The first round of the 2022/2023 Ghana Premier League season concluded successfully with both Hearts of Oak and Asante Kotoko in the top four behind Aduana Stars who currently lead the table with 32 points.
The points accumulated by Aduana Stars so far are five less than what Kotoko had last season when they topped the league at the end of the first round.
King Faisal, Tamale City and Kotoku Royals lie bottom of the table with 20, 16 and 10 points respectively.
Having played 153 matches after 17 matchdays, 308 goals were scored as compared to the 300 recorded last year at this time of the season. Thus two goals per game. 198 [64.29%] of those goals were scored by home teams while the remaining 110 were scored by visitors.
Kotoko rank first in terms of most goals scored so far with 25 strikes constituting 8.1% of the total number goals produced in the league. This is however four less than the number of goals Dreams FC scored after 17 matches last season. Kotoku Royals on the other hand conceded 30 goals, seven more than any other side.
The number of goals scored in the first round have also translated to 85 home wins which is five more than last season’s first round. Also, there have been forty draws and 28 away victories.
Debutants Nsoatreman FC have won the most home points and rank first in terms of home success. They have 9 wins and 22 points from home matches.
Aduana Stars who have the most wins so far have also been brilliant on the road, winning 14 points alongside, second-placed Hearts of Oak.
Aduana Stars and Kotoko are still the only sides to have finished the first round undefeated at home after eight matches.
While Kotoku Royals have lost the most home matches [4], ten of the teams have all conceded a single defeat each at home.
Legon Cities are however the worst home side with just nine points.
There have been four more red cards shown than last year’s 18 at this stage of the season. Hearts of Oak and Legon Cities lead the chart with three red cards each.
The penalty takers so far have been clinical, having scored 33 [75%] out of the 44 total penalties awarded. Medeama’s Vincent Atinga and Isaac Mensah of Tamale City have converted most of the penalties with four hits apiece from the spot.
Dreams FC’s Agyenim Boateng’s four man of the match awards is the most to be won by a single player so far.
Bechem United duo, Cephas Ohene Mantey and Hafiz Konkoni are the only players to have scored a hat-trick this season. The league had recorded six hattricks from five different players already at this time of last season.
While the top scorers race has been tight, with Kotoko’s Steven Mukwala trailing with eight goals behind Mezack Afriyie of Berekum Chelsea who has nine goals, with Abednego Tetteh close behind with seven, last year at this time, Frank Mbella Etouga had already scored 11 goals, while Bright Adjei of Aduana Stars had nine.
It has also been competitive with goalkeepers, with four of them recording seven clean sheets each. Lawrence Ansah (Samartex), Joseph Addo (Aduana FC), Felix Kyei (Medeama SC), and Richmond Ayi (Hearts of Oak) have all played seven games without conceding a goal.
The second round of the season will kick off on Friday with a clash between Medeama SC and Legon Cities.
