We’re into the swing of the brand new Premier League season, with matchday two bringing lots extra thrills and spills.
Huge wins for Chelsea and Manchester Metropolis have been accompanied by hat-tricks for Noni Madueke and Erling Haaland, whereas Everton’s depressing begin to 2024-25 continued as they have been thrashed 4-0 at Tottenham.
However who have been the fortunate winners and the unfortunate losers to emerge from this weekend’s set of fixtures, in response to the underlying metrics?
With the assistance of Opta knowledge, let’s discover out.
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Fortunate winners: Chelsea
Whereas Chelsea’s thumping 6-2 win at Wolves was probably the most emphatic victory of a goal-laden matchday, maybe fortune smiled on the Blues as they obtained off the mark beneath Enzo Maresca.
Chelsea’s six targets got here from an anticipated targets (xG) determine of simply 1.68, with the Blues giving up probabilities value 1.96 xG on the different finish.
Madueke was joined on the scoresheet by Nicolas Jackson, Cole Palmer and Joao Felix as Maresca turned the primary supervisor in Premier League historical past to see his crew rating six targets in his first away sport on the helm.
Unfortunate losers: Wolves
It is likely to be a tad beneficiant to recommend Wolves have been unlucky after transport six targets on house soil, 4 of them coming in a depressing second half as they tried to chase the sport.
Nevertheless, it’s actually truthful to say the scoreline didn’t inform the complete story of a sport by which Gary O’Neil’s males managed 12 photographs to Chelsea’s 14 and bettered the Blues’ 21 touches within the space, registering 25.
Chelsea’s xG overperformance of 4.31 is the most important of the season by some margin, with Brighton and Spurs each outdoing their underlying figures by 1.57 of their victories over Everton.
No crew managed a much bigger overperformance than that all through everything of final season, both, with Newcastle’s eight targets from 3.92 xG versus Sheffield United the closest any crew obtained.
Fortunate winners: Arsenal
Chelsea’s win at Molineux was considered one of simply two video games within the Premier League on matchday two the place the victors misplaced the xG battle.
However on a weekend the place justice was largely carried out, Arsenal may maybe rely themselves lucky to depart Aston Villa with a 2-0 victory.
The Gunners collected simply 0.87 xG to Villa’s 1.28, however targets from Leandro Trossard and Thomas Partey maintained their 100% begin to the season.
That is the third time they’ve received their first two matches of a top-flight marketing campaign with out conceding a purpose, having beforehand carried out so in 1924-25 and 1971-72.
Unfortunate losers: Aston Villa
Villa have been a fortunate winner on matchday one as they escaped the London Stadium with a 2-1 victory over West Ham, however there was to be no repeat in opposition to Arsenal.
Unai Emery’s crew solely hit the goal with three of their 11 photographs, and striker Ollie Watkins was notably wasteful as he didn’t internet from two efforts value 0.87 xG.
That’s the second-highest determine registered by a participant who failed to attain in a Premier League match this season, after Nottingham Forest’s Nikola Milenkovic versus Southampton on Saturday (0.98 xG).
