Expected goals (xG) have rapidly become a staple of football.The metric simply measures the quality of a team’s chance creation and is one of many barometers for a team’s success over a season. But individually and across smaller sample sizes, xG allows for quirky takes and interesting trends that feed fan discussions more than extensive analysis.This Premier League season, The Athletic will dive into the various dimensions within xG to spot some of those trends in our Expected Premier League Tables.The inaugural edition compares the 20 teams’ xG across Matchday 1 to their xG generated per league game in 2025-26. Sample size is the biggest caveat here — no sweeping generalisations can be made just yet.Even on paper, Coventry City’s reintroduction to the Premier League after 25 years away — a visit to reigning champions Arsenal — looked daunting.Frank Lampard’s team waltzed to the 2025-26 Championship title, recording a league-high 1.9xG per 90. At the Emirates on Friday, they managed about a tenth of that, with 0.2. Seventy-five per cent of that came from a Jack Rudoni header in the 86th minute that was easily saved by David Raya.Arsenal’s 1.9xG was the most they have managed in their opening league game since the 3-0 win over Fulham in September 2020. That game saw Gabriel score from a corner, a familiar sight in 2025-26 too, but against Coventry, Mikel Arteta’s side scored three times from open play.Title rivals Manchester City needed a set piece to draw level against Bournemouth, with Marc Guehi curiously unmarked in the box to score. That effort came half an hour after Guehi missed a chance worth 0.77xG from a corner, somehow directing his header wide.City had just 13 shots, their second-fewest in an opening game since 2018-19.Bournemouth underperformed their xG in each of their five Premier League seasons between 2019 and 2026 (and in one of their two Championship seasons in that time).They had the top two xG underperformers in 2025-26, with Evanilson and David Brooks scoring seven combined goals from 16.9xG. That was marginally offset by Eli Junior Kroupi scoring 13 times from 8.4xG and Antoine Semenyo netting 10 times from 6.7xG before moving to City in January.Marco Rose’s first game in charge saw them record just five shots worth 0.65xG. Evanilson turned provider for Marcus Tavernier, who became just the second player to score against City on the opening weekend since 2018 (after Son Heung-min in August 2021).Brentford’s 3.9xG against Spurs is the third most by a team in the opening game of a Premier League season since 2018. It was also the fourth most they have recorded in a top-flight match since returning in 2022.Efficiency has been their model. Brentford have recorded just 72 shots (worth 11.2xG) across their six opening games and have scored 12 goals from just 28 shots on target.Spurs recorded their sixth-lowest xG total since the start of 2025-26 with just 0.57. Their xG allowed was the third most since the start of 2023-24, behind the 6-3 loss to Liverpool (5.6xG) in December 2024 and the 4-1 defeat to Chelsea (4.1xG) in November 2023.Roberto De Zerbi’s sides can be prone to conceding multiple big chances if their pressing structure is exploited. In 54 Ligue 1 matches under him, Marseille conceded 73 goals and 73.7xG, while his Brighton side allowed 108 goals and 98.6xG in his 68 Premier League games in charge from 2022 to 2024.Outscoring opponents will likely be Spurs’ best chance of winning matches under De Zerbi, especially in the time it takes them to adapt to his out-of-possession demands.