Sunday, 11 December 2016

Premier League stats: Will this be the highest scoring season?



This could be the Premier League's most goal-crazy season, bookings for simulation are taking a dive, Armenia get themselves on the scoresheet and who has waited the longest amount of time between top-flight goals?
BBC Sport takes a look at the quirkiest and more interesting statistics from the weekend.

It's going to be a big one...



After 29 goals were registered across Saturday's six games, stats fans were purring in anticipation at the prospect of a record-breaking weekend of goal action.
Alas, three 1-0 wins on Sunday let the side down, before Liverpool's 2-2 draw with West Ham left a final sting in the tail.
That meant there were 36 goals in total over the weekend - seven short of the Premier League record of 43 set between 5 and 6 February 2011 (since the league was reduced from 22 to 20 teams in 1995).
But there is still hope for the goal fanatics out there - this season is on course to be the highest scoring in the era of a 20-team Premier League.
There have been 434 goals from 150 games this term and if the scoring continues at its current rate, it will reach 1,098 by the time the 380th and final game is played in May.
The record to beat is 1,066 from 2011-12.
And when you take the average number of goals per game, this season's average of 2.89 - if maintained - would be the highest in Premier League history.

Let us take you back to the good old days...


8 May - Six home teams score three goals
Arsenal 3-0 Crystal PalaceCoventry 3-3 Leeds
Liverpool 6-2 TottenhamMiddlesbrough 3-3 Norwich
Oldham 4-3 SouthamptonSheffield United 4-2 Chelsea

Simulation taking a dive?




Ask most football fans what the scourge of modern football is, and they will probably answer with one of three things: players wearing gloves, feigning injuries and diving.
And this weekend diving flopped itself back on to the agenda when Robert Snodgrass looked suspiciously untouched when he won a penalty for Hull City against Crystal Palace on Saturday.
The player apologised, saying he was "riding the tackle". Palace boss Alan Pardew said he should be "embarrassed". BBC Match of the Day pundit Danny Murphy called for retrospective punishment.
But have yellow cards for simulation - to use Fifa's jargon - been on the rise in the Premier League?
Interestingly, the answer is no. The highest number of yellow cards dished out for diving was 33 in 2012-13 - 2.64% of the total for the campaign.
The second highest was 27 (2.13%) in 2008-09.
This season, there have been eight bookings for diving - 1.28% of the total of 623 yellow cards. That ratio would be the second lowest since 2007-08 if it continues.

Who are the one-man teams?


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