The 2022/23 Premier League season has got off to a flying start and already the number of goals scored are on course to set a record this season.
Across the 67 matches played so far, some 198 goals have been scored, at an average of 2.96 strikes per match.
If this rate were maintained through to the end of the season on 28 May, there would be about 1,123 goals scored.
This is 61 more than the current record set in a 20-team league of 1,072, set in 2018/19, at a pace of 2.82 goals per match. Last season came mighty close, but ultimately fell just one goal short, at 1,071.
Highest-scoring seasons*
| Season | Total goals | Goals/match |
|---|---|---|
| 2018/19 | 1,072 | 2.82 |
| 2021/22 | 1,071 | 2.81 |
| 2011/12 | 1,066 | 2.80 |
| 2016/17 | 1,064 | 2.80 |
| 2012/13 | 1,063 | 2.80 |
*20-team league
There have been seven matches this season featuring at least six goals, led by Liverpool's record-equalling 9-0 win over AFC Bournemouth.
In the last round of matches there was one goal fewer as Tottenham Hotspur dispatched Leicester City 6-2, while Brighton & Hove Albion and Brentford have both enjoyed 5-2 successes, over Leicester City and Leeds United respectively.
Champions Manchester City, the league's top scorers with 23 goals, have featured in three matches with six goals, drawing 3-3 with Newcastle United, beating Crystal Palace 4-2 before a 6-0 drubbing of Nottingham Forest.
But it's not just these high-scoring matches driving the rate of goals. Teams are scoring more regularly, with only 34 clean sheets from 67 matches, generating an average of 0.51.
Only one complete season, 2010/11, had a lower rate of clean sheets, 0.50.
Record starts
But a note of caution for 2022/23. The current season's rate of goals at this stage of the campaign is not unprecedented.
In 2012/13, 202 goals were scored in the first 68 matches, a rate of 2.97 goals per match.
But by the season’s end this had eased to 1,063 in total (or 2.80/match).
Similarly, three seasons earlier, 207 goals had come from 70 matches, an identical rate of 2.96/match to this season’s so far.
But by the end of the 2009/10 campaign, the rate had eased to generate a total of 1,053 goals, or 2.77/match.
But, with Erling Haaland setting the pace, with 2021/22's Golden Boot joint-winner, Son Heung-min, now finding his goalscoring form, and with perennial top-scorer Mohamed Salah yet to fire on all cylinders, perhaps the record of four seasons ago will fall.