Why Is Antoine Semenyo in Such High Demand? ...Middle East

Stat, Viz, Quiz is the Opta Analyst football newsletter. This week’s edition looks at Antoine Semenyo, high blocks, and Dominic Calvert-Lewin… again.

Every December, some people feel the need to tell everyone how quickly the year has gone. It’s a cliché, it’s hackneyed, and it’s entirely accurate.

We’re not sure where 2025 went, but in the final Stat, Viz, Quiz before what recently felt like the long-distant future of 2026 arrives, we’ll do as we always do and bring you some interesting football data to ring in the New Year.

Antoine Semenyo is reportedly going to be on the move in January, so we thought we’d look at why seemingly every big club in England is sniffing around the Bournemouth star.

We’ll also bring you a viz that shows that Premier League teams are not relying on high blocks as often as they used to. Is it a result of teams going more direct? We’ll take a look at the numbers.

As is becoming a bit of an SVQ tradition, we close the year out with a bumper quiz looking back at the year in football, while our Ask Opta question has us discussing Dominic Calvert-Lewin for a second week in a row.

We hope you all have a tremendous New Year, and that you’re looking forward to 2026 as much as we are… at least until we’re in late December again and it feels like about three weeks since the fireworks went off in January.

If you haven’t done so already, you can subscribe below for free to receive SVQ every Tuesday.

STAT – Where Will Semenyo Go?

With the January transfer window about to open, talk has already begun on who could be heading where during the first month of the new year.

Arguably the biggest name being discussed is Antoine Semenyo, who has been one of the best performers in the Premier League this season, and could be heading to a new home in the next week or two.

Reports suggest the 26-year-old has a release clause in his contract at Bournemouth that will allow him to leave the Vitality Stadium for around £65 million in the first half of January.

The winger, who has nine goals in the Premier League this season, is reportedly being courted by Manchester City, Manchester United and Liverpool, while Chelsea, Tottenham and Arsenal have also been credited with interest in some places.

His goal in Bournemouth’s 4-1 loss at Brentford may have just been a consolation, but it meant Semenyo sits outright third in the Premier League’s top scorer charts for this season behind only Erling Haaland (19) and Igor Thiago (11), while only Haaland (18) has scored more non-penalty goals than him (8).

It’s not just a purple patch this season, either. Semenyo has been directly involved in 21 Premier League goals (15 goals, 6 assists) in the whole of 2025, the first ever Bournemouth player to have more than 20 goals and assists combined in a calendar year in the competition.

In 2025, only Haaland (33), Mohamed Salah (24) and Bryan Mbeumo (22) have more goal involvements in the Premier League than him, while nobody scored as many goals from fast breaks in the competition in the last year than his five. He should have the chance to add to this when Bournemouth travel to Chelsea on Tuesday in their final game of the year.

He’s outscoring his xG by 3.46 (8 goals from 4.54 xG), but he does have the fourth highest xG on target (xGOT) in the Premier League (7.55), which measures the likelihood of an on-target shot resulting in a goal, based on the combination of the underlying chance quality (xG) and the end location of the shot within the goalmouth. It gives more credit to shots that end up in the corners than shots that go straight down the middle of the goal. The difference between Semenyo’s xG and his xGOT this season suggests that he is taking shots from difficult areas to score from, but his shots are often of high enough quality to turn it into a better chance.

Should Semenyo make the move to one of the Premier League’s big boys, it will be interesting to see if he can take his game to the next level. If he can, then it will be a very happy new year for him and his new club indeed.

VIZ – How High Is Your Block?

Back in September, we revealed that Premier League teams were changing things up this season, going more direct and relying more on set-pieces.

It was likely in part due to coaches looking for a way to overcome high pressing and simply beat a high block by going over it.

Now, we can see the impact it has had on how much teams dare utilise a high defensive block.

Last season, Manchester City led the way for percentage of game time in a high defensive block, with 51%, followed by Liverpool (44%), Brighton & Hove Albion (41%) and Chelsea (39%).

However, each of those teams’ percentages are down in 2025-26 after 18 matchdays. City have the highest, but it is now just 41%, with the next most Brighton and Arsenal (34%), followed by Liverpool (33%) and Bournemouth (32%).

The average high block usage in the Premier League has dipped from 33.0% to 28.0%, with Nottingham Forest (20%) largely bringing the average down in 2024-25. Seven teams have used a high block less than 26% of the time this season, whereas Forest were the only side to do so last season.

Low block usage has gone up slightly from 17.8% last season to 18.6% this, but the increase in mid blocks is more notable, having gone up from 49.4% to 53.6%.

Presumably, this is due to teams not wanting to fully run away from their high press, but also recognising they have to pick their moments, and almost have the best of both worlds.

After 180 games in the Premier League this season, we have seen exactly 18,000 long balls – passes of at least 32 metres in length. For those of you with a penchant for maths, you’ll have realised that means there has been an average of 100 long balls per game, up on the 93.4 from last season.

The average of high turnovers per Premier League game is down on last season, from 14.6 to 13.0, though it should be noted that it has increased since we looked at it in September (11.5). That again is likely due to them being given fewer opportunities to win the ball high as teams are more open to sending the ball long when under pressure.

Will this thumbing of the nose at high blocks continue? Keep an eye on everything Opta Analyst in 2026, where we’ll be bringing you all the latest data developments in the wacky and wonderful world of football.

QUIZ – The Big Footy Quiz of 2025

What a year it has been in football, but how much can you remember from it? Here’s a bumper quiz of 12 questions, one from each month through the year. Answers at the bottom.

If you want an even greater challenge, you can take this year’s Opta Analyst Football Quiz, made up of 10 rounds and with a total of 100 questions.

Popular Articles on Opta Analyst This Week

Liverpool Must Solve Their Set-Piece Struggles

How Close is Aston Villa’s Winning Run to a Premier League Record?

Ask Opta

Our question this week comes from Brian D, who asks: “Dominic Calvert-Lewin has now scored in six consecutive Premier League games. I know Jamie Vardy scored in 11 but what are the other longest runs by a player and how close is DCL to reaching them?”

Do you have a stat-based question you’d like Opta to answer in a future edition of SVQ? Email us at [email protected] or message us on X @OptaAnalyst with #AskOpta and we’ll pick the best one.

Answer:

Indeed, Calvert-Lewin’s equaliser for Leeds at Sunderland on Sunday made it six Premier League games in a row in which the former Everton striker found the net.

It also slightly ruined his previous perfect line goal map, which we shared with you in last week’s SVQ, but never mind.

Calvert-Lewin became the first Leeds player to score in six top-flight games in a row since John McCole in the 1959-60 campaign.

However, he is still some way off the Premier League record which, as Brian correctly states, is held by Vardy (11 games).

Ruud van Nistelrooy recorded separate runs of 10 and eight games at Manchester United in the competition, while Vardy, Daniel Sturridge and Alexander Isak have also managed runs of eight.

As well as those instances, there have been 12 other occasions of a player scoring in seven consecutive Premier League games, and should Calvert-Lewin score against Liverpool on New Year’s Day, he will add to that number.

Related Posts

How Leeds’ More Direct Approach Has Helped Unlock the Best of Dominic Calvert-Lewin

Longest Premier League Scoring Runs by Players

Quiz Answers

1. Which Englishman became the second-youngest to score in the UEFA Champions League in January, after Jude Bellingham (17 years, 289 days) vs Manchester City in April 2021?

Ethan Nwaneri (17y, 314d) for Arsenal in their 2-1 win at Girona

2. In February, Erling Haaland became only the second player ever to score 20+ goals in each of his first three Premier League seasons, after who did so from 2001-02 to 2003-04?

Ruud van Nistelrooy

3. Aged 18 years and 176 days, who became the youngest player in history to score on his senior England debut In March, surpassing Marcus Rashford’s record of 18 years and 209 days vs Australia in May 2016?

Myles Lewis-Skelly vs Albania

4. Liverpool boss Arne Slot won the Premier League in his first season in April. Name the other four managers to do so in the competition’s history.

José Mourinho (2004-05), Carlo Ancelotti (2009-10), Manuel Pellegrini (2013-14) and Antonio Conte (2016-17)

5. Tottenham finished their 2024-25 league campaign in May having suffered the most defeats of any team to avoid relegation in Premier League history. How many?

22

6. In June, England became the first side in UEFA European U21 Championship history to win the competition in successive editions on multiple occasions, also managing that feat in 1982 and 1984. Who did they beat in the 2025 final?

Germany

7. A month later, England also retained the Women’s European Championship, defeating Spain on penalties in the final. How long did the Lionesses lead for in the entire knockout stages of the tournament (including stoppage time)? A) 4 minutes, 52 seconds, B) 7 minutes, 38 seconds, or C) 10 minutes 13 seconds?

A) 4 minutes, 52 seconds

8. In August, which Premier League team became the first in the competition’s history to see both of their first two goals of a season be own goals?

Manchester United

9. Speaking of own goals, which player became only the sixth ever to put through his own net twice in the same Premier League game when Burnley faced Manchester City in September?

Maxime Estève

10. James Milner’s assist for Brighton in their 4-2 loss at Man Utd in October saw the biggest gap in age between a player assisting a goal for a teammate in Premier League history. Who scored that goal for the Seagulls?

Charalampos Kostoulas – Milner is 21 years and 146 days older than Kostoulas

11. Which Premier League player scored from 43.3 metres out in November, the longest range goal in the competition since Moisés Caicedo netted from 50.5 metres against Bournemouth in May 2024?

Tyler Adams for Bournemouth vs Sunderland

12. Earlier this month, who recorded Liverpool’s first goal in the opening minute of a Premier League game since Naby Keïta scored their fastest ever goal in the competition after 15 seconds vs Huddersfield in April 2019?

Hugo Ekitiké vs Brighton (46 seconds)

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Why Is Antoine Semenyo in Such High Demand? Opta Analyst.

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