Sensational Super Cups, Celtic’s Average Positions, and Community Shield Questions

Stat, Viz, Quiz is the Opta Analyst football newsletter. This week’s edition includes numbers on super cups, Celtic, and epic season starts.

It’s the time of year when we’re treated to proverbial curtain-raisers.

Most countries have some version of a ‘super cup’, usually between the winners of the previous season’s league title and domestic cup competition. The weekend saw a few of these take place around Europe, with some interesting games and results. We’ll be looking back at some of the more dramatic.

The season proper is already under way in Scotland, with Celtic already top of the Premiership. Brendan Rodgers’ men were impressive against Kilmarnock in their opener, and we’ll use one of our new graphics to see how dominant they were.

We’ll also test what you remember about the English Community Shield and answer an Ask Opta question about the best and worst starts to a season.

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STAT – Super Cup Surprises

Even if some see them as glorified friendlies, super cups are still competitive fixtures, often between rivals that end with one of them lifting a trophy.

Those competitive juices flowed across Europe at the weekend, and we saw some outstanding games and performances as clubs prepared for the new campaign with a trophy.

In the Netherlands, PSV were absolutely incredible last season, taking Feyenoord’s Eredivisie title from them despite Arne Slot’s men actually improving on their own performance from their title win the season prior in terms of points won and goals scored.

Slot has left for Liverpool and been replaced by Brian Priske, who is averaging one trophy per game already as Feyenoord defeated PSV on penalties following a remarkable 4-4 draw in Eindhoven.

It was the first time both teams scored four goals in the Johan Cruyff Shield, and only the second match in the competition that had seen eight goals scored after PSV’s 5-3 win over Ajax in 2022.

Three of those eight goals were penalties, with Santiago Giménez scoring two of them. The Mexican striker became the first Feyenoord player to score twice in a Johan Cruyff Shield match and the fourth player ever to record three goal involvements after Jeremain Lens, Cody Gakpo and Guus Til.

It wasn’t the only high-scoring clash of the weekend, though. On Saturday, Sporting CP found themselves 3-0 up after just 24 minutes in the Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira against Porto. However, an incredible comeback from Vitor Bruno’s side saw them go on to win 4-3, with Iván Jaime scoring an extra-time winner.

Things weren’t quite as close in Turkey, though. Besiktas thrashed Galatasaray 5-0, with Ciro Immobile scoring twice on his debut after moving from Lazio in the summer.

These games were mere appetisers for the start of the season proper, but if they were anything to go by, we could be in for quite an exciting 2024-25.

VIZ – Celtic in Position

As we revealed on Opta Analyst last week, Celtic are the favourites to lead from the front in Scotland this season. Please, try to hide your shock.

It was an ominous start to the 2024-25 Scottish Premiership season for everyone else, though, as Celtic eased to a 4-0 victory over Kilmarnock in their opening game at Parkhead on Sunday.

It means the Hoops are top of the table, with St. Mirren and Aberdeen the only other teams to record a win on Matchday 1. Rangers are already two points behind their Old Firm rivals after they could only draw 0-0 at Hearts on Saturday.

This week’s viz shows the average positions of players in a game, and as you can see from the above graphic, Celtic were aggressive in possession against Killie.

Looking at just those players who started prior to the first substitution in the 63rd minute, by which time Celtic were already 3-0 up, you can see how high up the pitch they were.

Derek McInnes’ men struggled to keep the defending champions at bay, with centre-back Cameron Carter-Vickers the only Celtic outfield player whose average position was in his own half.

It’s interesting to see how close together Liam Scales, Greg Taylor, Callum McGregor and Reo Hatate were, showing how Celtic outnumbered Kilmarnock on that side of the midfield, which in turn helped them carve out the number of chances they did.

Brendan Rodgers’ side had 32 shots in the game, hitting the target 13 times as former Rangers goalkeeper Robby McCrorie was kept busy on his Kilmarnock debut. Celtic had 82% possession, and their expected goals total was 3.06 to the visitors’ 0.20.

To complete the story of dominance, Celtic attempted 824 passes in the game, which was the highest total by any team in a single match in the Scottish Premiership since the start of last season. It was quite the start for the defending champions against a Kilmarnock team that finished fourth in 2023-24.

It is just one game, so there is plenty of work to be done. The early signs are that Celtic mean business in 2024-25, though, and perhaps even more so than usual.

QUIZ – Community Shield Questions

Saturday sees Manchester City and Manchester United contest the Community Shield at Wembley, but what can you remember about previous English season curtain-raisers? Answers at the bottom of the page.

1. What was the score the last time there was a Manchester derby in the Community Shield in 2011?

2. Of the last eight occasions the Community Shield has been between the previous season’s champions and FA Cup winners, the team to have won the FA Cup has won the shield seven times. What is the only exception in that time?

3. Manchester United have won more Community Shield trophies than any other club (17 outright wins, 4 shared). Who has the second most?

4. Who are the most recent team outside of the Premier League’s traditional big six to appear in the Community Shield?

5. Name any of the four players since 2004 to have scored twice in a single Community Shield game.

Ask Opta

This week’s query comes from Paul Caffrey, who asks: “In the history of the English Premier League and Championship, which team has had the longest winning run from the start of the season and which has had the longest losing run? Did they eventually win the title/get relegated at end of the season?”

Do you have a stat-based question you’d like Opta to answer in a future edition of SVQ? Email us at editors@theanalyst.com or message us on X @OptaAnalyst with #AskOpta and we’ll pick the best one.

Answer:

In terms of the Premier League, the longest winning run to start a season was by Chelsea in 2005-06 when Jose Mourinho’s defending champions won their first nine games. They were eventually halted by Everton in a 1-1 draw, but Chelsea did go on to retain their title with a whopping 91 points.

The longest losing run to begin a Premier League campaign was the infamous Frank De Boer season at Crystal Palace, when they lost their first seven games in 2017-18. What people might not remember is that the Dutchman was only responsible for four of those losses before being sacked, but his successor Roy Hodgson eventually turned things around and kept Palace up.

As for the Championship, no team has won more than their first five games of a season since the second tier became the Championship in 2004, and only one side has won their first five. That was Cardiff City in 2017-18, who did go on to secure promotion but only in second place after finishing nine points behind title winners Wolves.

The worst start in the Championship’s 20-year history is a joint record, with both Peterborough United (2012-13) and Wycombe Wanderers (2020-21) losing their first seven league games. The Posh did go down, but only by a single point in the end as they managed to amass 54 points from their remaining 39 games. Wycombe also finished 22nd and went down by one single point.