Who are Premier League kings of the long throw?

The long throw used by almost exclusively Tony Pulis and his Stoke City team was once largely reserved for them, but it is now being used by almost every Premier League team, and it is effective.

Throw-in routines helped score 20 goals last season. Even though the 2025-26 season is only 11 rounds away, 12 goals have already been scored in this category.

The longer the average throw is, on the plus side, demonstrated. There were 16 and 17 last season, and there has been a rise in this campaign to reach 186.

The average length of a throw is increasing as a long throw is defined by data analysts Opta as exceeding 20 meters.

Kayode, who had 23 throws for Fiorentina over the course of the 2023- to 2024-25 season and 24 in the first half of the 2024-25 season, gained a reputation for his throws in January.

Kayode started six games and made six substitute starts before making 21 in the second half of the campaign at Gtech Stadium.

In 11 starts, Kayode, ahead of Sunderland’s Nordi Mukiele (46), and Crystal Palace’s Chris Richards (29), has seen a significant improvement.

The longest average throw distance (33. 2 meters) is consistent. Lucas Bergvall, a Tottenham midfielder, is next, who has 30.6 yards and 16 throws.

Long throws are frequently used by Everton (Jake O’Brien and Vitalii Mykolenko), Bournemouth (Antoine Semenyo), Leeds United (Ethan Ampadu), and Burnley (Kyle Walker).

On the other end of the scale, Brighton and Liverpool have no players with more than two long throws into the box, while Chelsea and Manchester City do not.

Although Kayode is their first choice, he is their longest throw, 38.5 meters, which is behind Fulham. At Palace, Matthias Jensen surpassed him in both the distance of 45.4% and 45.7%. They are also taken by Kevin Schade.

Brentford have played at six of the 20 Premier League venues this season, but they have so far managed to throw the longest at five of them.

In 2024-2025, Brentford scored five goals from throw-ins, and they have three this season: Schade, Chelsea, and Dango Ouattara, all of whom scored goals.

Although Brentford may be the most popular player, they do not have the longest throw in the league. Rodrigo Gomes of Wolves, who defended his position at 46. 1 meter from Everton, is in charge of that.

Despite this, Wolves haven’t really used this weapon, with only seven of his four games being taken by Gomes and Molineux having the shortest average distance for long throws into the final third.

Does the stadium matter? Brentford’s ranking of five of the grounds in the top six will influence the stats. The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, where Spurs are being coached by Thomas Frank, the former manager of Brentford, is the one they haven’t visited yet.

At grounds where it is not practicable to conform to the standard 105x68m Premier League playing surface, pitch size does not appear to be a factor. They are Anfield (101m x 68m), Craven Cottage (100x65m), Selhurst Park (101.5x68m) and Stamford Bridge (103×67.5m).

What might be the long throw of a team? Perhaps give them a run-up space? When Arsenal visited the Stadium of Light, Sunderland did exactly that.

It was also used as a tactic by numerous teams to defeat Pulis Stoke.

For the second leg of their Championship play-off semi-final against Coventry in May, which they won on the night to win on aggregate, Sunderland have shown some form in this regard.

Arsenal haven’t scored from a throw-in routine this season, despite having a richly deserved set-piece reputation.

The average length of throws into the final third at the Stadium of Light increased game by game from 8.3m when West Ham visited on the opening weekend to 24.9m and 27.4m when Wolves and Everton traveled before the international break.

Maybe Mykolenko’s 33.2-meter throw, which was the longest of the season at the ground, caused Sunderland to react before Arsenal’s visit.

There is nothing in Premier League rules that prohibits moving advertising boards around depending on the team’s pitch size during a season. The only exception is that the game’s rules for upright advertising must be located at least one meter from the touchlines.

Specialist throw-in coach Thomas Gronnemark told BBC Sport, “Changing the placement of the advertising boards is in the grey zone, like not watering the pitch when you’re playing a really good technical team.”

Gronnemark has worked for a number of clubs, including Brentford and Liverpool, including Danish club FC Midtjylland. He coached Sunderland’s Mukiele at RB Leipzig in 2018 and helped Jensen improve his long-throw skills.

Because FC Copenhagen played FC Midtjylland, the same phenomenon was observed in Denmark a few years ago, where their advertising boards were also only a few meters from the stands.

Does it matter, or are there other factors at play? And would Sunderland’s ability affect Mukiele, their own specialist?

You have a quick run-in, Gronnemark said, “when you put the advertising boards very close to the sidelines.” You can’t generate as much power as you can if you have a quick run-in.

It may be advantageous for you to meet long throw-in experts if you are a bad long throw-in team yourself. That weapon can be weakened by you.

“Technique and physics enable us to throw farther than other players can with a quick run-in, but that’s exactly how it is.” They will still cut off their own throw-in by a few meters.

However, “make the best circumstances” if you’re the best long throw-in team. For instance, [Midtjylland] turned the other way to make the stadium as excellent as possible. In order to optimize the run-in, we polished down some concrete.

Because the average length of a throw into the final third for the Arsenal game was 28.6 meters, it didn’t make much of a difference at the Stadium of Light.

Only five long throws, compared to ten and eight attempted by Wolves and Everton, are perhaps the most important points. A team might go short more frequently if they change the advertising boards and shrink the run-in space.