Liverpool's Mohamed Salah and Tottenham's Heung-Min Son battled for prize down to Final Day
Sunday 22 May 2022 20:54, UK
Heung-Min Son drew level with Mo Salah atop the Premier League goal chart on the Final Day to share the Golden Boot.
The graphic below reveals how Salah primarily operated in a confined area, hugging the right-hand touchline in advanced areas. In contrast, Son covered swathes of ground and worked farther infield while also covering deeper areas.
According to xG data, Son also netted seven more goals than expected, compared with Salah matching his expected returns. However, the Egypt international notched almost twice as many assists as his counterpart with a league-topping 13 to his name.
The xG values are visualised below, with yellow-shaded stars reflecting goals scored from harder chances and red-shaded stars suggest those goals were easier chances to convert. The maps highlight how Son scored several hard chances and also netted four from outside the box.
Salah started the season in blistering form and hit double digits just nine games into the league season, but Son gradually closed the gap and capitalised on Salah's slump during the latter stages of the campaign - close the gap from eight goals to zero during the final 13 games.
