Analysis: Why Liverpool are the most entertaining team in the Premier League
Brendan Rodgers clearly isn't lying about his team not playing 'the Chelsea way'
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Your support makes all the difference.Manchester City have been the 'team to watch' this season, but after their stutter against Chelsea in the Premier League, another team has emerged as the most entertaining - Liverpool.
Their victory over Swansea at the weekend took their league goals scored tally for the season to 70 - one more than Manchester City and just one fewer than the number they scored last term. The Anfield club are almost certain to better their 'goals scored' Premier League record. With 11 games to go, they are only seven behind their previous biggest total which came in the 2008/09 season.
The 4-3 scoreline against Swansea also means the Reds have now been involved in a staggering 11 games in which five or more goals have gone in. Last season it happened six times and the two seasons before that just three. With 11 games of the season remaining, Liverpool have already surpassed their record for games featuring more than five goals, which was nine during the 1998/99 campaign.
Under Brendan Rodgers, the Reds have also been conceding. Only four teams have kept fewer clean sheets this term, and only one (Newcastle) in the top half.
"I worry always to play good football," explained Brendan Rodgers after his side's win on Sunday which kept Liverpool just four points from the summit of the Premier League. "I'm not one who is totally satisfied to always just grind out results. It is about winning and that's what professional sport is about at this level. But for us I will always concentrate on performance because I think that the consequence of performing well consistently is getting results and this season we've shown that. We've shown that when we play well we get the win."
While goals have come from across the squad - 11 different players have scored in the Premier League - it is difficult to look beyond SAS - Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge. In the league this term they have 23 and 18 goals respectively, making them the top two scorers in the Premier League (in third is Sergio Aguero on 15). In the history of the Premier League, no one team has finished the season with the top two Premier League scorers.
Much of the focus was on the blistering form of Suarez after he returned from a 10-match ban for biting Branislav Ivanovic, however Sturridge is taking more and more of the limelight. His brace against Swansea means he has now scored in eight consecutive league games, something only achieved previously by Ruud van Nistelrooy who went on to score in 10 in a row.
Liverpool also enjoy getting off to a quick start (as Arsenal learned at Anfield earlier this year when they went four goals down after 20 minutes). The Reds have scored in the first half of 17 successive league games now, a new club record that beat the 15 set back in 1905/06.
Rodgers conceded at the weekend that his team "concede poor goals... which cost us" and as such Liverpool are seen as the outsiders to win the league from those among the top-four. But as these statistics show, even if their challenge fails, it promises to be entertaining.
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