Premier League Matchday 36 rundown

With the end of all the seasons in sight, every team still fighting for something are giving it their all. Liverpool's slight hiccup on the weekend gave Manchester City some breathing room, while Manchester United have put any hopes of Champions League football next season in the bin.

There are only two full matchdays left until the end of the season, although there are a number of teams that have to play some catchup games in the midweek.

Matchday 36 provided brilliant entertainment. There were plenty of goals, a surprise result and a victory for one team has changed the landscape of the relegation battle.

No individual players stood out this week, although that's not to say no one did well.

Romelu Lukaku, Said Benrahma, Eddie Nketiah and Raheem Sterling all scored two goals in their games, while Leandro Trossard and Jarrod Bowen each got two assists in theirs. They all would have had a shot at best individual performance this week if it weren't for the fact that a number of them achieved the feats, so it wasn't exactly special from one player.

With that said, let's talk a look over the weekend and see how it panned out.

 

33 Goals

A strong weekend for goalscoring. 33 goals is the most goals scored in a full matchday weekend since matchday 28. And as mentioned before, there were four players to bag themselves a brace, so it's no surprise to see the tally up at this amount. 

No goalless games once again this weekend for the second week running, which makes it extra exciting for everyone and much more likely to get some good money if you're thinking of betting on goals in a game, like maybe on the Aston Villa vs Liverpool game...

With all 20 teams in action over the two days, that's 10 games played in total, and with 33 goals scored, the maths is easy to work out that there was 3.3 goals per game over the weekend. A fantastic increase on the rate we've been seeing in recent weeks.

 

34.9 xG

As good as the weekend was for goals, the xG says it could have been better.

It is a little bit of a surprise to find that the weekend underachieved by the xG this weekend. Only one team underachieved by the number of goals they scored to their xG, while five teams outperformed what their xG said.

But that is the way xG goes. Sometimes, you can be predicted 0.9 xG and get no goals, other times you can get four. And that's not a random example.

Wolves vs Watford in a matchday 19 catchup game on Thursday, 10th March 2022 saw both teams have a 0.9 xG rate, but Watford scored no goals and Wolves got four.

 

Possession: Manchester City, 71%

The possession game is easy for Manchester City. Not once in the league this season have they lost on possession. The lowest amount they have had in a game over the campaign [so far] was 51% against Liverpool. Almost equal, as the two teams almost are.

City lead the league for possession with an average this season of 68%, a rate that they beat on this occasion but have also matched or beaten 19 times over the course of the year.

 

Saves: Jordan Pickford (Everton), 87%

England's number one was in top form this weekend, and he had to be to give Everton the victory over Leicester away from home.

Leicester really dominated the Toffees on the stats sheet. They had 66% possession, 84% pass accuracy to Everton's 72%, they took 16 shots and made eight of them for a 50% shot accuracy rate to Everton's 40% on four from 10.

But the stats tell another story, one that matches the actual on-pitch story, and that's that Jordan Pickford was an absolute brick wall in goal.

He saved seven of Leicester eight shots, the most saves from a goalkeeper over the weekend.

He gave them a much-needed win, as it takes them out of the bottom three, putting Leeds down in there and also giving them a little buffer gap to the relegation zone by going ahead of Burnley.

 

Best team performance: Manchester City

It feels like it's always City or Liverpool as the best team performance, but that's on them playing at a ridiculously high level right now to try stay ahead of the other to win the league.

City dispatched Newcastle 5-0 while Liverpool slumped to a 1-1 draw with Tottenham to give the Sky Blues a three-point lead at the top.

As mentioned, the table toppers dominated possession, as they almost every week. They also got five goals off of a 3.1 xG rate, had a joint-highest for the weekend pass accuracy of 90%, making 663 of their 734 attempted passes.

They took 21 total shots and nine of them hitting the target, giving them a 43% shot on target rate, and with five goals from nine shots on target, they had a 55% goal conversion rate.

They also faced three shots on target themselves, with Ederson handling each of them with ease to keep a clean sheet.

 

Surprise result: Brighton 4-0 Manchester United

Some thought a victory could be possible for the home side, but there can't be anyone that saw 4-0 coming.

Brighton embarrassed Manchester United by taking their opportunities when they arose. United had more possession, made and attempted more passes for a higher pass accuracy rate, and had a better shot accuracy rate (although, that was only because they took two less shots than Brighton while also hitting the target five times).

But it's not about filling the stats sheet, it's about getting the goals. And United simply didn't do that, while Brighton did.