Leeds United's flying start to their first Premier League campaign since 2003-04 has largely been down to one man: Marcelo Bielsa. His squad must come in for plenty of praise too however, with Patrick Bamford's seven goals in ten games a particular highlight.
Once a figure of frustration for the Leeds United fanbase, Bamford is dispelling the myths that he is a poor finisher this season, on the biggest stage of all. Last year in the Championship, Bamford underperformed his Expected Goals tally by a fair margin, which suggested he was not converting high quality opportunities on a regular basis.
This season though, he is keeping pace with his xG and clearly finishing opportunities he would be expected to score.
What is 'Expected Goals', though?
It measures the quality of a player's shot, and calculates how likely he is to score a goal. Over an extended period of time, it has been observed across the entire footballing world that players' goalscoring tends to average out alongside their xG for the same period.
So, if a player scores 10 goals in one season, his xG for the same period would typically fall between 9.0 and 11.0.
Patrick Bamford is a considerable outlier however. Latest findings by Wyscout, football's leading statisticians, indicate that Bamford is amongst a select group of strikers who have consistently underperformed their xG totals.
Over the last five seasons, Bamford has featured in 149 matches in all competitions, scoring 44 times. Wyscout's Expected Goals model suggests that the sum total of Bamford's shots should have produced 55 goals, which represents a staggering 11-goal underperformance.
The value of a single goal is enormous at the top level of professional football, never mind 11, which is often more than a Premier League striker's season haul.
What does this mean for Leeds United, though?
Well, it suggests that if Bamford's goalscoring is to follow the pattern of the vast majority of players to have gone before him - whose shots and goals help to make xG models more accurate - he will continue to score on a regular basis as he has done this season.
This does not mean Bamford has become a better striker overnight, rather he was unfortunate before and is now reaping the rewards he was due.
That is good news for Leeds supporters who have been hugely impressed with the striker's hot-streak at the beginning of this season. The fact that Leeds are the top flight's most prolific side at creating chances also means it is highly likely they will continue to service Bamford sufficiently.
Bamford can continue his fine form at his old stomping ground on Saturday, as Leeds face a trip to Frank Lampard's Chelsea for arguably their sternest test of the campaign so far.
