Leaky Leicester, Son’s Century, and Goal Difference Woes

By Opta Analyst | Created at 2024-12-26 07:54:48 | Updated at 2024-12-28 10:09:30 2 days ago

Stat, Viz, Quiz is the Opta Analyst football newsletter. This week’s edition looks at Leicester City’s chance concession, Son Heung-min’s latest landmark, and bad goal difference.

We’ve passed the midway point of December, arguably the busiest month in the football calendar and a period that can have a huge impact on outcomes at both ends of the table.

It was a great weekend for Chelsea as the only Premier League side to start the matchday in the top four and win. While Arsenal and Liverpool drew, Manchester City lost yet again, despite leading 1-0 against rivals Manchester United as late as the 88th minute.

Son Heung-min scored for the second weekend running, this time in a 5-0 rout of Southampton at St Mary’s. In this week’s SVQ, we’ll reveal what landmark was reached by the South Korean with that strike.

We kick off with Ruud van Nistelrooy’s Leicester City, though, as he suffered his first Premier League defeat in charge of the Foxes at Newcastle United. The Dutchman has work to do at the King Power Stadium to make his side much less porous at the back.

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STAT – Tighter Defence? It Would Be Ruud Not To

Leicester City fell to their first Premier League defeat under Ruud van Nistelrooy on Saturday after four points collected in his opening two games in charge of the club. The 4-0 defeat at Newcastle saw them face a barrage of shots from the Magpies, and that doesn’t seem to be an anomaly for this Leicester side under the Dutchman in its early stages.

Over Van Nistelrooy’s three Premier League matches in charge against West Ham, Brighton and Newcastle, Leicester have allowed their opponents 74 shots in total – more than any other team across their last three fixtures in the competition.

Not only have Leicester conceded the most shots in the Premier League since Van Nistelrooy’s appointment, but they have also faced the most shots on target (28).

Leicester may have won their first game under Van Nistelrooy on 3 December against West Ham, but the Hammers’ wastefulness in front of goal played a big part. Their 31 shots at the King Power Stadium was the most by a losing away team in a Premier League game since November 2010 (Chelsea attempted 32 at Birmingham City).

Since then, Leicester allowed Brighton 16 shots in the 2-2 comeback draw at home, before giving up 27 to Newcastle in the defeat at the weekend.

Only one other team has faced as many over a three-game spell in the Premier League this season, with that being Southampton, who faced 75 shots between 24 November and 4 December against Liverpool, Brighton and Chelsea. For Leicester themselves, it’s the most shots faced across three league games since September 2014 (78 vs Stoke, Chelsea and Arsenal in the Premier League).

Across their last three league games, Leicester have attempted just 22 shots themselves, meaning they have a shot differential of -52, again the worst in the division over that timeframe, while their xG total (2.74) is 5.26 less than their xG faced (8.43).

Next up for the Foxes is a home game against relegation-threatened Wolves on Sunday, before tough encounters with Liverpool and Manchester City to end 2024. Van Nistelrooy will have to shore up his defence to maximise their chances of securing much-needed points ahead of 2025.

VIZ – Nice One, Son

Son Heung-min got himself among the goals for Tottenham this weekend, but then again, who didn’t? Another thrashing for Southampton, this time 5-0 at home, saw the end of Russell Martin’s tenure at Saints.

Son’s goal was one of five in the first half as a rampant Spurs destroyed Southampton in front of their own fans. For the South Korean, it was his fifth goal of the season and 125th across his Premier League career, but more importantly – for landmark purposes, at least – it was the 100th different Premier League match that he’d scored in.

He became just the 20th player in Premier League history to score in 100 or more matches, but Son is unlikely to match the output of current record holder Alan Shearer, who scored in 193 overall.

Shearer is followed by a host of greats in the rankings: Wayne Rooney (159), Harry Kane (157), Andrew Cole (149), Frank Lampard (149) and Jermain Defoe (137), while the most by a current Premier League player is Mohamed Salah on 135 games.

Son reached his landmark tally in his 316th appearance, which was quicker than six of the other 19 to score in 100+ different Premier League games, but some way off the record set by Shearer (193 apps) back in September 1998. Sergio Agüero got the closest to surpassing Shearer but fell eight games short (201).

Son’s next target will be to move above Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, Nicolas Anelka and Robbie Keane in the rankings, with that trio all scoring in 103 different Premier League games.

QUIZ – Bruno’s Penalties, Flying Forest, and Isak’s Landmark

It’s time for some football trivia questions. How many can you get right? Answers at the bottom of the page.

1. Son Heung-min assisted two of Spurs’ goals in their 5-0 win over Southampton on Sunday, taking his all-time Premier League tally to 68. Which player’s total has he now equalled as the joint-leading assist provider in the Premier League for Tottenham?

2. Bruno Fernandes has scored 21 penalties in the Premier League for Man Utd, more than any other player for the club. Who did he overtake with his penalty goal against Man City this weekend?

3. With 28 points, this is now Nottingham Forest’s best points return after 16 games in a top-flight campaign since 1994-95 (also 28). Who was the manager in charge of Forest that season?

4. Jordan Pickford was given his 19th Premier League yellow card during Everton’s 0-0 draw at Arsenal this weekend. Which goalkeeper has been given the most cautions in Premier League history?

5. Alexander Isak scored his 20th Premier League goal of 2024, just the third time a Newcastle United player has scored 20+ Premier League goals in a calendar year. Who were the other two players?

If you want to test yourself further, you can have a crack at the Opta Analyst Football Quiz 2024. We’ve set 100 questions with 100 points up for grabs, so you can prove you know your football better than your friends and family do.

Ask Opta

We’ve had a few questions in the last week about goal difference, but we went with this one from Eric Akurang, who asks: “With Southampton conceding goals for fun this season, what’s the worst goal difference any team has had in a single English top-flight campaign?”

Do you have a stats-based football question you want to Ask Opta? If so, send it to editors@theanalyst.com and we’ll do our best to provide you with the answer in a future edition of SVQ.

Answer:

Following their latest defeat – a 5-0 home loss to Spurs on Sunday – Southampton now sit bottom of the goal difference table (as well as the actual table) on -25 after 16 matches.

That’s some way off the top-flight record after 16 matches of a top-flight season in England, set by both Burnley and Stoke City in 1889-90 (-41), while Man City had a -36 goal difference after 16 matches in 1930-31. In slightly more modern times, the Premier League record after 16 games was (unsurprisingly) set by Derby County in 2007-08, who were on -32 after 16 matches on the way to a historically bad season.

That Derby side share the seasonal worst goal difference record in Premier League history, too. They, alongside Sheffield United in 2023-24, had a -69 goal difference at the end of the campaign, which is only better than Darwen’s efforts in 1891-92. They only played 26 league games that season but scored 38 goals and conceded 112 for a -74 goal difference.

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Quiz Answers

Darren Anderton

2. Bruno Fernandes has scored 21 penalties in the Premier League for Man Utd, more than any other player for the club. Who did he overtake with his penalty goal against Man City this weekend?

Wayne Rooney (20)

3. With 28 points, this is now Nottingham Forest’s best points return after 16 games in a top-flight campaign since 1994-95 (also 28). Who was the manager in charge of Forest that season?

Frank Clark

4. Jordan Pickford was given his 19th Premier League yellow card during Everton’s 0-0 draw at Arsenal this weekend. Which goalkeeper has been given the most cautions in Premier League history?

Jussi Jääskeläinen (24)

5. Alexander Isak scored his 20th Premier League goal of 2024, just the third time a Newcastle United player has scored 20+ Premier League goals in a calendar year. Who were the other two players?

Alan Shearer (twice – 22 in 1999, 27 in 2002) and Andrew Cole (24 in 1994)