31st Dec 2012 | Football
Newcastle Merit More Than Thumping Defeat
Each week we use a statistical approach to look beyond the scorelines in the Premier League, in the hope of discovering some underrated performances.
Using the criteria set out in our ‘Shots On Target’ feature, each week we will analyse the recent set of Premier League fixtures to see if the scorelines were a fair reflection of the games. Using ‘shots on target’ rather than goals as out key metric, we hope to discover matches that didn’t produce a ‘fair’ scoreline given the balance of play.
29 December 2012
Source: whoscored.com
Negative numbers = away team supremacy
Don’t be put off by Newcastle thrashing
The bare statistics might make grim reading for Newcastle fans - two defeats in 3 days, 11 goals conceded - but conceivably they could have won both games. Newcastle created plenty of scoring opportunities, unfortunately they came up against clinical strikers in the shape of Van Persie, Hernandez and Walcott who all took their chances.
In their next match they face a wasteful Everton, who often create but fail to take their chances. Alan Pardew’s men should continue to score but not be so severely punished for any mistakes. A home win looks big at 23/10 with Stan James.
Odds correct at time of publishing: 09:52 31st Dec, 2012 but subject to change
