Caution: Normal service will surely soon be resumed
THE first four weeks of the Premier League have been nothing short of insane.
Goals have been flying in from all directions, with 144 scored in the opening month.
Every side seems to have thrown caution to the wind, let go of their inhibitions and adopted an all-outattack mentality.
Watching a Premier League game these days is like watching a schoolyard kickabout.
Everybody wants to get their name on the scoresheet and nobody seems particularly concerned with defending.
The top-flight scoring rate is at a 90-year high and a lot of people think it’s down to the lack of fans in the stands.
Without thousands of supporters shouting and screaming for 90 minutes, are players more willing to have a go? Are players and managers more eager to open up and take risks when their every move isn’t scrutinised by wildly-emotional spectators?
It’s an interesting theory and it would make sense. After all, it’s hard to think of any normal job where deafening singing, constant shouting and non-stop abuse would improve an employee’s performance.
Chanting “who are ya?” at a teacher isn’t likely to boost a pupil’s GCSE results and I’d imagine surgeons would find it tough to conduct a heart transplant with thousands of onlookers yelling random instructions at them.
The logic is understandable. Empty stands mean a less-pressurised atmosphere, enabling players to express themselves without the usual fear factor.
It’s an obvious explanation why the Premier League has gone goal crazy, so why hasn’t the same thing happened in the Championship?
While the top flight has seen a 7-2, a 6-1, three 5-2s and two 4-2s in the opening weeks, along with so many other mad scorelines, the Championship’s been pretty dull.
Just 99 goals have been scored in the first four weeks of the season, by far the lowest total at this stage since the division was rebranded as the Championship in 2004.
While your average top-flight game averages nearly four goals per game at the moment, the Championship barely scrapes two goals per game.
More than half the division is currently averaging less than a goal every game, whereas only three Premier League teams are currently failing to reach that standard.
In years gone by, it was generally accepted that more often than not the Championship was a more interesting and less predictable league to follow than the Premier League. That certainly isn’t the case right now.
Empty stadiums have not freed up Championship sides. If anything, the sterile atmosphere created by thousands of vacant seats seems to have made second-tier teams more cautious.
There seems to be a trend across the division of clubs playing it safe, perhaps grabbing a goal then focusing heavily on defending that lead.
The teams which have perfected this art have reaped the rewards early on in the season.
Reading are second in the table, but they have registered fewer shots than any other team, averaging just seven attempts per game.
They have a solid defence and players who do not need many chances to score. Their discipline at the back, combined with their clinical nature in attack gives them tremendous balance and makes them tough to play against.
They have only enjoyed a majority of the possession in one of their four games, but that doesn’t matter because they’re adept at soaking up pressure, frustrating the opposition before sucker-punching them with goals.
League leaders Bristol City also share some of these traits. They, too, have spent most of the season out of possession, but they’re very good at protecting a lead, meaning once they’re ahead, they’re not too bothered if the other side has the ball. The Bristolians will back themselves to keep out the opposition for the rest of the game and often grab another goal
as their opponents start throwing the kitchen sink at them.
Luton, in fifth are also relying on these traits to pick up results – and many of these tactics will sound familiar to Swansea City supporters too.
Although the Swans have enjoyed the lion’s share of possession in three of their four matches, they haven’t been gung-ho in any way. They’ve been patient, approaching games with a high degree of caution, knowing they have the individual quality in attack to punish opponents when the time is right.
Just like the rest of the top four, Swansea are yet to fall behind in any of their league games this season and scoring first makes it much easier for these teams to control games.
Only twice so far this season has a Championship team lost after scoring first, but this has already happened seven times in the topsy-turvy Premier League.
Swansea’s style has reflected that of most Championship teams so far this season.
Manager Steve Cooper has sometimes been criticised by fans for being overly cautious, but his approach seems in tune with the thinking of most of the division’s managers.
It’s very strange how the absence of fans seems to have turned the Premier League into this wild, action-packed league, while the same conditions have led to quite conservative, highly-tactical and even uneventful matches in the Championship.
Why these two leagues have seen such different starts to the season is a mystery, but it can’t possibly continue to the same extent for long. The Premier League surely can’t sustain the current scoring rate and I’m sure the goals will start to flow more freely in the second tier soon enough.
The Championship is, by its very nature, a basket-case league. These new ultra-tactical, extra careful tendencies can’t possibly last.
I’m sure normality will be resumed soon enough and the Championship can once again provide us with the drama we’ve become accustomed to.