How have Celtic progressed through the season?
Below is a graph for xGD per game for the season.
For the first 12 games of the season (playing every team once and Hearts twice) Celtic average 1.88 xGD per game which is the highest section of the season. 50% of games have an xGD of 2 or more (in dark green).
Into the next section of games (10 games playing everyone once with the exception of Hearts) Celtic average 1.55 xGD per game. This time only 40% of games have an xGD of 2 or more.
Then in the third section of games (playing 11 games and every team once) Celtic average 1.71 xGD per game. Now only 27% of games have an xGD of 2 or more.
This doesn't necessarily mean Celtic aren't as good after the first round of games and it could just be teams settling for a defeat but a low scoring defeat and therefore reducing the amount of chances Celtic get. The 9-0 defeat of Dundee Utd really did scare some teams.
Also there is a slight bias in home fixtures in the first round with Celtic getting most of the top 6 teams at home in this round.
Looking at the trends by home fixtures only below;
Celtic have only had one game with more than 2 xGD in the second round of home games. The first round had 55% of the games having more than 2 xGD. The average xGD for the first round of home games was 1.99 versus 1.32 for the second round.
However then when you look at the away games in isolation;
It is 36% of games having an xGD of 2 or more in the first round of away fixtures versus 38% in the second round. For averages per game it was 1.48 in the first round versus 1.54 in the second round.
Maybe away games suiting Celtic more in the second round of fixtures.
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