Stat, Viz, Quiz 136: More Late Drama From Liverpool

Anyone who’s written a live match report before will likely know the horror of a late result-altering goal leading to a complete re-write, and Liverpool games this season have featured plenty. There was another on Sunday as Alexis Mac Allister’s 97th-minute strike sealed a 1-0 victory for Arne Slot’s men. In this week’s SVQ, we look at just how often the Reds are involved in late drama.

Speaking of themes, the north London derby produced another on Sunday, namely Eberechi Eze’s apparent one-man crusade to make Tottenham fans miserable. After turning down a move to Spurs last summer to join Arsenal, he has proceeded to score almost all of his goals for the Gunners against their old rivals. We look at just how mean Eze is being to the club he almost joined.

Our Ask Opta question queries us on stoppage time, while our quiz tests your knowledge on all things Premier League.

Late winners are so dramatic because they’re usually unexpected.

However, there’s an argument that, when it comes to Liverpool, you should probably be more shocked when one doesn’t arrive.

In their 27 Premier League games this season, Liverpool have seen seven winning goals in the 90th minute or later scored either for (three) or against them (four) – the most ever by any side in a single campaign in the competition, with 11 games remaining.

The most recent of those came on Sunday when a fairly dour game with Nottingham Forest at the City Ground looked set to end 0-0, before Alexis Mac Allister struck for the visitors.

The Argentine thought he’d already scored in stoppage time when a Forest clearance ricocheted into the net off him, but replays showed the ball struck his arm, so was ruled out.

However, he had another chance when the ball fell kindly for him following Virgil van Dijk’s header across goal, and it was a simple tap-in to win three vital points for Liverpool in their quest for Champions League qualification.

It came after recent late defeats to 90+ minute winners against Bournemouth and Manchester City, making it seem like Arne Slot’s men believe the first 90 minutes of a game are merely the warm-up.

It was also the 48th Premier League goal scored by Liverpool in the 90th minute or later, at least 12 more than any other team in the competition’s history ahead of Arsenal (36), Manchester United (34), Tottenham (32) and Chelsea (31).

It perhaps isn’t surprising that the reigning champions are reliant on late goals so often, given how uneventful their first halves usually are.

Liverpool have only scored 13 times in the first half of Premier League games this season; just five teams have scored fewer. However, only Arsenal and Man City (both 7) have conceded fewer first-half goals than the Reds’ 12 against.

In the second half they become far more potent, though. Only Arsenal (36) have scored more goals after half-time than Liverpool (29).

So, essentially, what we’re saying is, if you’re going to a Liverpool game, don’t you dare think about leaving early.

You could arrive late, though, and probably not miss much.

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Whatever Tottenham fans did to offend Eberechi Eze, he seems relentless in his pursuit of ruining their day as often as possible.

The England international looked set to join Spurs last summer from Crystal Palace, only for Arsenal to nip in and seal his signature at the last minute.

If that wasn’t enough, in his first north London derby, Eze bagged a hat-trick against Spurs in a 4-1 win for Arsenal at the Emirates in November.

It probably made Tottenham fans feel even worse that in Eze’s subsequent 11 Premier League outings for Arsenal, he didn’t score another goal, or even have a single shot on target.

That was until the reverse fixture at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Sunday, when he scored two more in another 4-1 victory for Mikel Arteta’s league leaders.

In his 20 other Premier League appearances for Arsenal, his only other goal was against his former side Palace. So, Eze has only scored once in those 20 games, having had 22 shots with a total of 1.81 expected goals (xG).

In his two appearances against Tottenham, Eze scored five goals from 11 shots, and an xG of 1.34.

For those wondering, Eze’s five against Spurs is not the most goals a player has scored against one club in a Premier League season.

There have been five instances of a player scoring six against one team in a campaign: Alan Shearer vs Sheffield Wednesday (for Newcastle in 1999-2000), Thierry Henry vs Leeds (for Arsenal in 2003-04), Emmanuel Adebayor vs Derby County (for Arsenal in 2007-08), Jermain Defoe vs Wigan Athletic (for Spurs in 2009-10), and Sergio Agüero vs Newcastle (for Man City in 2015-16).

There’s rubbing salt into wounds, and then there’s whatever Eze is doing to Spurs. Pouring goals into the wounds?

1. Leeds United's Anton Stach scored his third direct free-kick goal in the Premier League with his strike against Aston Villa, the joint most in the competition this season along with who?

2. With Wesley Fofana’s dismissal against Burnley on Saturday, Chelsea have had eight players sent off in all competitions this season (excl. Club World Cup), the most by a Premier League side in a single campaign since which team in 2015-16?

3. James Milner made his 654th Premier League appearance, breaking Gareth Barry’s record (653) for the most in the competition’s history. How many clubs has Milner played for?

4. Who are the only two players to be involved in more Premier League goals since the start of November than Fulham’s Harry Wilson (12 – 7 goals, 5 assists)?

5. Igor Tudor became the first Tottenham Hotspur manager to lose their first Premier League game in charge since who in August 2012?

Scroll to the bottom for the answers.

Our question this week comes from Matt Moelter, who asks: “To me, it seems this year the amount of injury time added on at the end of each half is more than in the past. It is not uncommon to see five or more minutes added. In past seasons, I felt like five minutes or more was unusual. If my sense is correct, there is more actual playing time in each game. If the time has, in fact, gone up, has the number of shots, goals, fouls, etc. gone up as well? If so, have they gone up proportionately?”

Do you have a stat-based question you’d like Opta to answer in a future edition of SVQ? Email us at [email protected] or message us on X @OptaAnalyst with #AskOpta and we’ll pick the best one.

Answer:

It’s close, Matt, but there is one season that beats it.

There has been an average of 10 minutes and 20 seconds of stoppage time per game in the Premier League this season (first and second half). That’s more than last season (9 mins, 44 secs), but not as much as the 2023-24 campaign, which saw a Premier League record average of 11 mins, 36 secs on average of added time per game.

Otherwise, yes, it is up on previous seasons. The Premier League has, of course, seen a rise in time added on due to the introduction of VAR in 2019-20, as well as a general aim to not lose as much time to the ball being out of play in recent campaigns.

Prior to 2019-20, there had not been more than an average of seven minutes added time per game in a Premier League season on record (since 2006-07), but only once since has it been lower than that.

The ball-in-play time this season is currently at an average of 55 mins, 30 secs, slightly down on the last two seasons (58:11 in 2023-24, and 56:59 in 2024-25), though slightly higher than 2021-22 (54:45) and 2022-23 (54:49).

As for there being more shots/goals/fouls etc, not especially.

After 271 games this season, there has been an average of 24.6 shots per game, 2.76 goals, and 20.7 fouls.

The average shots per game is actually the third lowest on record for a Premier League season (since 2003-04), the average goals is the lowest it’s been since 2020-21 (2.69) and lower than it was in 2018-19 when there was only an average of 6 mins, 40 secs stoppage time, and the average fouls is lower than it was in 2016-17 (21.8) when there was only an average of 6 mins, 13 secs stoppage time.

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1. Leeds United's Anton Stach scored his third direct free-kick goal in the Premier League with his strike against Aston Villa, the joint-most in the competition this season along with who?

Dominik Szoboszlai

2. With Wesley Fofana’s dismissal against Burnley on Saturday, Chelsea have had eight players sent off in all competitions this season (excl. Club World Cup), the most by a Premier League side in a single campaign since who in 2015-16?

West Ham (9)

3. James Milner made his 654th Premier League appearance, breaking Gareth Barry’s record (653) for the most in the competition’s history. How many clubs has Milner played for?

Six (Leeds, Newcastle, Aston Villa, Man City, Liverpool and Brighton)

4. Who are the only two players to be involved in more Premier League goals since the start of November than Fulham’s Harry Wilson (12 – 7 goals, 5 assists)?

Erling Haaland (17) and Bruno Fernandes (15)

5. Igor Tudor became the first Tottenham Hotspur manager to lose their first Premier League game in charge since who in August 2012?

André Villas-Boas

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Opta Analyst