The chart above ranks the Premier League's 20 sides by shooting percentage after 23 matches played. Shooting percentage is defined as the percentage of total shots that have resulted in goals. In soccer circles you'll often here this statistic referred to as "conversion rate". I use the two interchangeably here.

Perhaps unsurprisingly league leaders Leicester rank first with a shooting percentage of 13.8% while Aston Villa, firmly entrenched at the bottom of the table and possessing the worst goal scoring record in the league, have the worst shooting percentage at just 7.0%.

More surprisingly, Sunderland and Norwich sit four and five in the shooting percentage rankings respectively despite being in a relegation battle. They are ahead of the likes of Manchester City, Arsenal and Tottenham who take up the second to fourth spots in the league standings and have all tallied more goals than Norwich and Sunderland. The key takeaway here of course is that having a high conversion rate means little if you're taking very few shots. Norwich and Sunderland do a poor job of creating shooting opportunities- they rank 17th and 18th in terms of shots per game respectively. For instance, at their current conversion rate Sunderland would need to have taken 384.6 shots to match Manchester City's league leading total of 45 goals. They taken just 240. City, Arsenal and Tottenham, with their wealth of attacking talent, make up for slightly lower conversion rates by getting into attacking positions to take on shots far more often.

Perhaps the most surprising aspect of the shooting percentage table is Liverpool's position second from bottom at just 7.9%. Liverpool average the second most shots per game behind Manchester City (16.4) but have the lowest percentage of shots on target in the Premier League at just 29.3% (see chart below). Both Brendan Rodgers and subsequently Jurgen Klopp have been forced to deal with a laundry list of injuries, most crucially to Daniel Sturridge and now Philippe Coutinho. The bizarre signing of Christian Benteke, a player most effective attacking direct crosses and therefore always likely to struggle at a club desperate to play a more technical game on the floor, hasn't helped the Reds score more frequently. A lack of creativity in the midfield is also to blame. In recent weeks Klopp has opted for a center midfield trio of Lucas, Jordan Henderson and Emre Can with James Milner on one wing and either Adam Lallana or Jordan Ibe on the other. Lucas, Can, Henderson and Milner all have good work rates but are unlikely to unlock defenses with clever passing. As a result you'll often see Liverpool taking on speculative long range shots. They've taken the second most shots outside of the box in the Premier League this season.