This season is shaping up to be the top flight's least competitive campaign since 1958/59, according to the latest Trinity Mirror Data Unit research.
More than one out of every five Premier League matches so far this season (22%) have seen one of the teams win by at least a three goal margin.
If it stays that way until the end of the campaign then it will make this season the top flight’s least competitive since 58/59.
Back then a massive 26% of games in the old First Division were won by three or more goals which was quite typical at the time.
The 1957/58 season saw 24% of games won by at least three goals while in 56/57 it was 23%.
However, the top flight hasn’t had more than 20% of games being won by at least three since 1965/66.
The top flight reached its competitive peak in 1972/73 when just 10% of games ended with one team scoring three or more than their opponents.
Perhaps the worrying thing though is that this season’s increase appears to be part of an ongoing trend as opposed to just a blip.
Only 12% of games were won by at last three goals in the first five seasons of the Premier League era.
Between 2000/01 and 2004/05 that proportion went up slightly to 14% but by 2009/10 though the proportion had gone up to 18%.
In 2011/12 it was 17% and in 13/14 it was 19%.
And in 2015/16 the proportion stood at 17% while last season it was 19% again.
