How do I make a Premier League xG shot map in Python?

noah — Sat, 24 Oct 2026 14:55:49 +0000

Every located shot a club took in a season, with player, outcome, body part, expected goals and pitch coordinates, plus totals by zone.

Code verified October 10, 2026. It takes one call to get_shot_map, 10 credits.

The call

team takes an abbreviation, a name or an id from list_teams. Season 2025 is 2025-26. Pass against: true to see the shots a club conceded.

import requests
import pandas as pd

API_KEY = "YOUR_API_KEY"

resp = requests.post(
    "https://mcp.strikerapi.com/v1/get_shot_map",
    headers={"x-api-key": API_KEY},
    json={
        "team": "ARS",
        "season": 2025,
    },
    timeout=60,
)
resp.raise_for_status()
data = resp.json()["data"]

shots = pd.DataFrame(data["shots"])
print(data["totals"])
print(pd.DataFrame(data["zones"])[["zone", "shots", "goals", "xg", "conversion"]])
by_player = shots.groupby("player").agg(shots=("xg", "count"), xg=("xg", "sum"), goals=("outcome", lambda s: (s == "goal").sum()))
print(by_player.sort_values("xg", ascending=False).head(8).round(2))
# x is distance from the goal line as a share of half the pitch, y runs across it.
print(shots[["x", "y"]].describe().round(2))

You need requests and pandas (pip install requests pandas) and a free API key from StrikerAPI.

What comes back

The data object, trimmed to the first rows. Every value is real output from the run above.

{
  "season": 2025,
  "zones": [
    {
      "zone": "six_yard_box",
      "shots": 83,
      "goals": 19,
      "on_target": 28,
      "headers": 53,
      "xg": 26.8,
      "conversion": 0.229,
      "share": 0.16
    },
    {
      "zone": "penalty_area",
      "shots": 298,
      "goals": 34,
      "on_target": 97,
      "headers": 59,
      "xg": 35.57,
      "conversion": 0.114,
      "share": 0.573
    },
    "...2 more"
  ],
  "shots_total": 538,
  "totals": {
    "shots": 538,
    "located": 520,
    "goals": 67,
    "on_target": 169,
    "xg": 72.14,
    "xg_per_shot": 0.139
  },
  "shots": [
    {
      "game_id": "740968",
      "date": "2026-05-24",
      "minute": 4,
      "team": "ARS",
      "player": "Gabriel Jesus",
      "outcome": "woodwork",
      "body_part": "right_foot",
      "zone": "penalty_area",
      "xg": 0.069,
      "x": 0.296,
      "y": 0.362
    },
    {
      "game_id": "740968",
      "date": "2026-05-24",
      "minute": 4,
      "team": "ARS",
      "player": "Noni Madueke",
      "outcome": "saved",
      "body_part": "left_foot",
      "zone": "penalty_area",
      "xg": 0.04,
      "x": 0.282,
      "y": 0.681
    },
    "...518 more"
  ],
  "unlocated_shots": 18
}

What to do next

get_events (10 credits). The shots, goals and cards of a single match, with the same xG.
get_team_stats (5 credits). Per-match xG for and against, so you do not have to sum shots yourself.

Originally published at strikerapi.com.

DEV Community: noah

How do I make a Premier League xG shot map in Python?

The call

What comes back

What to do next