Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Man City, Tottenham and Man United all rank highly based on their xG

International football may have taken centre stage for the next week, but that doesn’t mean we should forget about the Premier League.

This season’s title race is shaping up to be one of the best in many years, with Manchester City, Liverpool and Chelsea all flying high joint at the top of the table after eight matches.

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There is also drama at the lower end with each of Huddersfield, Newcastle and Cardiff going winless so far, meaning they are stuck in the bottom three.

Goals have been hard to come by for the relegation threatened trio, while the most free-scoring sides are Man City, Chelsea and Arsenal – who took their goal tally to 19 for the season by hitting Fulham for five on Sunday.

But do goals really prove just how good a side is at attacking?

The statistic expected goals (xG) has grown in prominence in football circles over the past few years, and is now used widely to determine if a team is getting results at the level at which they are actually performing.

The basic usage of expected goals is that every shot taken in a match is given an xG value based on the difficulty of the shot.

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Based on a number of factors including distance from goal, type of shot and number of defenders, the ‘expected goal’ value reveals the likelihood a specific shot will end in a goal; the higher the value, the more likely a goal should be scored from that shot.

The ‘expected goal’ value of every shot in a game is used to calculate the ‘expected goals’ of a match. Click here to find out more about the calculations used to work out xG.

Should a team end with a higher xG than actual goals scored, it is probable they were wasteful in front of goal due to poor finishing or an in-form opposition goalkeeper. If the real goals scored is higher than the xG, the team may have been lucky to score so many in that match, or come up against a poor defence.

5 Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah has endured a frustrating season in which he has underperformed in relation to his xG

You can use a team’s xG numbers over an entire season to determine whether they have played good attacking football and created many chances, or whether they are scoring loads of goals but actually not doing that well on the pitch.

So, which teams have been the best attackers in the Premier League so far this season? We reveal the top 10 sides based on xG, below, using data from Understat…

10. Arsenal – 10.41 expected goals

9. Watford – 10.55 expected goals

8. Southampton – 10.61 expected goals

Getty Images 5 Danny Ings has looked sharp for Southampton but has missed some easy chances

7. Wolves – 11.06 expected goals

6. Man United – 12.83 expected goals

5. Tottenham – 14.79 expected goals

5 Harry Kane’s scoring (5 goals) equates almost perfectly with his expected goals total (5.22)

4. Chelsea – 15.72 expected goals

3. Bournemouth – 16.08 expected goals

2. Liverpool – 16.66 expected goals

1. Man City – 22.49 expected goals