High stakes, low blocks and making blankety blank more entertaining
In the light of extensive discourse about a low-scoring Premier League season, it is worth recalling Thierry Henry’s proposal of an additional point for three goals. It was in a “King for the Day” section of a CBS show that Henry was contributing to in 2023. If it were in force, Henry’s old team Arsenal would be only one point clear of Manchester City rather than seven. Henry, whose prolific goalscoring helped represent the Premier League at its exciting best, doesn’t have the influence of his former manager, Arsene Wenger, who is in charge of such concepts at Fifa. But Henry’s idea is worth re-considering and debating, assessing potential drawbacks, along with more immediate arguments to urge the Varldemorts to stop ruling out good goals and encourage refs to clamp down on time-wasting and feigning injury - and get academies to develop more 9s.
Arsenal’s often sensitive fanbase take the current debate as simply all about stopping their team, who can definitely play entertaining football through Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard and others as well their prolific return from set-pieces. Arsenal regularly have to contend with more negative sides’ low blocks. It’s about ensuring that the Premier League remains a sporting spectacle, and the No 1 sports league in the world.
First, is there a problem? The latest round of Premier League fixtures produced a miserly 16 goals across the 10 games. Two of them were stalemates: Nottingham Forest versus Arsenal was disappointing, but Wolverhampton Wanderers’ draw with Newcastle United was a decent watch. So was Sunderland’s 0-0 with Manchester City on New Year’s Day. Blankety-blank can be entertaining. (One for the kids).
What is undeniable is that the goals per match average is 2.74 – down from last season’s 2.93. That average was down from 3.28 in 23/24, signalling a worrying trend. A broader view must take in the preceding two seasons which saw the average as 2.85 in 22/23 and 2.82 in 21/22.
Football’s cyclical. One season of low-scoring games does not necessarily mean the game’s going stale, but there are rightly concerns. Fans, the life-blood of the game, want to be entertained. Broadcasters, who pay fortunes for rights, want goals. Premier League fans also look at the Bundesliga which currently averages 3.26 goals per match compared to 3.13 last season. Again that comes with a caveat: last season’s figure had a less prolific second half to the season, so we’ll have to wait for the end of this season for a clearer picture. But even a cursory glance at Bundesliga games gives the favourable impression of more attacking.