What's the Most Common Half-Time Score in the Premier League?

**TL;DR: **The most common half-time score in the Premier League is 0-0, followed by 1-0 (to either side) and 1-1. Roughly a quarter of all matches are still goalless at the break, which is why predicting the half-time scoreline is harder than picking a final result.

If you have ever shouted at the telly because your team went in 0-0 again, you are in good company. The first 45 minutes of a Premier League match tend to be cagier than the second, and the data backs that up. For prediction games, knowing what the half-time board usually looks like is a useful sanity check before you commit to a wild scoreline.

The most common half-time scorelines

Across recent Premier League seasons, half-time scores cluster around a small handful of results. The exact percentages shift year to year, but the pecking order is fairly stable.

• 0-0: typically the single most common half-time score, around 25 to 30 percent of matches
• 1-0 to the home side: usually the second most common, around 18 to 22 percent
• 1-0 to the away side: around 10 to 14 percent
• 1-1: around 8 to 12 percent
• 2-0, 0-1, 2-1: each around 4 to 8 percent
• Anything above 3 goals at half-time: roughly 2 to 4 percent combined

That clustering is not random. Managers set up cautiously in the first half, especially in away fixtures, and players spend the opening 20 minutes feeling each other out. If you want a deeper dive into the final scores, we have a separate piece on the most common Premier League scores.

Why 0-0 leads the table

Goals in football are rare events. The Premier League averages a bit under three goals per match across full 90 minutes, which means the first half typically delivers around 1.2 to 1.4 goals. That number is dragged down by the fact that nothing has happened in roughly a quarter of matches by the 45-minute mark.

Several things conspire to keep first halves quiet: warm-up nerves, conservative tactics, and the fact that goalkeepers and defenders have not yet tired. We covered the broader pattern in our piece on why low scoring games are easier to predict, and the same logic applies in miniature to first halves.