Interesting stats mate. I'm not sure if the xG is per game or just summing up all the goal scoring opportunities? If it's the latter it doesn't say much as one or two games can skew the stats a lot. It would also be interesting to break it down on counter-attacks vs. through short passing, which will give a better idea. Even total shots doesn't tell much, we've seen Fred blast shots from nowhere into the stands so many times. I'm not trying to play them down but some stats can be very misleading.
It does which is why sites that use it post all sorts of analytics to accompany their basic stats. For example, Liverpool
should have been second on the table behind City since they have scored more goals than they deserved and they should have conceded more goals too. This is without taking into account that they have spent 358 fewer minutes than City in a situation where they needed to score a goal (game either level or them chasing the score). City have been wasteful this season but they also needed to play with the foot on the gas pedal far more often than Liverpool.
I posted in the other Solskjaer thread some xG stats that i thought were interesting. Firstly, we have the worst xG per shots taken percentage among the top-seven (Leicester included) and everybody bar Arsenal has scored more goals from open play than us. But this could be just our bad luck or a lack of quality, huh? Turns out that, alongside Arsenal, we have the fewest attempts from both the penalty area and the six-yard box too. You see, when City have 47 more shots in the penalty area than Liverpool (307, the most in the league) and they have scored the same goals as the scousers from that area, they can blame their bad luck. Since we have about 100/150 fewer attempts than the scousers and City in the penalty area, we have to look at what we're doing wrong too.
The second interesting stat is that with a goal difference of 0 (zero) our expected goal percentage is negative only by 0.19 xG, meaning we have scored pretty much as many goals as expected in the 1137 minutes are games were level. From open play, we have 27 goals when the xG stats (understat) credits us with just one more goal. Not a pretty picture. Our xGs percentages get inflated on two occasions: When we have a lead to protect and when we have to throw the kitchen sink in because we're losing. You can blame it on the players and the lack of quality throughout the squad but not all of it. The stats indicate that there's also something wrong with the quality of the chances we create and that we indeed have difficulties to open up compact defences and that our primary tactics don't produce the desired results. As with all stats, there many factors that have to be taken into consideration.