Valuable knowledge, especially if you are partial to a bit of Fantasy Football
In a bid to stay in the news the Premier League have published a load of stats about dead ball situations so far this season.
Call us geeks but we love this stuff, the more data the better.
Anyway, there have been 3,189 corners in the Premier League this season, and they have resulted in 96 goals. That’s a three per cent chance of a goal from a corner so next time your team gets one at the death when they need a goal, don’t get too excited.
They also rank the teams on who has been the most succesful from corners. We were not at all surprised to find Tony Pulis’ West Brom top of the pile with nine goals this season from corners.
That puts them one ahead Crystal Palace and Chelsea who have eight. Arsenal (somewhat against reputation), QPR, West Ham and Manchester United have all managed seven.
Bottom of the pile, with just two goals from corners, are Liverpool, Everton, Hull City, Swansea City.
Quality of finishing is also measured, and this is where any QPR fans may want to look away. They are one of the best teams in the league at manufacturing chances from corners (23 per cent of the time, a lot more than the likes of City, Arsenal or Chelsea) but they fail to convert them into goals.
Liverpool also do badly. The stats show they have created 150 goal scoring chances from corners, yet they have only scored twice. If they could just up that average a small bit, you wonder where they would be in the table?
As for free-kicks, no shock to see Spurs lead the way with eight goals (Christian Eriksen is handy, isn’t he?), with Everton on six and then Arsenal, Manchester United, Crystal Palace and West Ham United on five.
And as for individual players, Seb Larsson is the most dangerous as he has created 22 chances from corners and free kicks combined. Stuart Downing and Jason Puncheon have the most chances created from corners (18 each) while the best free kick taker to set up an opportunity is Burnley’s Kieran Trippier with nine.
You can use this knowledge to dazzle/bore your friends in the pub tonight or, when Fantasy Football returns next week, build it into your next transfer.
