The figures show a rise from 2.75 goals per game last season to 2.82 this year, a small average increase but one that could easily widen. The goals-per-game rate was at least 0.21 higher in the final 330 games than it was for the first 50 in four of the past five seasons. If 2026-27 has a similar upturn, it will become the second-highest scoring season in the Premier League era.
Goals should be harder to come by at this time of year when teams are fresher, more organised and less ragged. Legs have not yet been drained by the December fixture pile-up or the demands of European football. Evidence of this can be seen in every team averaging more distance per match than they did in 2025-26.
Liverpool are bottom for this metric yet are ahead of any club’s final figure from last season. Teams may be having to run further as more of the football is played in transition. The Premier League averaged the fewest Opta‑defined fast break (counterattack) shots of Europe’s big five leagues in 2025-26, at 1.75 per game.
That has risen to 2.08, which would have been second only to the Bundesliga last season (2.26). While the uplift is not entirely down to Xabi Alonso and Marco Rose joining English football, Chelsea (2.2 fast-break shots per game) and Bournemouth (1.6) are among the top five for this metric. With Matthias Jaissle’s Newcastle joint‑seventh (1.0), perhaps influence from German football is having a mild effect.
Another pointer towards the Premier League becoming a little wilder is the increase in shots and goals from outside the area. Brighton are an extreme example of this as they are already two goals shy of their tally of six last season. They forged a 2-0 lead against Arsenal on Saturday with goals from long-range.
Lewis Dunk nominated himself for goal of the season from way outside the area at Coventry, with Yasin Ayari also scoring from beyond the 18-yard line in that match. Something must fall to allow this rise; close-range goals have declined. The dip in goals from within the six‑yard box may be through the fall in set‑piece strikes.
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