In the 38 games played in the Premier League so far, 144 hits have been scored. That is an average of 3.79 per game. In sixty years, the first four match days have never been scored as often as now, reports data agency Gracenote on Friday.
Some of the matches that stood out were Aston Villa’s swipe against reigning champions Liverpool (7-2) and Manchester United’s heavy defeat against Tottenham Hotspur (1-6).
Previous seasons in which so many goals were scored after 4 match days, never held that high average until the end. However, Gracenote thinks that this year there is a chance of finishing with an average of more than 3 goals per match.
“Teams create better odds on average, but not nearly enough to explain why now a goal is scored from every six shots instead of the usual nine or ten,” said Simon Gleave, Gracenote’s lead investigator.
A striking number of penalties are also scored during the start of the season. “A record 23 goals from the penalty spot in this phase partly explains part of the high average.”
