The footballing season that never felt like it was ever going to end has in fact done that, and to celebrate we are signing off our Premier League coverage with our 2020-21 Premier League Season Stats Review.
Each week we have brought you a match by match guide packed with visuals and barely interesting stats, and this review follow a similar path but for the entire season.
We offer up some general season stats, then dive into a club by club look at their respective barely interesting stats for the season.
Enjoy our 2020-21 Premier League Season Stats Review.
2020-21 Premier League Season Stats Review Overall
Instead of the usual table, here is the overall performance of the season in colour.
2020-21 SEASON SUMMARY VISUAL
2020-21 SEASON SUMMARY – HOME RESULTS
2020-21 SEASON SUMMARY – AWAY RESULTS
2020-21 SEASON SUMMARY – vs TOP SIX SIDES
2020-21 SEASON SUMMARY – vs BOTTOM SIX SIDES
2020-21 SEASON SUMMARY – vs MIDDLE EIGHT SIDES
2020-21 SEASON SUMMARY BIG SIX ESL CLUBS
They thought they could stuff around with football, but why not have a look to see how the Big Six clubs all fared against each other this season.
2020-21 SEASON SUMMARY GOALS PER GAME BY DAY
Hard to believe that the cold Tuesday night at Stoke analogy didn’t hit this season. Tuesday seeing the most goals.
The weekend saw plenty of goals and Thursday night is just not on for football.
2020-21 SEASON SUMMARY GOALS PER GAME BY ROUND
Early season promise of a new goal-laden era didn’t continue, and the scoring got pretty low as the never ending season dragged on.
2020-21 SEASON SUMMARY SCORE BREAKDOWN
2020-21 Premier League Season Stats Team Rankings
We took a bunch of stats from the 2020-21 Premier League season to create a table ranking the teams according to the stats and allowing for over achievement against budget.
While the first few teams remain in the same order, there is some noticeable movement in the middle.
2020-21 SEASON SUMMARY SEASON BARELY INTERESTING STATS
12 Teams spent at least one round in the top four.
Eight teams had a worse second half of the season (for points per game) than the first half. This group included Leicester, Everton, Aston Villa and Manchester United. Burnley were the only team in the bottom six to have a worse second half of the season. Three of the top five for improvers were from the bottom six.
Not one team in the Premier League this season ended up with a positive goal difference against top six sides.
Only Crystal Palace, Southampton and Wolves failed to win at least one game away against a top six side this season. Which means all of the bottom five managed to do so at least once this season.
Every side won and lost at least one game against middle eight sides this season.
2020-21 Premier League Season Stats Review Team by Team
Here is a team by team stats review of the year featuring our usual array of visual stats from the season and some team specific barely interesting stats.
Only five teams scored more goals all season than Man City’s 62 goals in 24 games from January.
Man City conceded just one goal against the bottom six sides at home this season.
Both Manchester sides did well against the middle eight teams this season losing just once in 18 games. Man City fared better with points per game with three draws v six draws for Utd. Man City scored 43 goals in those games and Man Utd scored 42.
Man Utd ended the 2020-21 EPL season without losing away from home. Throw in the last seven games from last season and you have a 26 game unbeaten run. They are just one game short of equalling the 2003-2004 era Arsenal team’s record of 27.
Man Utd were the only team to end up undefeated away to top six sides this season, of course because they were undefeated away against everyone. But they and Man City were the only teams with a positive goal difference away to top six sides.
Liverpool hadn’t lost a home game in 68 attempts stretching back many seasons and then went on to lose six home games in a row. They share the season’s worst home losing streak with Fulham. At least Liverpool recovered to finish the season with the fifth best home record. Fulham were dead last for home form.
Liverpool were the only team not to end the season with a negative goal difference v the top six sides.
Liverpool’s 28 goals in 12 matches v London clubs this season was the most.
Chelsea were the only team in the top six to lose a game away to the middle eight this season. They lost three in total.
Chelsea conceded the fewest goals this season to London sides with five in ten games.
Leicester spent the most time of any team in the top four this season and had the smallest movement between highest league position and lowest league position.
West Ham won all ten games against midlands clubs this season and were the only undefeated side. Their 27 goals was impressive and four more than next best Man City.
West Ham had the second best home record this season for points.
Spurs scored the equal second most goals from January.
Only Spurs and Sheffield Utd failed to score a point at home to a top six team this season.
Spurs scored more goals than anyone against the bottom six this season. Followed by Leicester and Arsenal.
Arsenal and Spurs share a North London rivalry and one for least goals scored at home against top six sides this season with just the one. Arsenal’s is worst as it came from seven games instead of Spur’s four.
Arsenal were undefeated against bottom six sides this season (W6 D1) and conceded just one goal in the process.
Arsenal lost the fewest games this season against London sides with one
Leeds Utd had the third worst expected goals against this season.
Seven teams lost just one game v bottom six sides this season, but Leeds’ (W9 L1) saw the best average points.
Leeds were the only team this season with a 100% record away to bottom six sides. Their five wins from five matches came to a combined 14-2.
Everton had the second highest away points ratio.
Aston Villa scored and conceded the most goals against the top six sides this season at home.
Aston Villa were the only team not to lose at home to a middle eight side this season.
Newcastle lost fewer games than Manchester City in the league from March than Manchester City.
There was nothing even barely interesting about Wolves season except another season next year and a new manager.
That’s very unfair. Wolves lost all ten games to sides from the north west.
Crystal Palace were the only side not to beat a middle eight side away this season.
The Saints saw the biggest drop in second half season points per game with a drop of 57%. Everton were next worst at -32%.
Despite conceding nine in one game to Man Utd Southampton saw four other teams with a worse total of goals against than themselves.
Southampton ended the only team this season to be undefeated by a top six side at home (W2 D2). Although helped by only having four games, Southampton conceded the fewest goals to tops six sides at home – two.
Brighton had the fourth best expected goals total for home games this season. However, they underperformed against xG more than any other team this season scoring 12 goals less than expected goals says they should have.
Brighton scored 20 points less than they should have according to expected points. They would have almost grabbed a European adventure if they had added that 20 points onto the end of season total.
Brighton ended the season with the same record as Man City for playing top six sides at home (W2 D1 L3). Brighton even scored one more goals in those games.
Brighton won just the one game against the bottom six sides this season. Sheffield Utd won four.
Burnley and Brighton had the season’s longest winless home run this season with ten games. Even more interesting was that Brighton’s run started at the beginning of the season and Burnley’s was their last ten home games. So there was a one game crossover between the season’s winless streak holders.
Fulham ended the season as the team with the worst home record. They scored just nine goals, which is ten less than their expected goals says they should have.
Given their poor home record it should be no surprise that Fulham had the highest % of away goals compared to home goals and the same for points scored.
Fulham lost just once against the bottom six this season, equalling the season best with six other teams. They drew all four away game v bottom six.
Fulham were the only side not to beat a middle eight team at home this season.
Fulham scored just three goals in ten games v London sides this season.
West Brom (along with Leicester) saw the smallest movement between highest league position and lowest league position. Both teams ended up on the wrong side of a dotted line in the table.
West Brom scored five goals at Chelsea late in the season. They scored just one more in nine games against the bottom six sides.
The Blades’ longest unbeaten streak for the season was one.
Sheffield United won four of their last 12 games. Which is a good achievement given they only won 7 times overall this season. Even more amazing is that they only scored five goals in the 12 game run.
Sheffield United spent 32 rounds in last place and all but the first two rounds in the bottom three.
Sheffield Utd saw the biggest improvement in the second half of the season according to points per game with an increase of 260%. Helped by their miserly 0.26 points per game in the first half of the season. Their 0.94 in the second half was great either but still better than Fulham’s 0.8, West Brom’s 0.79 and Southampton’s 0.7.
Sheffield United played more games against top six sides than any other side with 16. They won just one of those games and lost the rest. Aston Villa (15) and Leeds (14) played the next most games v top six sides and won three games.
Sheffield Utd were one of only four team to end the season undefeated at home to the bottom six sides. Spurs, West Ham and Man City were the others.
