CREDIT: "LIVERPOOL PLAYERS WARMING UP" BY DANNY MOLYNEUX ON FLICKR (CC BY 2.0)
Liverpool had the highest scoring game against Norwich City with a 5-4 win on Jan. 23, but even with so many goals scored, it was a boring game to watch.

If there is one argument that keeps cropping up from non-football fans about the sport that actually holds a little water, is that it really isn’t the highest scoring sport on the planet.

Sure, there are always outliers; European powerhouses like Real Madrid or Bayern Munich are well known for putting four or five goals past the lesser opponents in their league. However, in the Premier League, especially this season, there have not been many games that have seen more than four goals scored across both teams.

However, once in a while a match comes around where the goals seem to rain from the sky. One such match appeared in the last round when Norwich City hosted Liverpool at Carrow Road, where the visitors narrowly triumphed in a frankly insane 5-4 victory. It was only the 21st time in the Premier League that over nine total goals were scored. The record is still held by the 11-goal spectacle between Portsmouth and Reading in 2007.

There are a huge number of factors that lead to a high scoring Premier League match like the one on Jan. 23. In this instance was a strange mix of clinical finishing and an absolute master class in terrible defending. At times, it was absolutely astonishing that these high level players could lose their concentration so badly, but sometimes you need a bit of madness to have a true football spectacle.

It was in the last 35 minutes when the game really exploded into the history books, prior to that it had been a relatively typical example of what happens when neither team can defend, nor create. Liverpool had opened the scoring with a goal that trickled agonizingly slowly over the line, before conceding a league-high eighth goal from a corner, though the back heel finish from Dieumerci Mbokani was also excellent.

Steven Naismith scored a goahead goal right before halftime, opening his account with his new club on his debut, though he was given all the time in the world by the Liverpool defense, who were at fault for both goals. The hosts would pull further ahead with a penalty in the 54th-minute before conceding a minute later, before their own defense decided on suicidal plays twice in the next 20 minutes. On the equalizer, the defence failed to pick up an obvious run in the box, and Liverpool’s fourth was courtesy of a terrible back pass.

In the five minutes of extra time, there were goals on both ends, cementing this match as a Premier League classic. Perhaps the most remarkable thing about the match though, was that outside of the goals and the crazy rate at which they came, the match was actually quite boring. The first six goals of the match came from the first six shots. While this stat could point to the strikers being incredibly deadly, the chances they had were often incredibly easy.

In the end the match had a bit of everything: goals, luck and an incredible comeback. It’s likely to be the highest scoring match of the season and was a great advertisement for the league, and the game as a whole.