This was the first season with the modern offside rule, where two defenders (as opposed to three, the rule before this season) needed to be in front of the attacker for him to be onside;[1] as a result, offensive play flourished, with the number of goals scored in the First Division increasing from 1,192 to 1,703.
The tables below are reproduced here in the exact form that they can be found at The Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation website[2] and in Rothmans Book of Football League Records 1888–89 to 1978–79,[3] with home and away statistics separated.
Match results are drawn from Rothmans for all divisions.
In case one or more teams had the same goal difference, this system favoured those teams who had scored fewer goals.
The goal average system was eventually scrapped beginning with the 1976–77 season.