What was the highest and lowest xG in a Premier League game this season?

“What was the highest xG in a Premier League game this season?” asks Pippa Wright. “And what was the lowest?”

Our friends at Stats Perform have given us some moreish data for the 2021-22 Premier League season, so let’s tuck in. The highest combined xG in a match was at the Etihad on Boxing Day, when Manchester City beat Leicester 4.17-2.41. The combined xG was 6.58, the actual score 6-3 to Manchester City.

The highest for one team was at Anfield in February, when Liverpool plugged Leeds 6-0. Their xG that night was a slightly frightening 5.36. That also led to the greatest disparity between xGs in a match this season: 5.15. The mathletes among you will be able to work out that Leeds’ xG was 0.21.

That wasn’t quite the lowest of the season, though. Cruelly, if not entirely against type, that dubious award goes to Nuno Espírito Santo’s Tottenham Hotspur. When they lost 3-0 at Crystal Palace in mid-September, the game that started their collapse under Nuno, Spurs had an xG of just 0.07.

While we’re on the subject of shot-shyness, the match with the lowest combined xG took place on the same day. Brighton sneaked a 1-0 victory at Brentford, with Leandro Trossard’s late winner an affront to both the home side and the statisticians: the combined xG for that game was 0.71 (Brentford 0.39-0.32 Brighton).

The most wasteful performance of the season came from Manchester United, who drew 0-0 at home to Watford in February despite an xG of 3.19. And the most ruthless came across Manchester - when Manchester City had an xG of 3.25 against Leeds at the Etihad in December. Unlike United, they found a way to win: 7-0.

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