Stats
Long-run studies on football's numbers — scoring trends, historical comparisons and what the data actually says, sourced and checked before publication.
StatsThe three-point era table: who has won the most league points in Europe's top five leagues?
We added up every club's points in the three-point era of the Premier League, Serie A, La Liga, Bundesliga and Ligue 1. Manchester United lead the raw total, Bayern Munich the points per game, and Ligue 1 has the most different champions.
StatsWhat is the most common score in football? 50,064 matches from Europe's top five leagues
We counted every scoreline in 28 seasons of the Premier League, Serie A, La Liga, Bundesliga and Ligue 1. 1-1 is the most common, nearly two matches in three are draws or one-goal wins, and 0-0 is fading.
StatsHow many points keep you up? Relegation lines in Europe's top five leagues
We read the final tables of 143 seasons to find how many points it took to stay up. The average survivor finished on about 39 points per 38 games — the old 40-point rule is too high in England and Italy, but not in Spain.
StatsHow early is the title decided? 145 champions across Europe's top five leagues
We replayed 145 league titles to find the first day each was mathematically certain. The average champion had 2.1 games to spare, 27% waited for their final game, and the earliest of all had eight to spare.
StatsDoes the Ligue 1 halfway table decide the season? Leader, top four and relegation since 1994
We rebuilt the Ligue 1 table at the halfway point of 32 seasons. The leader has won the title 18 times — barely more than half, level with the Premier League — and leads of seven, nine and ten points have all been thrown away.
StatsDoes the Bundesliga halfway table decide the season? Leader, top four and relegation since 1995
We rebuilt the Bundesliga table after each club's first 17 games for all 31 seasons since three points for a win. The halfway leader won the title 23 times — 18 of 19 when it was Bayern, 5 of 12 when it wasn't.
StatsDoes the La Liga halfway table decide the season? Leader, top four and relegation since 1997
We rebuilt the La Liga table after each club's first 19 games for all 29 seasons of the 20-club era. The halfway leader has won the title 22 times, never missed the top four — and the bottom of the table is far less predictable than in England or Italy.
StatsDoes the Serie A halfway table decide the season? Leader, top four and relegation since 2004
We rebuilt the Serie A table after each club's first 19 games for all 22 seasons of the 20-club era. Every champion was first or second at halfway, a lead of six points was never overturned on the pitch — and 20th place has gone down 21 times in 22.
StatsDoes the Premier League halfway table decide the season? Leader, top four and relegation since 1992
We rebuilt the table after each club's first 19 games for all 34 Premier League seasons. The halfway leader has gone on to win the title 19 times out of 34, never missed the top four — and 20th place has gone down 27 times in 31.
StatsIs home advantage fading in Europe's top five leagues? 24 seasons of home wins
Home teams won 46.5% of matches in the early 2000s and 42.9% in the 2020s, while away wins rose from 26.0% to 31.7%. The empty stadiums of 2020-21 were the sharpest dip, but not the whole story.
StatsAre draws disappearing from Europe's top five leagues? 24 seasons say: only a little
Across 119 complete league seasons since 2002-03, 25.8% of matches in the Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, Ligue 1 and Bundesliga ended level. Draws have slipped by about 1.35 points since the early 2000s — but the fall stopped around 2014.
StatsPremier League goals per match, season by season: up or down since 1992?
Thirty-four seasons of Premier League scoring data, checked and recomputed season by season, show no steady rise or fall — until 2023-24 broke the competition's 31-year-old scoring record.
StatsLa Liga goals per match, season by season: what 29 years of data show
29 seasons of La Liga scoring data, verified season by season, show a flat long-run average hiding a real hump: a Messi-Ronaldo-era peak in 2016-17 and a sharp decline once Ronaldo left Spain.
StatsSerie A goals per match since 1994: is calcio really that defensive?
32 seasons of Serie A scoring data, checked and recomputed, show the competition's most defensive season on record isn't from the catenaccio era — it's the one that just finished.
StatsLigue 1 goals per match: the clearest scoring rise among Europe's big leagues
31 seasons of Ligue 1 scoring data, verified and recomputed, show the clearest sustained rise in goals per match among the leagues we've studied — and cutting the league to 18 clubs hasn't reversed it.
StatsBundesliga goals per match since 1963: still Europe's highest-scoring league?
63 seasons of Bundesliga scoring data, verified and recomputed, confirm the league's reputation for goals — but the numbers also show today's Bundesliga scores less often than the one from three decades ago.