The Premier League Weekend In Numbers: All the best stats and data from Gameweek 1

The sound of full capacity grounds for matches was one of the highlights of the opening round of fixtures and we’ve dived into the data to look at the Premier League weekend in numbers for Gameweek 1.

34 - An increase in match goals?

One of the biggest annoyances of last season was the forensic analysis of offside decisions, using 1mm narrow lines to determine if a hair on a players chin was offside. This campaign the Professional Game Match Officials Board (POGMOL) have stated that level of scrutinisation will be eliminated to move in the same direction of what we saw in the Champions League last season and also at the Euros. This basically means the rule returns to if the striker is level he is on-side and this weekend we saw the benefits with plenty of goals being scored. 

In total 34 goals were scored across the opening ten fixtures, which is the second-highest total in the Premier League era.

Most goals in an opening weekend in the Premier League

• 2003/04: 36
• 2021/22: 34
• 1994/95: 34
• 2006/07: 33
• 2008/09: 32

6 - Player Shots

Let’s take a look at some of the best performing individuals over the weekend and first up it’s player shots. Two players hit a high of six attempts this weekend with one being Leicester City’s Jamie Vardy who got on the scoresheet and taunted the Wolves fans with his celebration. 

Adama Traore was the other player to let off six shots, however it was a familiar story for the Spaniard with just one of those hitting the target and him failing to find the net. Wolves will be hoping new boss Bruno Lage can help the speedster improve his finishing and have more of an end product.

3 - Player Shots on target

The most shots on target registered in Gameweek 1 was three. Bruno Fernandes was 9/2 with Betfair for 3+ shots on target and was one of three players to do this along with Emmanuel Dennis of Watford and Jamie Vardy. The Portuguese midfielder scored a hat-trick with all three of his shots on target resulting in a goal against Leeds on Saturday and became the first Manchester United player since Lou Macari in 1977 to score three goals on the opening day for the Red Devils.

4 - Assists

Before a ball was kicked this weekend, Paddy Power had Paul Pogba priced at 50/1 to be the player with the most assists in the league this season. An excellent performance against Leeds saw the Frenchman become the 7th player in Premier League history to register four assists in a single match and the first to do so for Manchester United. What makes this even more remarkable is that Pogba provided just three assists in the entire 2020/21 campaign.

5/1 - Biggest Priced Win

Shock of the weekend came from The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium with Nuno Espirito Santo grabbing a memorable 1-0 win over champions Manchester City in his opening fixture. Son Heung-min grabbed the only goal of the game in the second half to give Spurs the three points after being priced at 5/1 with bet365 to win the game before kick-off.

Another punting pointer from this game is the 3/1 that was available before kick-off on Lucas Moura to have 1+ shot on target with Betfair and Paddy Power. The Brazilian had a fantastic game and was the WhoScored.com man of the match. Along with that, Moura delighted punters with 3+ shots landing at an enormous 11/1 with Betfair and the 1+ shot on target landing at 3/1. 

2.1 Per Game - Yellow Cards Shown

Many people were expecting a deluge of cards to be shown by Premier League referees in the opening weeks of the season due to the pressure and noise of fans being back in stadiums. However, this wasn’t the case on Gameweek 1 with no red cards being shown and an average of just 2.1 yellows per game dished out. Last season this figure was 2.88 yellows per game and we certainly saw play being allowed to continue a lot more this weekend, with what were potentially fouls last season not being given. 

Roll on next weekend.