Abraham, Rashford, and more: Meet the Premier League's xG chart leaders
Football technology has grown significantly over the last decade or so and has become a prominent feature in the sport over time. Apart from the traditional statistical breakdown of performances, analytics have gone on to play a key part in football and parameters such as xG (Expected Goals), xG90 (Expected goals per 90), xA (Expected assists), and more, have become more and more reliable metrics used to draw conclusions over a player's performances over a period of time.
xG is an advanced metric to deduce the number of goals a player could or should have scored based on a number of circumstances up until that point of the season or through the 90 minutes of a game. In short, it is a study of the quality of chances a player has received. It can also be used as a metric to define how good or bad a player's finishing ability is. British sports analytics firm Opta defines the metric in this manner:
"Expected goals (xG) measures the quality of a shot based on several variables such as assist type, shot angle and distance from goal, whether it was a headed shot and whether it was defined as a big chance."
As we have reached the halfway point of the Premier League season, here, we take a look at the Premier League's xG leaders and try to list the players who have overachieved or underachieved based on the chances they have received.
Note: The following list only contains players who have played a minimum of 15 Premier League games in the 2019/20 season.
#5 Chris Wood - 10.08
A relatively surprising name to begin the list off with, Burnley's Chris Wood makes it at fifth place by the skin on his teeth. Mohamed Salah's 16 appearances so far have yielded an xG of 10.00, with Wood edging him out by just 0.08.
The 28-year-old has played 18 times for the Clarets this season, scoring 7 times, all seven of which are non-penalty goals.
His xG, on the other hand, is 10.08 in the 1491 minutes he's played so far. This essentially means that he has underperformed by 3.08, wherein he could have added 3 more goals to his name if he'd converted approximately 3 more relatively easy chances that went missing.
The New Zealand international has an xG90 of 0.61, the same as Chelsea's Tammy Abraham, having played one game lesser than the Blues' striker.