 Hello and let's talk about the English Premier League. Yesterday saw two major teams in the league, Manchester United and Liverpool suffering drubbings. Liverpool, the reigning champion, was thrashed by Aston Villa by a 7-2 margin, while Manchester United suffered a 6-1 defeat at the hands of Tottenham. There were records galore as both these top tier clubs saw some of their worst defeats in their history. A key aspect is the sheer number of goals scored, which reflects a larger trend that has been noticeable even in other matches in the league this season. So what explains the sheer number of goals? We talked to News Clicks Leslie Xavier on this issue. Thank you Leslie for joining us. So quite a couple of interesting matches yesterday, lots of goals scored. Some giant teams faced a bit of a setback. But the number of goals scored is not an aberration because we have been seeing this in the tournament over the past few weeks. So could you kind of quickly take us through both the matches themselves and the reason the scorecard was so skewed? So firstly, when the teams who are at the receiving end of such a huge loss are teams that you don't like then you tend to be really happy about it. So a good way to start Monday by discussing the two defeats. But yeah, the results Tottenham beat Manchester United 6-1 at Old Trafford. And Aston Villa beat Liverpool 7-2 and Liverpool are the different league champions. So huge loss for Liverpool. In fact, they're standing the goal stally. It's completely destroyed that goal stally now because they have scored 11 and have received 11. And so in the Premier League, in the start to the new season, we have seen 38 matches so far. And a huge number of goals, 144 to be exact, they have been scored. So that takes the average to 3.78 goals per match, which is quite substantially higher than even the Premier League record, which happens to be a couple of seasons from a couple of seasons back, which is 2.82 goals per match. Of course, you see more than 1,000 matches in a... I mean, sorry, more than 300 matches in a season. And generally the goals scored would be around about 1,000. So it's a long season. It's also a difficult season considering the raging pandemic, etc. So whether this trend would sustain itself, that needs to be seen. But as far as the start of the season is concerned, it's great entertainment because as we know, goals make things very interesting. It's fun and especially sitting in India and watching these football matches, we are not exactly very connected with these clubs that we're as fans. We watch it, I mean, at least I speak for myself because there are many people who are... Oh, they're not. There are some really passionate fans. Yeah, so for me, it's more or less a neutral viewership in this side. So I enjoy these goals. And of course, yeah, it's a little surreal when you consider that you're talking about a league and not even a tournament kind of a setup where we know that this is a two-week or three-week kind of a burst. This is, I mean, teams who consider themselves to sustain this kind of... I mean, sustain performance through the season. So that way it's a surreal start, but yeah, it's totally enjoyable. So yeah, so could you sort of go through what are some of the reasons being talked about for this kind of goals? So it's, again, I mean, there are many, I mean, there's no definite reasons listed as such because the pundits have been trying to analyze what exactly is happening, why is it so happening. But again, nobody is willing to comment, nobody is... I mean, if you look at, again, making a calculated explanation to this when it requires much more matches and a sustained period of performance, so to speak. But having said that, goals are goals and we need to figure out what is happening, right? So one reason that has been attributed widely but not accepted as such because it's a slightly subjective reason is that the absence of crowds is fueling goals, which is something that we initially thought would be the opposite effect because players without a crowd noise, players would find it a little difficult to play, get the muscles motivated and all that. But considering the league setup when teams travel to the rival teams then it's always an intimidating atmosphere to be there. You're scared, you're shouted at and, I mean, personal remarks have been made when you touch the ball, I mean, the kind of sledging that happens around the pitch, it's very difficult for the player to, I mean, immune themselves from these kind of distractions and then play attacking football, play with player and this gets, the strikers get affected more with all this crowd influences happening around. So that has been absent. So general assumption is that, or general explanation is that the strikers find themselves free in front of goal these days. So they're free of pressure, they are not facing, booing, jeering, all these things while in front of goal and they just play their natural game which is to score and so that's resulted in some of the goals that has happened. So aside visiting Manchester United for instance, regardless of whatever the stature of the side is, it's very difficult to come out with a result, a 1-0 result even from old traffic. We are talking about Tottenham beating them 6-1 and so that itself shows that the factor, the crowd factor, the heavy games factor is no longer existent in the Premier League. Having said that Liverpool lost, I mean, lost away from home. So that, I mean, so it's, home factor is there but again it's also a mixed back. That's why it's very difficult, that's why I said that it's a subjective factor that we are discussing where we say that the home crowd is missing so sides fall but then Liverpool's loss talks about the contrary, they were visiting Aspen Villa and then they're lost by a huge margin. So on the pitch, as far as match play is concerned, there are various factors that come into play which also is incidental, also plays a major role in this gold festival that we are seeing. When we discuss that first and foremost, one of the factors that come in is the general evolution of Premier League and where it stands now. So off late we have seen some, I mean, when we started watching the Premier League, when Premier League was started in fact in the 90s and then it obviously started getting air to India because of the cable network coming in. And so we knew certain clubs being the stronger ones, Manchester United, Arsenal being right up there, Chelsea being there. And then we knew that the rest of the fight was for that one Champions League slot and also the mid-table positioning and of course relegation battles also happened. But now in the last few years we have noticed that there is mid-table, it's not exactly mid-table. There are genuine sides who consider themselves to be right up there. They could make it to the top three, they could make it to the Champions League. So I would say the top 10 Premier League sides consider themselves to be the Champions League. They consider themselves that they belong there. And also if you look at the team compositions, we have quality players across the board in all the sides. Yeah, we have superstars in sides like Liverpool or Manchester United with the bigger sides I mean. But then we also have genuine talented players, stars in their own right, in all the sides including Fulham who is right now in the relegation zone. And we also have sides coming up, promoting from the second division. Like for instance, this year Leeds United has come up from the division. We have a brilliant coach in Marcelo Bielsa in the side and they again are not getting into the competition, intimidated or with the idea that the first season our idea is to survive. They are again pushing themselves so that mid-table or higher they want to create themselves rather than they can play it safe. So that kind of a small, attitudinal shift has happened, evolutionary change I would say in the Premier League. So if you consider this and talk about, compare Premier League with Spanish League, it's not happening. So Spanish League, we know for sure that there is a top three or a top four beyond that. It's beyond that they will fight but again Barcelona, Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid. So these three sides between them they have been sharing the title. So, but in Germany it's somewhat similar. So I would say Premier League is more or less getting closer to our Bundesliga dynamics work where there are many clubs who consider themselves to be genuine competitors for the title and then play towards it. So that is a major factor here where sides go into a match and they wouldn't sit back just because they are playing away or home or whatever. Just because you are playing the defending champions, you don't sit back and that's evident with the 7-2 score line. So that is, I would say, a non-subjective factor here. I mean, the subjective one being no crowd and players being free to play. There is also there seems to be a new handball rule and that has seemed to have contributed to an increase in penalties. So could you talk a bit about that also, what it really implies and how it's affecting the game? For a change, the entire Premier League is united in this aspect. They are all critical about the new handball and inside the penalty box. And so there are many defenders who have come out saying that they are terrified about this rule. And so, yeah, that could be a factor because then if this is playing in your mind as a defender and if ball is coming in or being floated in, then you would be, I mean, drilled in when you would be a little careful about because you are mindful where your hand is all the time you're thinking about that as well. And it's a high-speed game you're talking about. So yeah, I'm sure this has thrown in a variable or a spanner into the defensive setup of Premier League teams. Penalties have been there, but I'm not the one person we spoke about. Penalties have been a small percentage in that. So I don't think the annual rule has directly impacted the number of goals as such, but indirectly it has because everyone has come out, even coaches who are at the receiving and who have benefited from the new penalty role and because their side got a penalty. They themselves have said that I don't think that was the penalty. After post-match, they have come on record saying that I don't think that was a penalty because now the idea is that the subjectivity of whether the annual was deliberate or not is taken out of the equation. So if a defender is jumping up like this and if the ball ricochets off his hand and deliberately there were instances when it was not given as an annual, but now everything goes on to the spot game directly. So of course that's a factor, but an indirect factor that way because being professionals and being the kind of defensive setup defenders, the high-quality defenders, the best in the world that you see in professional leagues across the world. Premier League, yeah, we have always spoken about this saying that if you look at the top European leagues, maybe Premier League as sides have the weakest of defensive setups, but still there, I mean by weak you don't mean that they are weak per se that way. So we are talking about a professional defensive line, any of these teams you pick up and so I'm sure they would figure out ways to cope with this additional pressure that they have to deal with. Right, absolutely. And Leslie, finally just a quick look of course at the health biobubble situations because these are massive tournaments going around and how have they generally fared with respect to these kind of issues which is also of interest to us because we are also running, in India also is seeing a tournament and we are not in game geography. Yeah, so there is no biobubble aspects in the Premier League, individual clubs are managing that. I mean if you consider biobubble being something like what IPL is being conducted in. So IPL is a centralized system where the entire league is put into a biobubble to end up on tournament. But we are talking about Premier League which is close to a 10 month tournament, so 10 month league. So they are getting a Valentine's facility and getting these players into it. It would be like giving them a Jay-Z term. So it's impossible that way and also we are not talking about centralized venues here. We are talking about matches happening in each club stadium. So the clubs have been managing it and protocols have been set. If you look at it from the restart that happened to finish off the pending matches from the previous season. They have set protocols and fine tuned it. Of course aberrations happen, there are some cases that is turning up here and there. But then they have a bellowing system also working around this so that the matches are happening. Premier League, I mean our cricket league is happening in the Middle East and of course we are not getting exact details as to how things are transpiring. We are only getting the match news out of there. Hopefully I would like to believe that things are all smooth happening over there as far as the pandemic is concerned and as far as the health of the players are concerned. In the meantime, Indian football is restarting. We are going to have a small tournament which would be the third division so to speak of Indian football as far as domestic tier is concerned. It is a five team tournament and a qualifier for the second division for the ILE. So these players are already there in the Biosecure bubble in Kolkata and the tournament is supposed to start on the 8th and will finish on the 19th of this month. So already two cases have turned up going by reports. One from Bangalore United and the other from Bhavanik pool actually. So and this happened inside the Biosecure bubble. So it's a pretty, I mean a tricky situation because the teams have finished their mandatory quarantine and they had started training along with each other. So that's when this was discovered while testing. So let's hope that it doesn't result in an outbreak or a cluster of cases. Just the football authorities as well as journalists like as we are closely monitoring this. We have a couple of coaches of these teams are regularly at news click. One of them in fact was on our show for 20 grams a week back talking about training and talking about being in the Biosecure bubble. So that is one and then another Biosecure bubble has been set up in Goa for the ISL. Some teams are already in domestic players only because of foreigners visa procurement and all this are not happening yet. So and Bangalore FC for instance is training in their own facility. It's an inspiring sport in Bangalore and they would shift to Goa couple of weeks before the tournament. So again that's where the real tricky part is because ISL is a longer tournament. I mean if you consider IPL being two months, that's two months. ISL is a five month tournament and so the players once they enter the bubble they would remain there for five months. So it's a long term commitment. So it's going to be a huge toll on players physically and mentally to remain in that bubble and focus on their game. And of course one school of thought believes that they would rather be happy playing than be not playing. So because as a player your idea is your idea of being comfortable or being safe or being happy is when you're playing. So that's one school of thought, the other school of thought being that it's like I said earlier it's like a jail term. So why conduct a long league like that in a secure bubble? I mean if you can't figure out the logistics where we can do the league like it's done in Europe, it's understandably difficult in India. So then why not shorten the league? Of course the calendar is undecided so as far as ISL is concerned. But I mean it's almost sure that they would have a full league and they also have an additional team as well. East Bengal has been introduced into the setup. But yeah once the league starts let's see how whether the English Premier League goal first of all would be replicated in India. So that's the thing. So getting back to that part, yeah we are enjoying the matches but these players are also taking their own risk getting out there and playing. And of course it's distance, of course it's sport plus business there is the financial side of it why they are playing over there. So respect for that. And at the same time when we organize in such a large scale over here, I would hope that the organizers of our leagues, they also show, I mean get into the understanding that these are humans, these are individuals who are involved here. So respect them for what they are bringing in and ensure that things are in place so that the matches and sport in general can be conducted smoothly. Because again success and failure in this venture because it's restart for India as far as football is concerned. We will have a huge bearing across sport in India because these are the first tournaments that are being organized. So it comes with that kind of a responsibility as well. Thank you so much Leslie. We will be tracking these events as they happen in tournaments as they happen over the coming weeks. That's all your time for today. We will be back tomorrow with more news from the country and the world. Until then keep watching NewsClick.