By Zak Williamson
With this, there is no better time to look at the stats within the cinch Premiership to see what conclusions can be found.
When we look at the league table, it is currently led by Celtic, who sit 9 points clear of their Old Firm rivals Rangers in 2nd place.
This is partly due to Celtic’s impressive goal-scoring form in the league, netting an impressive 50 goals in only 15 games.
That’s an average of 3.33 goals per game for the Parkhead side. This a stark comparison to Rangers, who have only managed to score 34 in the same number of games.
The data shows that Celtic are essentially outscoring their rivals to maintain their position at the top of the table, with both sides only conceding 13 and 14 goals respectively.
The comparative lack of goals for the Ibrox side may come as a surprise as they have registered the most amounts of shots in the league so far at 297.
At the other end of the table, it can be seen that Dundee Utd, Kilmarnock and Ross County are all struggling to find their opposition’s net, as well as keep the ball out of their own.
Each team currently has a goal difference of over -10, meaning that they have conceded far more goals than they have been scoring.
Another interesting note is that Aberdeen, who currently sit in 3rd place, are only 5 goals off Rangers’ tally, despite having more than 100 fewer shots throughout the season. They are let down by their conceded goals, however, which is far higher than their rivals in 2nd.
There are also some interesting takeaways from looking at the disciplinary statistics from the league campaign so far.
While Heart of Midlothian has the lowest number of yellow cards shown in the league so far, they have also been shown the highest amount of red cards with 5.
This means that statistically, Hearts’ players have been shown a red card once every 3 games.
St Johnstone has the most yellow cards in the league with 47. When this data is coupled with their relatively low number of conceded goals, it could be inferred that this could be a part of their game plan with the use of tactical fouls to prevent opponents from scoring.
The vast amounts of bookings so far could also be attributed to the introduction of VAR (Video Assisted Refereeing) into the Scottish top flight, with there being a reported 3x increase in the number of penalties. In the first 20 games with VAR, 13 penalties were given. For comparison, only 56 spot kicks were issued throughout the entirety of last season.
All things considered, it has been an eventful start to the season and fans can expect more surprising stats when the cinch returns after Qatar.
Stats sourced from: https://spfl.co.uk/stats-centre