What has happened to Harry Kane? Wolves losing their bite
Liam Kelly reviews the Premier League action from a data perspective, highlighting points of interest after the decimated weekend round of matches.
The aim of this weekly column is to provide standout stats from each round of fixtures, to use underlying numbers to identify recent trends, and to inform punters with tools to improve their betting on the Premier League.
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Wolves' worries in attack
I'm all for the use of analytics to improve a football club, but Wolves have taken little too far by solely working in binary code recently!
After the dull draw with Chelsea on Sunday (xG: WOL 0.40 - 0.85 CHE), their last seven Premier League scorelines now read as 1-0, 0-0, 0-0, 0-1, 0-1, 1-0, 0-0.
Admittedly, the Old Gold have gained nine points from those fixtures, and lost only narrowly to Liverpool and Manchester City, but their underlying metrics are somewhat worrisome during that period.
Bruno Lage's side have averaged 0.62 expected goal for (xGF) per game across the seven games, barely testing opposition defences and becoming the dullest team in the league in their current guise.
Such numbers will be deemed acceptable if results are going Wolves' way, but they are slowly reverting to a similar process that played a big part in Nuno Espírito Santo's sacking. Lage promised a different approach, which he duly delivered in the opening parts of the season.
It will be interesting to see Wolves' numbers over the busy festive period as it would be harsh to criticise them after a 0-0 draw with a title challenger.
Harry Kane's slump
Watchers of Tottenham's 2-2 draw with Liverpool were treated to an exhilarating final Premier League game before Christmas, albeit with a fair few despicable refereeing decisions.
Spurs should be a little disappointed with just a point, though, comfortably creating (and mostly missing) the better chances in the game (xG: TOT 2.87 - 1.41 LIV) — averaging 0.29 xG per shot.
You could have been forgiven for thinking Harry Kane's woes in front of goal were finally over following his early opener in the Super Sunday match-up, but his recent issues resurfaced, missing two glorious opportunities to give Tottenham another lead 10 minutes after the break.
It's curious to see the England captain struggle with a finishing slump at Spurs this season, often a habitual overperformer of underlying numbers.
Kane has now scored just two goals from 4.6 xG in the Premier League this season, netting only one of the eight 'big chances' (0.35 xG+) presented to him.
Considering his problems with simple production before this game, the fact that he was in position to record 1.25 xG against Liverpool can be taken as big positive.
Now, Kane just needs to put on his shooting boots. A pair we know he has.