Premier League Shot Efficiency Ratings

With the 2024/25 Premier League season now at an end, a story that took nearly nine months to write has finally seen its last chapter penned and with Liverpool ruling the roost, it means success for Arne Slot in his debut season as manager. 

After being handed the baton from previous manager Jurgen Klopp, Dutchman slot ran with it. Exceeding expectations in his first few months at Anfield and with the Premier League being difficult to win, it is even more difficult to defend it. 

Especially as Manchester City were knocked off their perch and with an element of transition for Pep Guardiola, the prospect of being trophyless for a second season is not one that exites him as we go into the 2025/26 campaign. 

Liverpool have the spoils though and they do so because of a scintilating season of attacking prowess but although the league table cannot be argued, their level of prowess perhaps can.

Because in a world where expected goals have gained more prominence in the past few years, there is another measure of attacking success that can be utilised and one that measures just how efficient a team is in front of goal.

Which is something that we are now going to analyse in our latest deep dive and for those who are unaware on how to measure shot efficiency, the equation is as simple as:

Total Goals Scored / Total Shots = Shot Efficiency Rating

Now that this measure is clear for all to see, lets first list the 20 Premier League clubs from 2024/25 in order of total shots taken.

As we can see, it is Liverpool who also top the ladder when it comes to total shots in the 2024/25 Premier League season, the most points as an indirect consequence of peppering their opposition defences with the most shots over the course of a season. 

With 650 shots in total, the Reds had more attempts than their 19 Premier League counterparts and with Manchester City registering 608, they were the only two clubs to record over 600 total shots during the 2025/26 Premier League season.

Arsenal finished second for the third successive season and they did so after recording a total 547 shots (fifth place). Manager Mikel Arteta was accused of being too defensive last season, the numbers certainly add weight to such accusations. 

That explains the top three finishes in the Premier League, but who rounds out the top five in terms of total shots? 

That honour goes to Chelsea who finished fourth in the final table but recorded the third most shots and Bournemouth who recorded a top ten finish on the pitch and the fourth most shots in the division. 

Interestingly the bottom three clubs in the real life Premier League table also found themselves in the bottom four when it comes to shots across the season. .

Now that we know the lie of the land regarding shot rank, the next step will be to see how this compares to each team’s real-life finishing position and then track what correlations may or may not come to life.

From this table, we can see that 18 clubs failed to match their positions in both the shot ranks and league ranks - the only clubs that managed to do so were champions Liverpool and also Wolves who coincidentally finished 16th in the table and 16th in terms of total shots taken. 

While the easiest way to add more context to this, is by listing the same table in order of rank difference.

Manchester City takes a penalty, scores and celebrates // Every Second Media / Alamy Stock Photo

As you can see Manchester United and Tottenham had the biggest disparity between their final league placings and high shot tallies, while Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest suffered the imbalance of higher league placings but a low shot efficiency ranking by comparison.

This is something to consider when we plug in the data for shot efficiency, and when we take the shot counts and add goals into the mix, here is what we now see.

As we can see, it is Brentford who were the most efficient team when measured as a percentage and with Thomas Frank's services being captured by Tottenham, the hope for a similar performance in front of goal by the Dane's players will be the expectation at the start of the new season. 

The Bees recorded a shot efficiency rating of 14.97%, 1.74% higher than that of Liverpool in second but even with the Reds second in this chart, this coupled with them being top in terms of toal shots shows that they were not just making chances but taking them as well., 

As for Newcastle, they finished third when it comes to efficiency by percentage and with Eddie Howe's men finishing in the top five, it also means a return to the Champions League next season - another reward to go alongside their recent Carabao Cup final win over Liverpool. 

Newcastle find themselves one position better off than Tottenham and it is the North London outfit that were the fourth most efficient in front of goal. Also Champions League football for Spurs but their Europa League final win only covers the cracks of such a poor domestic campaign. 

Spurs were more efficient than London rivals Arsenal, as the Gunners edged their way into fifth place with an efficiency rating of 12.61% - this equates to just over 1 in 8 Arsenal effort then hitting the back of the net. 

While the usual bastions of execution Manchester City, had an off season by their own standards. The second highest total shots with 608, 72 goals scored. An efficiency percentage of 11.84%

While Manchester United must be considered the outlier in all of this. The Red Devils had a season to forget and especially when you consider that a total of 528 shots saw just 44 goals recorded - roughly a goal for every 11 chances.

With current manager Ruben Amorim trying to mould the squad into something resembling his vision, the former Sporting boss will have to solve the attacking issues that have hampered the club for quite a while. 

Then again, we can also map our data and compare league ranking to efficiency ranking. When we do so, this is how it pans out: 

Here we can see that four clubs (Nottingham Forest, Everton, Brighton, Southampton) matched their efficiency ranking with the league position. A look at the other 16 teams involved and the picture gets far more distorted.

Tottenham players celebrate after scoring a goal during the Exhibition match between Tottenham and Newcastle // IOIO IMAGES/shutterstock

Especially when you look at both Tottenham and Wolves. Finishes of 17th and 16th in the final Premier League table respectively, these are then compared to 4th and 6th in the efficency charts leading to a swing of 13 places for Spurs and 10 places for their West Midlands counterparts.

A wild swing also takes place at Brentford. Top of the efficiency charts, 10th in the table. A swing of nine positions for the West London outfit. 

While at the other end of this comparitive table, it is Manchester City and Chelsea who are the worst off. Both outfits recording seven places worse in terms of efficiency when compared to their final league placing. Both sides recording in the region of 600 shots (City 607, Chelsea 598), both lacking the firepower to thrust them towards title honours.