When you assess the graph depicting the goals-per-game rate in English football’s highest division over the past 50 years, last season almost looks like a spreadsheet error. The 2023-24 Premier League didn’t simply feature the highest number of goals per game in the last half-century, it shattered the previous record — which was set 12 months earlier — by a distance. Intriguingly, there wasn’t a single cause.
The increased amount of added time played was a factor, but that doesn’t entirely explain things. There were 162 extra goals scored in 2023-24 compared to the previous season. But there were “only” around 100 goals scored after the 90-minute mark compared to the general pattern of 50-70 per season.
So even if you factor in some more goals scored in first-half stoppage time, too, that change alone doesn’t even explain half of the sharp rise. And even accounting for the extra minutes, there were an unusually high number of own goals and an unusually high number of set-piece goals. The penalty conversion rate went through the roof, too, rising above 90 per cent for the first time.
There was a very high number of shots, but there was also an attacking overperformance in terms of finishing, judging from the expected goals numbers. Advertisement In other words, several factors came together and were amplified by the additional playing time to create the highest-scoring Premier League season on record. But is this, in itself, a good thing? The 2023-24 Premier .