Premier League 2018/19: 3 things to look out for on Matchday 9

Could City have 30 shots against Burnley?

Liverpool FC v Manchester City - Premier League

After a terrible start to the season, Burnley have regained their normal organisation, fight and determination under the admirable Sean Dyche. Two successive league victories have pulled them up into the middle of the table and it is likely that they will not move far from there by the end of the season.

After exceeding expectations by qualifying for the Europa League last year, it seems Burnley have now settled into a role where they are considered a comfortable mid-table club and credit is due to them for this.

But an interesting fact about Burnley - some of their underlying performance metrics are terrible. They concede huge amounts of shots while having relatively few themselves. And, looking at the 'expected goals' metric suggests that last year they actually won 14 points more than they should have had other teams taken their chances against them.

City, of course, operate at the other end of the spectrum. They dominate possession, territory and chances against all opposition. But given the respective styles of the two teams, and the underlying statistics, it is quite possible that tomorrow's match could resemble shooting practice for the PL champions. City have averaged around 22 shots per match this season while Burnley have conceded 20 shots per game. This surely represents a perfect storm - a team who shoot for fun, and another who are content to let the opposition take a lot of shots, confident in their ability to control where those shots are taken from.

It doesn't happen too often, but this could well be a match were one team has around 30 shots at goal - and it won't be Burnley.