Oihan Sancet sets Athletic on their way

Athletic Club have scored 31 goals in 16 games in LaLiga this season. For the mathematicians among us, that’s almost an average of two goals per fixture, and a figure generally associated with high-powered attacks in the modern game. Once you’re in the territory of multiple goals per outing, you’re more often than not playing for something in the table.

For Ernesto Valverde’s side, their current rate of scoring represents a jump of +0.7 in their goals per game average from last season. It’s an increase that makes them the next-best thing, after Girona (+0.85), for the improvement in their goal production this season. And if you’re sharing the same territory with the Catalan side at the moment – whatever the context is – you can probably be pretty pleased about it.

Are Athletic likely to score 73 goals this season? Probably not. That would have been the second-highest total netted in La Liga last season, and a tally usually only attainable for the likes of Real Madrid and Barcelona in a single campaign (or maybe Girona this term). Suffice to say, los Leones will naturally be heading for a drop-off in the coming months, given how high they’ve set the bar so far. But at the same time, their current rate of scoring is about much more than a team merely enjoying a hot streak in front of goal.

Ask anyone what’s behind Athletic’s up-tick in goals and they’ll probably point towards Iñaki Williams’ heightened efficiency, the surging progression of Nico Williams, or maybe even that in the form of Gorka Guruzeta they finally seem to have found continuity at the no. 9 position in