Ben Stewart
The stats behind Son Heung-min's golden boot winning season
After a brace against Norwich on the final day of the season, Son Heung-min claimed the Premier League golden boot, alongside Mo Salah with 23 goals.
We’ve dived into the stats to find out just how the South Korean winger managed to have his best season to date.
Clinical finishing
Son Heung-min has been known as a clinical finisher for quite some time now, but this season he has managed to take his game to another level.
In his previous five Premier League seasons with Spurs, Son has managed to hit double figures for goals, but the 21/22 campaign is the first time he has scored over 20 Premier League goals.
Son has taken 86 shots this season, 18 more than he managed last season where he scored 17 league goals.
Spurs top scorer also ranks as the second most clinical player in the league this season, only behind Manchester City’s Kevin De Bruyne.
Son has overperformed his xG by 6.6 goals which further highlights just how clinical he has been this season.
On the flip side, his teammate Harry Kane has actually been one of the biggest xG underperformers this season with an underperformance of 4.1 goals.
Son is also an accurate shot taker as 48.1% of the shots he takes are on target which ranks him as the 10th most accurate shooter in the Premier League.
The vast majority of his goals have been scored from inside the box with only 18% of his goals coming from outside the box this season, but that’s not to say he doesn’t like to shoot from range at times.
72% of his shots have come from inside the box, which is more than any of his other seasons at Spurs.
Son has now scored 131 goals for Spurs across 325 matches for them and he is only seven goals away from breaking into the Premier League 100 goals club.
His partnership with Harry Kane
There’s no doubt that Son has benefited from Harry Kane’s new role as he now likes to drop into deeper areas and thread balls through.
Five of Son’s 23 goals this season were assisted by Harry Kane and their partnership will undoubtedly go down as one of the best in Premier League history.
Kane has also chipped in with 17 Premier League goals this season, but the main spotlight has been on Son this time around.
His goal tally is made even more impressive when you consider that he has not taken a single penalty this season, in comparison to Salah who scored five penalties.
Son’s goals have also been evenly spread across both feet with 11 goals from his right foot and 12 with his left foot.
Creative output
As well as chipping in with 23 goals, Son has also offered a creative output throughout the season.
He has picked up seven Premier League assists, which ranks as his third best creative season to date.
The South Korean winger ranks seventh in the Premier League for shot-creating actions with 129, which is also more than any other player in the Spurs squad.
He ranks just outside the top 10 most successful Premier League dribblers this season with 51 successful dribbles from 86 attempted.
He has had more touches in the final third than any other Spurs player with 908, which is 248 more than Harry Kane.
Son has produced 72 key passes this season, which ranks him as the fifth most creative outlet in the league.
In order to be successful in an Antonio Conte system you need to have a relentless work rate off the ball and Son also offers this.
Son has completed 128 pressures in the final third as well as 190 pressures in the middle third.