Welcome to The Briefing, where every Monday during this season, The Athletic will discuss three of the biggest questions to arise from the weekend’s Premier League football.
It was, by any standards, a breathless 48 hours. Sunday delivered a blizzard of goals, with Manchester City’s defensive weaknesses exposed again and Liverpool launching an improbable comeback; 24 hours earlier, meanwhile, Manchester United had slumped once again – this time at Newcastle – and Burnley had marmalised Sheffield United 5-0 for their first win of the season.
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Here, we ask whether a record level of goalscoring is necessarily a good thing, whether there is any way back for Marcus Rashford at Old Trafford, and where the international future of Tino Livramento might lie ahead of Euro 2024.
Does more goals mean better football?
Five games and 24 goals. That’s what Sunday delivered and it could have been 25 goals had referee Simon Hooper not accidentally (presumably) blown his whistle to cancel an advantage as Jack Grealish raced through in the final moments of Tottenham’s exhilarating 3-3 draw at Manchester City. One for another day, that.
The point is, Sunday’s goalfest was not the outlier many may consider it. We are now well over a third of the way through the Premier League campaign and with this weekend’s fixtures done, 2023-24 is averaging 3.16 goals per game.
To put that into context, no Premier League season has finished with a higher average than the last one: 2022-23, where we got 2.85 goals per game. This is a trend, too. The three most recent seasons all currently feature in the top four for goals per game.
This begs a couple of questions: why is it happening? And is it OK if we just lap it up as better football?
The increasing discrepancy between the top and bottom of the Premier League in recent seasons appears to have created a greater likelihood of high-scoring matches. In the last three completed seasons, the gap from first to 20th averaged 66 points. Ten years ago over the same period, it averaged 58.
Coaching styles and philosophies have also evolved in recent seasons. Teams generally take more risks with the ball, such as playing short from goal kicks to beat their opponents’ pressing. Both risk and reward tend to mean a greater chance of goals.
Those ideas have gone a step further in the Premier League since Roberto De Zerbi’s arrival at Brighton last season, with teams now actively inviting opponents to press them in possession – and that can work a treat or go spectacularly wrong.
For the record, Brighton have now both scored and conceded in their previous 18 Premier League games. That includes their first 14 games this season, which was last achieved in the top flight in 1934-35.
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We now get significantly more added time in every half as officials look to make sure the ball is actually in play longer per match and there’s the remarkable fact that we’re getting far fewer games finish with 22 players on the pitch.
There have already been 31 red cards in 140 Premier League matches this season. There were 30 across the entire 380-game campaign in 2022-23.
Is all this making ‘the product’ better? At this point, we should widen the view because while the Premier League is seeing more goals, it’s yet to trump Europe’s most goal-laden – or if you will, scoringest – big league. That remains Germany’s Bundesliga.
Europe's top leagues compared by goals
| Competition | Goals per game |
|---|---|
Bundesliga | 3.41 |
Premier League | 3.16 |
La Liga | 2.76 |
Serie A | 2.59 |
Ligue 1 | 2.53 |
Table correct until end of Man City v Tottenham |
The connoisseurs of stoic defending, compact formations and compelling goalless draws may well be complaining and there’s no denying that football would lose a significant part of its charm if goals became too cheap.
There is also a chance that, as coaches adapt to some of the more recent attacking trends, they may also help collectively evolve the game into another cycle of defensive dominance. Who wouldn’t want to see a Jose Mourinho 2.0?
So, in short, let’s enjoy all the goals for as long as they last.
Is Rashford’s Manchester United love affair coming to an end?
The moment was televised and therefore also shared on social media. Manchester United were 1-0 down at Newcastle, Marcus Rashford had been substituted, and the TV director cut to the forward sat on the bench, grabbing his coat.
He mouthed some words. There was clearly a curse and while the rest of it was difficult to lipread, that didn’t stop a few over-engaged posters suggesting Rashford was querying his night’s work and where he finds himself, laced with some industrial language.
He wasn’t the only one. Pundits on the UK broadcasters got stuck in, too.
The BBC’s Match of the Day highlights programme on Saturday saw Alan Shearer suggest Rashford “just didn’t look interested”, while Jermaine Jenas labelled his body language “shocking throughout” on TNT Sport.
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Jamie Carragher, meanwhile, called his display “unacceptable… I’ve been a local player and it’s not easy, especially when your team’s not doing well. It’s your job to fix it and you’ve got to drag other people up with you. I know he cares but it’s not enough”.
It was a different story last season as Rashford hit 17 goals, a tally that earned him a bumper five-year contract that summer.
But with that deal came higher expectations and the hope that a local hero could lead by skill and example, steering a team often stumbling under Erik ten Hag through their trickier moments.
The sight of Rashford’s efforts to track back and fight for the ball at St James’ Park won’t be difficult to find on social media. Working out what he actually said in that initial clip isn’t really the point, either.
More influential is that people are questioning Rashford’s commitment to the cause, while the player is cutting an unhappy and frustrated figure.
Maybe that is exactly how Rashford feels. Things have not been easy on the pitch. He has scored just twice in the Premier League since his new contract, the second a penalty handed to him by captain Bruno Fernandes at Everton last weekend in a bid to boost his confidence. At least he scored that, but those further benefits have not materialised.
Rashford’s struggle for effectiveness from the right wing, where he played against Newcastle, is not a fresh theme. This season he is averaging more than 120 minutes before getting a shot on target, which tends to be more of a worry for coaches than when a player is getting chances and missing them (or so the cliche goes).
Rashford's year-by-year record at United
| PL season | Apps | Goals | Mins/shot | Mins/Shot on target |
|---|---|---|---|---|
2015-16 | 11 | 5 | 53.8 | 107.6 |
2016-17 | 32 | 5 | 38.7 | 100.1 |
2017-18 | 35 | 7 | 29.6 | 86 |
2018-19 | 33 | 10 | 27.9 | 58.6 |
2019-20 | 31 | 17 | 27.9 | 60.3 |
2020-21 | 37 | 11 | 37.1 | 79.1 |
2021-22 | 25 | 4 | 56 | 102.7 |
2022-23 | 35 | 17 | 26.7 | 57.8 |
2023-24 | 13 | 2 | 29.4 | 120.9 |
Away from the pitch, things haven’t been easy either. Rashford’s decision to go to a Manchester nightclub hours after United’s 3-0 derby defeat at home to Manchester City in October didn’t go down well.
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He also dedicated his goal at Everton to his cousin, who died recently. It takes more than money and responsibility to get you through a difficult personal spell and we will all have been affected in our own jobs by events outside of our work. Just with far less scrutiny.
All at United will hope things turn a corner and that this is just another bump in the road for a home-town hero.
But if it isn’t, then the fallout could be painful – and many will point to St James’ Park as the moment things bubbled to the surface.
Which club country will win the race to sign Tino?
We’re within a month from the opening of the January transfer window. How exciting!
We’re all well versed in the idea of players being in demand from several clubs, but what about when the demand comes from national teams?
The draw for Euro 2024 in Germany next summer was made on Saturday evening – just before kick-off at St James’ Park – and Tino Livramento went on to pass his latest audition to ‘make the plane’ for the tournament.
In this case, the big question is where he’ll be catching his plane from rather than where he’s going.
The 21-year-old is eligible for three countries that featured in Saturday’s draw. There is a family link to Portugal, while Scotland have enquired about Livramento’s future, a path they have sought recently (Scotland’s current first-choice goalkeeper Angus Gunn was a regular for England’s youth setup right through to under-21 level).
You may well have guessed now that the third option is England, where Livramento, like Gunn, has picked up caps from under-15s through to the under-21s.
The player himself was relaxed about the situation in November, saying “there’s no rush to make any decision”. That was ahead of playing for England Under-21s as they continue their qualification campaign for the European Under-21 Championship in 2025.
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But these days, international youth football can also mean little if a country you’re happy to represent comes calling with a big opportunity.
The key point here is that, after a year out following a torn ACL, Livramento is returning to the performance levels that saw him earn rave reviews in the Premier League for Southampton during the 2021-22 campaign.
He’s even doing it at left-back, covering the opposite flank to his natural side for injury-hit Newcastle while team-mate and England defender Kieran Trippier continues to excel on the right.
Southgate may need to give him a call before someone else does.
Coming up this week
- This working week is a rare treat: more Premier League football! A full schedule of 10 fixtures over three days begins on Tuesday, with Wolves hosting Burnley. However, the proper fun may come later when leaders Arsenal head to the bygone surrounds of Luton’s Kenilworth Road. It’s the sort of game you’d have banked on Arsenal losing a few years ago, but things are different now… right?
- Tuesday also sees one of the week’s more bizarre plot lines. Scotland host England in the climax of the Women’s Nations League, which is doubling up as qualification for the Paris Olympics next summer. Great Britain’s entry depends on England qualifying and that means the best chance for Scotland’s top players to feature at the Games for Team GB would be to lose to England. If only someone had foreseen such an issue.
- It’s back to the Premier League on Wednesday and it’s busy. The first four games may not set your heart on fire, but the reward for patience comes later when Aston Villa host Manchester City and somehow-seventh Manchester United welcome Chelsea to Old Trafford. Get your second screens set up.
- What on earth did we do to deserve a top-flight double-header on a Thursday? Let’s not question it. Everton’s 10-point catch-up plan continues at home to Newcastle, while Tottenham host West Ham. Then we can all go for a lie-down.
- Friday is the chance for an English football palate cleanser, with a tasty north-v-south clash in Italy’s Serie A. Second-placed Juventus host defending champions Napoli in Turin. Expect spice.
Your Monday reading list
(Top photos: Getty Images)
