A Century Of Goals
When Jordan Henderson scored Liverpool’s fourth goal in their victory over Tottenham Hotspur, he enabled the team to set two new records.
The Reds became the first team in Premier League history to score four-or-more goals eleven times in one season. Prior to Brendan Rodgers taking charge, Liverpool scored four-or-more every 11.7 Premier League games on average; Rodgers’ Reds have done this every 4.1.
Liverpool have scored exactly one hundred goals in their last thirty-eight league games, which is a new club record for such a period in the top flight. I thought I’d take a quick look at the stats behind this amazing record, starting with the scorers responsible.
It’s no surprise to see that Liverpool’s much heralded strike pairing of Luis Suárez and Daniel Sturridge have been responsible for over half of the hundred goals.
Martin Skrtel has clearly been the biggest threat from the back, scoring more goals on his own (six) than the rest of the defenders combined (four).
There was a time not so long ago when ‘own goals’ was one of the Reds’ top scorers in the league, but thankfully that’s not quite the case this season, even though one was added to the tally in the aforementioned match with Spurs.
By what methods have the hundred goals been scored?
Liverpool have averaged 1.47 open-play goals per game in this period, and only six other teams in this season's Premier League average more goals than that in total.
No other team in the top flight has scored more than four goals from counter attacks this season, yet the Reds have scored eight in 2013/14, and as you can see here, nine in their last thirty-eight league matches. Their ability to hit teams swiftly on the break has been key to Liverpool's progress this season.
A look at how the goals-per-game trend has fluctuated over this period illustrates just how much Liverpool have kicked on in the last two-thirds of a season or so.
The 6-0 win at St. James Park in game three gave the trend an almighty spike, but after settling down, it has risen steadily and fairly consistently since the eleventh game. It's hard to see Liverpool increasing this trend much further, but at the same time as it's the business end of 2013/14, there could be no better time to even be at this level.
Finally, a look at how the goals have gone in game-by-game. The chart reveals one interesting aspect of this century of goals.
You can see here that Liverpool actually failed to score (something they've not done now in their last twenty-two games) in the first match of this run, which was away at Reading.
This means that they actually have a century of goals from their last thirty-seven games, and the headline statistic surrounding this piece will still be true in the first minute of the Reds' next match, which is away at West Ham United next Sunday.
With a century of goals behind them, Liverpool look on track to have a very decent chance of bringing title number nineteen to Anfield this season.
Please check out my other articles, and follow me on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn. Scroll down to see the related posts for this article. Thanks. .