The 2021-22 Premier League's Golden Boot race came down to the final match of the season, with Mohamed Salah and Son Heung-min just a single goal apart to start the day. On an insane last matchday of the campaign, it was only fitting that the Golden Boot race took a late turn.
Son became the league's joint-top scorer with a brace as Tottenham obliterated Norwich City 5-0. Son is the second Tottenham player in a row to win the award, after Harry Kane's 23 goals last season.
For a moment, Son thought he had done enough to win the Golden Boot with his two goals momentarily putting him past Salah. But Liverpool's Egyptian star scored in the 84th minute of his game to help Liverpool to a victory over Wolves, and secure a share of the Golden Boot.
Not only did Son's brace give him the Golden Boot, but he also helped Spurs confirm a Champions League place next season, solidifying Tottenham's spot in Europe's top competition.
⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️
— Premier League (@premierleague) May 22, 2022
Introducing your 2021/22 #PL Castrol Golden Boot winners...
👏 @MoSalah 🤝 @Sonny7 👏 pic.twitter.com/lXhsQoUeHF
MORE: How did Mohamed Salah score his 23 goals? A statistical breakdown
How many goals did Son Heung-min score?
Across the 2021-22 Premier League season, Son bagged 23 goals across 3,051 league minutes and 35 league appearances.
Son's tally gives him one goal every 132.65 minutes, and his 0.69 goals per 90 minutes is third in the league among players with 1,000 or more minutes, behind only Salah and Jamie Vardy, both of whom logged fewer minutes than Son in league play.
Of those 23 goals, 12 came with Son's left foot, 11 came with his right foot, and three with his head. Son has always been very two-footed, an extremely valuable asset to the South Korean international's style of play.
Since joining Tottenham in 2015, Son has scored 93 total Premier League goals: 51 of those came with his right foot, 38 with his left foot, and four with his head. In fact, 2021-22 is the first league season in which Son has scored more goals with his left than his right foot, showing even further improvement in that department.
None of Son's 23 goals came from the penalty spot, making him the only player among the Premier League's top four goalscorers without a single spot-kick goal. Son plays for Tottenham, where Harry Kane is the designated penalty taker.
Below is a chart of all Son's goals across the 2021-22 season, with larger dots indicating a greater expected goals (xG) value for the shot, and smaller dots indicating a lower value.
Son's incredible finishing ability
One of the hallmarks to Son's game is his spectacular finishing ability.
According to UnderStat, Son's expected goals (xG) for this season was 16.99, meaning he outperformed his expected goals by +6.01. That's the top differential in the Premier League, with only Leicester City duo James Maddison (+5.52) and Jamie Vardy (+5.01) anywhere close.
In fact, Son has outperformed his xG total each of the past six seasons, amassing a goal tally of 89 across that span. For those 89 goals, he has collected an xG of just 64.89, meaning he has outperformed his xG by an incredible +24.14 over the past six seasons.
When compared to other top players, that total is even more eye-popping. Vardy, a well-known finisher of elite stature, has a total across that span of +10.83, harmed greatly by a -4.94 in the 2020-21 season but still not in Son's range even excluding that campaign. Lionel Messi has a +28.75 xG differential over the past six seasons, but his shot total and goal total over that span are both more than double Son's, meaning his volume is significantly higher.
Even more incredible is that Son doesn't deliver a blistering rocket into the top corner or rip incredible curlers that leave goalkeepers grasping at air. When looking at his goals and where they're placed, he doesn't have a single top corner hit, or even one that comes just under the crossbar. In fact, he hasn't even attempted one.
No, Son's incredible finishing is just down to converting difficult chances. Look at Son's goal to make it 3-0 against Norwich City in December. This chance saw him score one of the more difficult strikes of the season.
Somehow, despite three defenders in the area and well-positioned goalkeeper, he managed to thread his finish in across the face of goal. That leaves goalkeeper Tim Krul rooted to the spot, after he was clearly expecting Son to take the easier near-post option. This effort had a 0.27 xG according to StatsPerform, and upon Son's hit, it actually dropped to a 0.21 xGOT (expected goals on target) given the shot placement, goalkeeper positioning, and defender positioning.
Another wonderful finish saw Son ping one off the post against Aston Villa in April, putting Spurs 1-0 up with a volleyed strike that had a mere 0.11 xG and a 0.17 xGOT. Yet he managed to place it perfectly in off the post, leaving the goalkeeper with no chance. Son would go on to score a hat trick in this match.
Son isn't a brilliant striker of the ball, or a scorer of glittering goals, but he is a calm, cool, and collected finisher who bags chances at a spectacular rate.
MORE: A full list of the Premier League 2021-22 season's top goalscorers
🤩 Heung-min Son's incredible welcome as he returns home to South Korea with the Golden Boot. 🥇
— Football Tweet ⚽ (@Football__Tweet) May 24, 2022
A hero for an entire nation. 🇰🇷
🎥 @Reuters pic.twitter.com/N8PwmRJYVN
Who assisted Son's goals in 2021-22?
Son saw 18 of his 23 goals assisted by teammates, and he had a few favored connections.
Harry Kane was Son's most generous teammate, but he was not the only one to serve up the chances. Winter signing Dejan Kulusevski also developed an immediate partnership with Son, a critical part of the South Korean's torrid second half.
| Player | Goals Assisted |
|---|---|
| Harry Kane | 5 |
| Dejan Kulusevski | 5 |
| Lucas Moura | 3 |
| Sergio Reguilon | 2 |
| Ryan Sessegnon | 1 |
| Steven Bergwijn | 1 |
| Ben Davies | 1 |
💙 Everyone loves #Sonny pic.twitter.com/wQ3PPE1Lqs
— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) May 24, 2022
Did Son Heung-min score more goals home or away?
Son definitely profited most at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, scoring 14 of his 23 goals in front of the home fans in London.
In fact, he was not only more prolific at home, but more dangerous, too. Son scored his 14 home league goals on an xG of just 8.51, a massive +5.49 differential. Meanwhile, on the road, he scored nine goals on an xG of 7.38, still a plus differential of +1.62, but not remotely as lethal.
Son also clearly felt more confident in front of net at home, where he took 51 shots in 19 home matches as opposed to 35 shots in 16 road matches. While he only managed to put 26 of those home efforts on target for a 51 percent rate, he still produced a stellar collection of home goals. On the road, Son was clearly more selective in front of net, putting 23 of his 35 road shots on frame for a 65.7 percent on-target rate.
Did Son have a better first half or second half?
While fellow winner Mo Salah came storming out of the gates and took an early command of the Golden Boot race, Son produced a late comeback to share the award.
In his first 12 matches of the season through the end of November, Son had just four league goals, and Tottenham languished in the middle of the table. A four-game scoring streak through December helped Spurs up to sixth in the table by the turn of the calendar year, including a 2-2 draw with Liverpool in which Son's 74th minute strike earned a share of the points.
Still, it was the second half that saw Son rocket to the top of the goalscoring charts. Tottenham, and Son, were clearly boosted by the January transfer window. The South Korean in particular profited from a partnership developed with Kulusevski that saw the two flourish into a lethal attacking force.
Starting with the March 20 win over West Ham, in which he bagged a brace, Son scored 12 goals across the team's final 10 league matches of the season, a stretch which also saw four multi-goal games. He was arguably the team's most valuable player down the stretch, scoring a match-winning brace against West Ham, a hat trick against Aston Villa, another critical brace against Leicester City, a goal in the North London derby, and a pair against Norwich City on the final day.
Tottenham secured Champions League football largely thanks to his second-half spree.
What was Son's best goal in 2021-22?
While the second half of the season was Son's time to shine, a goal against Manchester City on the season's opening day stands out as a perfect encapsulation of what makes Son such a deadly player.
The shot, which sported just a paltry 0.04 xG, was bumped to 0.46 xGOT after Son's hit — taking into account shot placement as well as goalkeeper and defender positioning. It's the shot placement that makes this such a quintessential Son goal.
Holding the ball outside the top-right corner of the penalty area, Son takes on Nathan Ake and turns the Man City defender before placing an inch-perfect strike into the bottom-left corner. The shot threads not only past Ake, but also snipes perfectly between Fernandinho, Ruben Dias, and goalkeeper Ederson. There was the tiniest window and Son found it, not with a howitzer into the top corner, but a perfectly placed low ball fizzed into the back of the net.
Those types of goals count just the same, and Son's strike gave Spurs a win over the eventual title winners that proved critical for Spurs at the end of the campaign.
The 0.42 differential between pre-shot and post-shot xG is the third-highest of Son's season. The other two include his free kick against Watford where goalkeeper Daniel Bachmann made a comical error, and a goal in the loss to Arsenal at The Emirates where it went off the fingertips of Arsenal goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale.
However, interestingly enough, the biggest challenger to his first-day stunner came on the final day of the season.
With Tottenham already boatracing Norwich City, Son's second and Spurs' fifth of the day came on an incredible strike. This shot sported a paltry 0.03 xG, and while Son's delivery increased that to a 0.31 xGOT, it still had plenty of work to do to find the back of the net. The hit saw 'keeper Tim Krul dive fruitlessly, and the ball buried into the side netting.
