less likely now to go down as a result of the potential of a yellow card, Refs are also less inclined now to be conned into stopping play for "contact" and a player rolling around as a result, the offside flag doesn't automatically go up now and there is now more added time than there has ever been. That all has to be for the good of the game as we all want to see more goals don't we? 

I think it has more to do with an increased number of terrible sides. Luton won't get to 30 points, and Burnley and Sheff Utd might not even get to 25. Forest are not much better and then there's Everton who haven't won for almost 4 months.

The bottom three or four might be worse defensively but the fact is that, outside the top three (who are on a par with the norm), the rest of the PL are conceding more goals than they have ever done.  We don't need to look at the lower reaches to confirm that - in 2015-16, Man City (4th), Man Utd (5th) and Southampton (6th) conceded 41, 35 and 41 respectively all season and the current three teams in those positions, Villa (46), Spurs (44) and Man United (44) have already let in a combined 17 more goals and they have 23 more games to play between them. Even Everton (42), despite as you say, are struggling to win, have let in less goals than those three.  

Guess it’ll be 1-4 then.

Lovely stuff KDB. Now get another 10 please.

Nice. Now push on.

Joe Cole sounds like he’s talking in slow motion

Nice. Grealish far more involved this second half.

We want 5
We want 5

The worst Palace side in years, yet they'll still comfortably stay up due to the weakness of the 3 promoted sides.

It’s funny, but people have been saying all year that Man City will power through in the second half of the season to the title, but they really don’t look as good as last year. They may have dispatched the stripy pricks reasonably comfortably today, but they’ve looked dodgy a few times and let in two goals. 

sam3110 said:

And yet in the league Liverpool are the ones that have lost most recently, to Arsenal as well. Both Arsenal and City are unbeaten in the league in 2024. 

Oh, don’t get me wrong, I get that. But my point is that Man City don’t look invincible like they did last year. Despite Losing to Arse, Liverpool have looked more relentless against everyone else. That’s all.

That was a really impressive performance by Arsenal. Much more solid than last season.

killerandflash said:

That was a really impressive performance by Arsenal. Much more solid than last season.

One of the big differences is the fact that Saliba missed the final 11 games of last season whereas he has started every single game this time round. Arsenal dropped  just 12 points in those opening 27 matches but, following the injury to Saliba, 15 points were lost in those final 11 matches - including four consecutive games with Holding at CB that Arsenal conceded 11 goals without winning one of them. Arsenal still only ended up 5 points behind City.