Return of the 0-0 – is the Premier League getting boring?

With 16 rounds of fixtures still to go, this season’s Premier League has now featured more goalless games than the entire previous term thanks to two 0-0 draws at the weekend.

17 games have already ended without either participant breaking the deadlock.

Joe Hart, the two-time champion, claimed that many clubs now face financial hardship because they are “too dangerous” to risk losing. He added that the pragmatic approach is much more favorable.

What has caused the criticism, then, given the claims made by some circles that the league is becoming boring, the average number of goals scored per game is still at 2.74, which is above average for all competitions since 1992-1993?

There have been more 0-0s at this point as recently as 2022-23, compared to the previous two seasons, though.

Even if the pattern persists over the next four months, it seems unlikely that the league’s top 51 goalless draws will ever be comparable to those from 1994-95, when Blackburn Rovers were dominant.

Of the six seasons with fewer than 40 games ending 0-0, four were in the 1990s, despite the fact that there were 462 games in a season as opposed to the current 380.

Since 2018, there has been a general decline in goalless draws. However, they are back on top after hitting a Premier League low of 11 two years ago.

Hart, the former England number one, noticed a tactical shift that might explain why he kept 127 clean sheets in 340 top-flight games.

Hart continued, “I don’t want to get away from the pragmatic approach.”

The cycles you mention are what you refer to, and I believe the teams that were prepared to compete head-to-head and win the Premier League, and if they didn’t, they would lose.

“But that’s too risky financially,” he said. The people in charge are saying, “We can’t really afford for you to go out there and have a right good go,” and that no longer applies. We require you to build foundations and be much more secure.

It has climbed significantly in the rankings. If you were able to play that way, you would have been viewed as a dinosaur. However, you’ve seen more powerful and powerful teams adopt it.

The Observer’s football correspondent, Rory Smith, observed that “now you’ve got teams cancelling each other out, so they’re moving to small margin stuff like set-pieces,” “Look, basically we’re all as good as each other so it comes down to who takes the better corners.”

“And I believe there is a purpose to that. Perhaps it has more to do with conditioning, recruitment, and resources than with tactics, in my opinion.

As the best clubs seek to unlock well-drilled defenses, specialist coaches are becoming more and more prevalent. The Gunners recently hired former Liverpool throw-in expert Thomas Gronnemark.

Head coach Eddie Howe bemoaned the Magpies’ lack of cutting edge because their first half pass completion rate (94%) was the highest by any team in the first half of Premier League football without recording a shot on target since 2003-2004.