Own goals in football: do they occur randomly or exhibit systematic patterns?

Due to the low-scoring nature of soccer every single goal can drastically change the outcome of a match. Therefore, most large-scale performance studies aim at defining systematic processes and factors involved in goal scoring, while the scoring of the seemingly unintentional goals (like own goals) appears to be overlooked so far. In this study, factors for scoring own goals are investigated and compared to the factors connected to other (normal) goals. Therefore, a large dataset consisting of all goals from seven full seasons of the English Premier League (seasons 12/13 to 18/19) was analysed. Factors investigated include a priori factors like matchday, playing minute and team strength, but also specific situational variables like the zone from where the goal was scored, the body parts used, scoreline, defensive order and the preceding action. Favourites (p