Season trends: Throw-in goals and comeback wins on the rise in 2024/25

Related Articles

VOTE: Which was the best match of 2024/25?

After the second-highest scoring season in Premier League history, with an average of 2.93 goals per game, Adrian Clarke takes a closer look at some of the attacking trends we saw across a memorable 2024/25.

Throw-ins created havoc

Throw-ins created an average of only six goals per season, in the last 10 campaigns prior to 2024/25.

This season, an incredible 20 goals stemmed from that type of restart.

Only two seasons since 2004/05 have surpassed this total of goals from throw-ins, and none since 2011/12.

Goals from throw-ins per season

Season Total Share of all goals % 2024/25 20 1.8% 2023/24 8 0.6% 2022/23 9 0.8% 2021/22 7 0.7% 2020/21 3 0.3%

Long throws are certainly back in vogue, and teams with specialists who can hurl the ball over long distances are not afraid to use them.

Brentford are the undisputed kings in this area.

They netted six times in that manner, with Yoane Wissa scoring four of those goals, the last of which came at home to Fulham in their penultimate match of 2024/25.

Watch Wissa's goal v Fulham

Throw-ins were the exception as defending from dead-ball situations otherwise improved across the last 12 months.

Set-piece goals took a dramatic hit in 2024/25 – with goals scored from corners decreasing to 135 from 171 in the previous season.

Dealing with throws proved to be a lot more problematic and with marginal gains being so crucial to all teams, you can expect added focus on this aspect of the game during 2025/26.

Dramatic comebacks

The 2024/25 season featured the joint-highest number of comeback victories we have ever seen in the Premier League - 63, matching the tally of the previous campaign.

Teams overturned a deficit to take all three points in an incredible 16.6 per cent of matches (63 of 380).

This reflects extremely well on the players’ characters, refusing to accept defeat, but also on the positive changes made during matches by so many head coaches since last August.

From the start of 2022/23, managers have been allowed to bring on five substitutes, and this does seem to be a factor in the rise of come-from-behind success stories.

The three seasons since that rule change appear in our top four campaigns for most comeback wins.

PL seasons with most comeback wins

Season Comeback wins 2024/25 63 2023/24 63 2012/13 59 2022/23 57 2020/21 57 1993/94 49* 1992/93 48*

*462 matches were played in total

Which teams were best at producing comeback wins?

Fabian Hurzeler’s Brighton & Hove Albion finished off 2024/25 as the masters of recovery.

The Seagulls won three of their last five matches from losing positions.

They also came back from 2-0 down to beat Tottenham Hotspur earlier in the season, and in their final home game, Brighton ended Liverpool’s amazing run of being unbeaten in 156 consecutive matches in which they led at half-time.

Watch Brighton's comeback v Liverpool

Fulham were also incredibly resilient under the guidance of Marco Silva, who will have been thrilled his team scored 17 goals via substitutes in 2024/25. That is an all-time top-flight record for one season.

The Cottagers registered six comeback wins, including two against their local rivals in west London, Brentford.

Fulham also came from behind to beat three sides who finished in the top five - Chelsea, Newcastle United and Liverpool - in impressive fashion.

Slow-starting Manchester City conceded 19 goals inside the opening 30 minutes of their matches, a total that was only eclipsed by West Ham United, Wolverhampton Wanderers and the three relegated teams.

While that will have disappointed Pep Guardiola, he will also have been proud of the way his team responded, delivering six comeback victories of their own.

Most comeback wins PL 24/25

Team Comeback wins Brighton 6 Fulham 6 Man City 6 Brentford 5 Liverpool 5 Newcastle 5

A record-breaking stat

It has become a football cliché to say that 2-0 is a "dangerous scoreline" but this season that phrase was especially relevant.

More teams than ever before recovered from two or more goals down to win matches, with seven different clubs producing those seven remarkable comebacks.

Most comeback wins from more than two goals down

Season Wins from 2+ goals down 2024/25 7 2022/23 6 2017/18 5 2015/16 5 2001/02 5 1993/94 5

Everton and Spurs both suffered the unwanted fate of squandering such a lead on two occasions apiece.

Ange Postecoglou’s men lost 3-2 at Brighton and 4-3 at home to Chelsea from healthy two-goal leads, and in doing so they have now racked up 11 such losses, the most in Premier League history.

Everton led 2-0 against AFC Bournemouth until the 87th minute, only to get beaten 3-2 by the Cherries at Goodison Park.

It was the latest a team has ever been 2+ goals ahead in a game they lost since the Premier League began in 1992.

Watch Bournemouth's comeback v Everton

Everton also lost 3-2 after leading 2-0 at Aston Villa, while the other teams to win from being two goals down were Brentford (4-3 v Ipswich Town), Leicester City (3-2 at Southampton) and Man City (5-2 v Crystal Palace).

Late goals galore

A remarkable 8.4 per cent of all goals scored in 2024/25 occurred in stoppage time.

That equates to 94 in total, which is the second-highest tally recorded in one season, 18 behind the previous campaign which had smashed all previous bests.

Stoppage time across both halves was an average of one minute 51 seconds shorter per game in 2024/25 compared to 2023/24, which would help to explain that dip.

Seasons with the most stoppage-time goals

Season 90+ minute goals 2023/24 112 2024/25 94 2021/22 85 2018/19 85 2007/08 81

Southampton (12 goals), Aston Villa (eight) and Brentford (seven) were the teams who suffered most beyond the 90th minute, conceding many times.

To their credit, FA Cup winners Palace were the only team not to concede a stoppage-time goal.

As for which teams finished matches strongest, Andoni Iraola’s Bournemouth, certainly one of the fittest sides in the division, reached double figures for goals scored in added time.

Brentford, the side who netted the most goals inside the opening ten minutes (eight), were the second highest scorer of stoppage-time goals (also eight).

Teams with most stoppage-time goals PL 24/25

Click here to read article