Would Arsene Wenger’s ‘daylight’ offside law have led to more Premier League goals this season? | OneFootball

The Premier League could have witnessed an additional 11 goals this season had a proposed ‘daylight’ offside law been in effect.

This potential rule change, championed by former Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, aims to encourage more attacking football by deeming an attacker onside if any part of their body capable of scoring is level with the second-last defender.

The ‘daylight’ offside rule is set for trials in the Canadian Premier League.

A modified version, which would allow a goal if any part of a player’s torso is level with the second-last defender, is also expected to undergo testing.

According to data gathered by the International Football Association Board (IFAB), football’s law-making body, 11 goals disallowed for offside in the English top-flight this season would have stood under the ‘daylight’ law.

The ‘torso’ modification would have seen 10 of those goals allowed.

Arsene Wenger is championing a change to the offside law (AP)

Mark Bullingham, chief executive of the Football Association and an IFAB director, underscored the importance of trialling the ‘daylight’ law to evaluate its effectiveness in practice.

“Trying it for a season will determine how players behave,” he said.

“So for example, do they drop deep and play a low block or does it make it more entertaining? You just won’t know until it’s trialled.

“There have been two trials so far at a lower level which have been inconclusive. So (Wenger) is very keen to try it again at a more senior level and let’s see what comes out of it.

“At some point it has to be trialled with VAR to get the full value from it.

“I think football is in a great place, but why not experiment to see if it can be any better?

“I think Arsene’s first position was, ‘Can we make it more entertaining?’.

“I don’t think more goals equals more entertainment necessarily, but I think we’ll only determine whether it leads to more attacking football and more entertaining football when we see it.

“Over time it might be that the radical move is right or it might be that we learn certain things from that. For example whether the torso gets tried.

“We might do both (trials) at the same time and then effectively you’ve got a comparison between football now and (how it would be) with torso and daylight.”