Former Sky Sports presenter Richard Keys has called on the Premier League to introduce a significant new regulation following Liverpool's thrilling win over Newcastle United. The clash between the two sides delivered a high-octane spectacle, with Arne Slot's men emerging victorious in a match packed with drama on Monday night thanks to a 100th-minute goal from 26-year-old Rio Ngumoha.
Despite coming out on the losing side, the hosts may feel aggrieved not to have walked away with the three points after dominating for large portions of the contest, despite Anthony Gordon's first-half red card. However, as Eddie Howe's style of play continues to come into question, a new stat from the clash has emerged, prompting Keys to call for a major change in the laws of the game.
Keys Calls For Major Premier League Rule Change
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After the game, Arne Slot was critical of the way in which Newcastle approached the fixture, claiming that the number of set-pieces prevented there from being much in the way of actual football. And since that claim, it has emerged just how much time the ball spent in play — and it is a rather damning statistic.
According to Opta, the ball was in play for just 40.8% of the match at St James' Park, which marks the lowest percentage in a Premier League match since February 2010 (40% in Stoke 3-0 Blackburn). The victorious team on that occasion, Stoke, were famed for also utilising set-pieces to survive the shark-infested waters of the Premier League, though rarely were they as maligned as Howe's outfit currently are.
Regardless, the statistic prompted a strong response from Keys, who publicly called for a major change to be initiated on social media:
"So a match that ran to 100+ minutes saw a ball in play time of just 40.8% - the lowest in a PL match for 15 years. Fans are being robbed. We should play to a 60 minute ball in play clock."
Back in 2023, new guidelines were introduced to allow for more added time at the end of each half to account for time-wasting and to allow fans to enjoy more in-game minutes of football, with PGMOL chief Howard Webb saying at the time: "We've seen a declining trend in effective playing time and the IFAB are determined to rectify that. I've heard lots of noise from fans about the loss of time – we are down to 48 minutes in League Two [on average] – and we need to do more to increase effective playing time."
However, despite the fact that 11 minutes were added on in the second half on Monday night, the lack of active play continued to be a talking point, which has now led to suggestions of the introduction of a shot clock.