Thanks to the wonders of Opta Stats, we now know who would have won the Premier League if goals from penos, corners and other set pieces didn’t count. And it wasn’t Stoke City…
A few weeks back the boffins at Opta crunched the numbers and worked out how the final Premier League table would have looked if all the shots that hit the woodwork went in. It made for good reading for Liverpool fans but Manchester United still won the league.
Now those Opta lads have put together a new ‘what if’ table. This time they have a table that shows how the league would look if only goals scored from open play counted. By that they mean they disallow all goals that came from penalties, corners, free kicks and throw-ins.
The big surprise is at the top as Manchester City would have won the league, with Spurs second and Arsenal third. Champions Manchester United would be fourth, after 27 goals, and a subsequent 21 points, were chalked off the most of any club in the Premier League.
At the bottom Reading and QPR were still relegated, but Wigan escape as Norwich only scored 22 goals from open play, the second lowest of any side.
The lowest? We’re sure you’ve guessed it is Stoke City, who only scored 15 non set-piece goals all season. But they also conceded one of the fewest goals from open play too, at just 25, beaten by only Man City and Arsenal.
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