Premier League in April by numbers

April was the last full month of Premier League football. Norwich's fate was decided, two teams fell off from the fight for Champions League football, and Manchester City and Liverpool stayed perfect.

The last full month of Premier League action has drawn to a close, as April turns into May and season draws closed to its end.

Looking back on the last 30 days of English football action, a lot has happened in the table. A team's fate has been decided, while the scene of the battle for Champions League football next season has changed drastically. 

Let's take a look at the major stats from the month to determine just how good a month of football it had been.

 

134 Goals

With games every weekend and a good number of catch-up games during the mid-week almost each week too, it's no surprise the monthly total for goals is so high, and a lot higher than last month.

April was a fantastic month for goals, with only four games out of the 50 played ending in 0-0. 

The most goals scored in a game during the month was six, and this was achieved not once, but four times!

First, Tottenham did it with a 5-1 win over Newcastle in matchweek 31. That was then followed by Chelsea, who the very next gameweek, put six unanswered past Southampton at their home of St Mary's.

Chelsea was involved in another six-goal game, although this time it was in a losing effort to Arsenal, as they fell 2-4 at home.

Manchester City produced the final six-goal game of the month, beating Watford 5-1 in gameweek 34.

 

130.7 xG

No real surprise that the month overachieved by its xG, but it is a bit surprising to see how close it was. Just a +3.3 difference in between xG and actual goals scored. You'd be excused if you thought it would have been more.

Only 13 times did a team underperform by their xG in a game; Chelsea was the worst offender, underperforming three times during the month, with their worst offence being a -1.8 difference. It came in their 1-0 victory over West Ham, but they had a 2.8 xG rate.

The worst offender for biggest difference, though, was Brighton, who drew 0-0 with Leeds but had an xG of 2.9.

In comparison, there were 44 instances of a team overperforming by their xG. Man City did it the most, doing so four times. Spurs had the biggest difference, with their 4-0 win over Aston Villa not only coming from an xG rate of one, but they also had a lesser xG rate than Villa, who's rate was 1.6. Read about that game here.

 

Average goal per game: 2.68

2.68 goals per game is a brilliant average for the month. It is less than the average of March, but there were a good few more games played in April.

There were 28 games that beat the average, meaning just over half, or more specifically 56% of games played featured three or more goals in the match.

 

Most goals scored: Manchester City, 16

It was Manchester City's month for scoring, especially Gabriel Jesus. The Brazilian went off for City in April, scoring six goals and assisted one too.

City as a whole were fantastic during April, as they had to be. With Liverpool hot on their tail, ready to pounce should the blue side of Manchester slip up, the Citizens can't afford to not give it their all in every game.

The runners up for goals scored was Tottenham with 12 goals. They continued their strong month of March, which saw them at the top for goals scored during the month with 12 then, too.

The goals flowed but the results weren't perfect. Three wins, one draw and one loss isn't terrible, but losing to Brighton and drawing to Brentford would not have been in the plans, and wins there would have helped their Champions League campaign greatly.

The sharing the third step on the podium for goals scored in the month is Liverpool and Chelsea, both with 11 goals.

 

Least goals scored: Wolves, 2

Wolves have shown an aptitude to being able to keep the ball out of their net this season. Unfortunately, though, in April, they were more unable to put the ball into their opponent's goal.

Only two goals scored through the whole month, both of them coming in one game, their one victory of the month, a 2-1 result over Aston Villa. They followed that up with three straight loses.

Watford take the number two spot, with just the three goals scored. They spread theirs out more so than Wolves, scoring in each of their last three games. But they also went the whole month without a win, or even a draw. Five straight losses in April for Watford has their hopes for survival looking pretty thin.

Then finally, third place goes to Norwich and Leeds, who both scored only four goals.

 

Most goals conceded: Watford, 14

It was not a pretty month for Watford. As mentioned, five games played, five losses, and now let's add on the fact that they conceded 14 goals, too. A horrible month for them has things looking very bleak for the London club.

Second place is Southampton with 13 goals conceded. This entry is mainly comprised of the 6-0 beating the took at the hands of Chelsea. It was the yearly goal fest Southampton seems to let happen each season.

And third place is somewhat surprisingly, Manchester United, with 12 goals conceded. We'll touch on how bad a month it was for them later, but it was not a pretty one for them.

 

Most clean sheets: Liverpool, 4

Liverpool may have had less goals scored than City, but at least they can boast a better defensive stat than them. Four clean sheets from five games is a great record, and they have an unbeaten run of 15 games in the league that stretches back to the 28th December.

Man City did well, too, mind you. They tallied three clean sheets in April and matched the Reds for record, four wins and one draw, with the one draw for both being the 2-2 against one another.

Brighton also joins City with three clean sheets. A mixed but fairly good month for the Seagulls, six games played, three wins, two draws and a loss see's them back in the top half of the table.

 

Special Mentions

Brentford went unbeaten through April. Four games played, coincidently all against other London clubs, and they were all really good results, too. A 4-1 win over Chelsea kicked it off, followed by a 2-0 win over West Ham. Then they beat Watford 2-1, and ended it with a 0-0 draw to Spurs

 

As mentioned before, Manchester United had an ugly month, which saw them win just once. Six games played, one win, two draws and three losses has put their hopes of Champions League football for next season somewhat in the mud.

 

Arsenal's month went the same way as the start of their season; kicked off with three straight losses, but then recovered for three straight wins. And because of the less-than-ideal results from the other teams around them, they still find themselves in fourth.