Stoppage-time goals on the rise as clubs adapt to new rules

Tottenham and Aston Villa both produced dramatic late turnarounds this weekend as this season’s stricter stoppage-time rules made an impact in the Premier League.

Here, the PA news agency looks at how much time has been added this season and the increase in stoppage-time goals.

Images that precede fortunate events. pic.twitter.com/woEoKAlJ4b

— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) September 16, 2023

As the clocks hit 90 minutes on Saturday, Spurs trailed Sheffield United 1-0 while Villa were locked at 1-1 with Crystal Palace.

Fast forward 11 minutes and both had turned their games decisively in their favour.

Richarlison was Tottenham’s hero, scoring a 98th-minute equaliser before setting up Dejan Kulusevski’s winner just over two minutes later.

As Richarlison’s goal went in, fellow Brazilian Douglas Luiz was stepping up to convert a Villa penalty – both goals were timed at seven minutes and 33 seconds into stoppage time.

Leon Bailey then added a clinching third in the 11th added minute for Villa, who had trailed 1-0 until Jhon Duran’s 87th-minute strike.

It was the third example in the last fortnight of a team scoring twice in stoppage time to change the result of a game, after Declan Rice (90+6 minutes) and Gabriel Jesus (90+11) earned Arsenal a 3-1 win over Manchester United.

There have been 22 stoppage-time goals in 48 Premier League games this season, compared to just five in last season’s first five rounds of matches.

Eighteen have come in the second half, meaning 14.8 per cent of all this season’s Premier League goals, and 19.4 per cent of those in the second half, have been scored in time added on by the officials.

That is up from 7.7 per cent last season, and 8.4 per cent of second-half goals. Through the first five rounds of last