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When Daizen Maeda’s deft header found the back of the Kilmarnock net on Sunday afternoon it marked Celtic’s 100th Premiership goal of the season.

That total beat their return for the entirety of last season by eight with six games still to play – and what’s more they even added another two on top of it before the game was finished in Ayrshire.

So all in, the champions have struck 102 times while scoring in 31 of their 32 Premiership matches so far this season.

The only side able to keep the Ange Postecoglou juggernaut at bay in the league has been St Mirren on Sunday September 18 last year, the same day they became the only team to beat the Hoops domestically this term too.

Willie Maley's great 1915-16 side banged in 20 goals in their last six matches to end the campaign on 116 - Postecoglou's team will have to score 15 in six to surpass that historic club mark.

The legendary 1966-67 squad managed 111 in the First Division but theirs was a 34-game season; this team would need to get to 125 to surpass their 3.264 goals per game average.

So how has the current total come about? How many from set-pieces, for instance? And who’s scored them? What about penalties? Own goals?

Let’s take a closer look with our friends at StatsBomb…

Body parts

Let's start with this season's shot map, which shows 613 shots including goals, penalties, own goals... you name it:

This also tells us that the champions have scored 97 non-penalty goals off an expected goals value of 71.65, an overperformance of 25.35.

For additional context, Rangers have scored 73 non-penalty goals from 63.92 xG - an overperformance of less than 10 and so not as clinical a season as the league leaders.

Next, let's filter it to show you what 102 league goals look like (again including penalties and own goals):

Postecoglou will, you imagine, be delighted with the volume of goals from that close, central danger zone.

And so to the main point of this section: body parts. The breakdown of the goals via this method is as follows (remember there are four own goals on top of this):

  • 59 right-foot goals
  • 28 left-foot goals
  • 11 headers

Kyogo, understandably, leads the right-footed goals list with 13, followed by Jota and Liel Abada with seven apiece. 

The striker heads the left-footed strike charts as well with nine, with Greg Taylor, Daizen Maeda, Jota and Abada all on three.

Maeda's two headers - the latest of which sparked this article - puts him at the top of that ticket.

Method

Pictured below are the 79 open-play goals Celtic have scored in this league campaign:

But what about other methods of scoring? Set-pieces? Penalties? Here's the full breakdown (plus some context where necessary):

  • 79 from open play (including the four own goals)
  • 14 from corners (five from the left, nine from the right)
  • 5 penalties (from seven awarded)
  • 2 indirect free-kicks (David Turnbull vs St Johnstone in February and Alistair Johnston vs St Mirren in March) 
  • 1 direct free-kick (Josip Juranovic vs Dundee United in August)
  • 1 via a throw-in (Abada vs Rangers in September)

Impressively, 21 of Furuhashi's 23 league goals have come from open play. Carl Starfelt is the only player apart from the Japanese to have scored twice as a result of corners.

Players

Kyogo obviously leads the way with 23 league goals, almost double what he managed in his first season in Scotland.

Closest to him is Jota (11) and Abada (10) while Maeda (eight) has a good chance to reach double figures. Here's the full list:

Best chances

There have been only two what we'll call ultra-high-quality xG chances so far this league season (by which we mean 0.90 xG or better).

Celtic have scored both: Liel Abada's 58th-minute goal against Dundee United in August came in at 0.91, narrowly pipped to the top spot by Kyogo's 14th-minute opener against Motherwell in October (0.92).

In case you were wondering, the best chances Celtic have passed up in the Premiership this season have been their two missed penalties, which carry 0.78 xG - Giorgos Giakoumakis' against Livingston on October 30 and Kyogo's against Kilmarnock at the weekend.

This piece is an extract from the latest Celtic Digest newsletter, which is emailed out every weekday evening with a round-up of the day's top stories and exclusive analysis from The Celtic Way team.

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