With the boredom of the International break biting hard, we decided to take a look at the players with the best “Goal Involvement” per club. For the purpose of this article, Goal Involvement consists or either assisting or scoring a goal and also factors in whether the player was on the pitch when their team found their opponent’s net, a fact we managed to establish only after looking at every game of the season so far.
Using Marouanne Chamakh as a quick example, the table shows that Arsenal have scored 14 goals with him on the pitch, and of those 14, he has been involved in 4, which is 28%. Given that he’s played 586 mins so far, this means he has been involved in an Arsenal goal every 146 mins.
Theo Walcott’s fine start to the season (helped by his hat-trick against Blackpool) shows he played a part in 5 of the 8 goals Arsenal scored when he was on the pitch, which is a fantastic 62%. Before succumbing to injury, Walcott was therefore involved in an Arsenal goal every 37 minutes he was on the field.
Of all the sortable columns on the table below, perhaps the most significant is “Mins per Goal Involvement”. A couple of big performances in easy romps against lesser sides means Walcott and Salomon Kalou lead the way, but take these two out of the equation, and the order is a fair reflection of the season’s performers so far.
A surprise name up amongst the top dogs of Didier Drogba and Nani is Blackpool’s Luke Varney. He has either scored or assisted five of the seven goals his team have scored when he is on the pitch, meaning he is involved in a goal every 70 minutes, almost on a par with Nani. The high ranking of the likes of Moussa Dembele, Johan Elmander and Peter Odemwingie show how, outwith the Bonus Point allocation, there are budget forwards consistently producing the goods so far this season.
Another point of interest is Man United’s Wayne Rooney. Rooney has dropped £0.6m so far, but when on the pitch, his rate of Goal Involvement (76 mins) is actually better than that of team mate Dimitar Berbatov. They have both been involved in the same percentage of goals (44%) but having played almost double the minutes of Rooney means Berbatov leads the way. The stats suggest that if Rooney played the same game time as the Bulgarian, he’d be the one out in front.
| Club | Player Name | No. of Goals Player Involved In | Team Goals With Player on Pitch | % of Club Goals Involvement | Minutes on Pitch | Mins Per Goal Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arsenal | Marouanne Chamkh | 4 | 14 | 28% | 586 mins | 146 mins |
| Arsenal | Andrei Arshavin | 5 | 15 | 33% | 556 mins | 111 mins |
| Arsenal | Cesc Fabregas | 3 | 8 | 37% | 214 mins | 071 mins |
| Arsenal | Theo Walcott | 5 | 8 | 62% | 187 mins | 037 mins |
| Aston Villa | Marc Albrighton | 4 | 8 | 50% | 560 mins | 140 mins |
| Aston Villa | Ashley Young | 3 | 9 | 33% | 625 mins | 208mins |
| Aston Villa | Stewart Downing | 3 | 9 | 33% | 630 mins | 210 mins |
| Aston Villa | Emile Heskey | 2 | 3 | 67% | 163 mins | 081 mins |
| Birmingham City | Craig Gardner | 3 | 7 | 43% | 465 mins | 155 mins |
| Birmingham City | Cameron Jerome | 3 | 7 | 43% | 594 mins | 198 mins |
| Birmingham City | Seb Larsson | 3 | 7 | 43% | 615 mins | 205 mins |
| Blackburn Rovers | MG Pederson | 2 | 7 | 29% | 595 mins | 298 mins |
| Blackburn Rovers | Nikola Kalinic | 3 | 6 | 50% | 435 mins | 145 mins |
| Blackpool | Charlie Adam | 4 | 11 | 36% | 630 mins | 158 mins |
| Blackpool | Luke Varney | 5 | 7 | 71% | 349 mins | 070 mins |
| Bolton Wanderers | Johan Elmander | 6 | 8 | 75% | 580 mins | 097 mins |
| Bolton Wanderers | Kevin Davies | 3 | 10 | 30% | 630 mins | 210 mins |
| Bolton Wanderers | Martin Petrov | 3 | 8 | 38% | 538 mins | 179 mins |
| Chelsea | Didier Drogba | 11 | 22 | 50% | 593 mins | 054 mins |
| Chelsea | Florent Malouda | 6 | 18 | 33% | 526 mins | 088 mins |
| Chelsea | Salomon Kalou | 5 | 11 | 45% | 234 mins | 047 mins |
| Everton | Leighton Baines | 2 | 6 | 33% | 630 mins | 210 mins |
| Everton | Leon Osman | 2 | 5 | 40% | 366 mins | 183 mins |
| Everton | Tim Cahill | 3 | 6 | 50% | 511 mins | 170 mins |
| Fulham | Moussa Dembele | 4 | 6 | 67% | 300 mins | 075 mins |
| Fulham | Clint Dempsey | 2 | 5 | 40% | 447 mins | 224 mins |
| Fulham | Bobby Zamora | 2 | 3 | 67% | 267 mins | 134 mins |
| Liverpool | Steven Gerrard | 4 | 7 | 57% | 630 mins | 158 mins |
| Liverpool | Dirk Kuyt | 2 | 5 | 40% | 450 mins | 225 mins |
| Liverpool | Fernando Torres | 4 | 5 | 80% | 461 mins | 115 mins |
| Man City | Carlos Tevez | 7 | 9 | 78% | 602 mins | 086 mins |
| Man City | James Milner | 3 | 12 | 25% | 624 mins | 208 mins |
| Man City | Adam Johnson | 2 | 5 | 40% | 330 mins | 165 mins |
| Man United | Nani | 8 | 14 | 57% | 541 mins | 068 mins |
| Man United | Dimitar Berbatov | 7 | 16 | 44% | 565 mins | 081 mins |
| Man United | Wayne Rooney | 4 | 9 | 44% | 302 mins | 076 mins |
| Man United | Paul Scholes | 4 | 16 | 25% | 613 mins | 153 mins |
| Newcastle United | Andy Carroll | 5 | 9 | 56% | 545 mins | 109mins |
| Newcastle United | Kevin Nolan | 3 | 10 | 30% | 595 mins | 198 mins |
| Newcastle United | Jonas Gutierrez | 2 | 6 | 33% | 446 mins | 223 mins |
| Stoke City | Matthew Etherington | 5 | 8 | 63% | 628 mins | 126 mins |
| Stoke City | Kenwyne Jones | 3 | 6 | 50% | 422 mins | 141 mins |
| Sunderland | Darren Bent | 5 | 7 | 71% | 622 mins | 124mins |
| Sunderland | Jordan Henderson | 2 | 7 | 29% | 630 mins | 315 mins |
| Tottenham Hotspur | Rafael Van der Vaart | 3 | 4 | 75% | 341 mins | 114 mins |
| Tottenham Hotspur | Gareth Bale | 2 | 8 | 25% | 630 mins | 315 mins |
| Tottenham Hotspur | Alan Hutton | 2 | 5 | 40% | 225 mins | 113 mins |
| Tottenham Hotspur | Peter Crouch | 2 | 7 | 29% | 475 mins | 238 mins |
| West Brom | Peter Odemwingie | 5 | 9 | 56% | 540 mins | 108 mins |
| West Brom | Chris Brunt | 4 | 9 | 44% | 617 mins | 154 mins |
| West Brom | James Morrison | 2 | 5 | 40% | 431 mins | 216 mins |
| West Brom | Jerome Thomas | 3 | 7 | 43% | 386 mins | 129 mins |
| West Ham | Frederic Piquionne | 2 | 5 | 40% | 413 mins | 207 mins |
| West Ham | Scott Parker | 3 | 5 | 60% | 630 mins | 210 mins |
| West Ham | Mark Noble | 2 | 5 | 40% | 630 mins | 315 mins |
| Wigan | Hugo Rodallega | 2 | 4 | 50% | 630 mins | 315 mins |
| Wolves | Sylvain Ebanks-Blake | 2 | 5 | 40% | 363 mins | 182 mins |
| Wolves | Steven Fletcher | 3 | 4 | 75% | 310 mins | 103 mins |
| Wolves | Jelle Van-Damme | 2 | 4 | 50% | 207 mins | 104 mins |
