The Premier League remains on course for a record number of penalties in a single season but the rate has been slowing down since the turn of the year.
Here, the PA news agency looks at the numbers behind this season’s spot-kicks.
Record set to be broken
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s spot-kick against Leeds on Sunday saw the league equal the number seen in 2014-15.
That puts the top flight on course to see 135 penalties by the end of the season – 29 more than in 2016-17 – the previous high in the last decade.
Slowing down
Fifty games in the first month of 2021 produced 10 penalties – half the number awarded in 28 matches in the wild opening month of the season in September.
After a weekend in which Manchester City, Wolves, and Arsenal all scored from the spot, the rate has ticked back up in February but, at 0.32 penalties per game, remains slower than the rate of 0.36 for the season as a whole.
