If you tune into any Premier League game this season there is only a 54.7 per cent chance the ball is in play
“Xabi Alonso has never forgotten his introduction to the Premier League. It was a Sunday afternoon in late August 2004 but it was unseasonably cold at Bolton Wanderers’ Reebok Stadium. There was a chill in the air, but for Liverpool’s midfielder, newly arrived from Spain, the real culture shock was what happened on the pitch. … That was the Premier League’s image for many years: long balls, high balls, second balls, corner kicks, free kicks, blood and thunder, thud and blunder. As Jose Mourinho put it during his first spell in charge of Chelsea, England was the only place he had been where corner kicks were greeted almost as feverishly as goals. …”
NY Times/The Athletic