Mark Flekken launched his goal kick into the night Nottingham sky and watched on as the ball bounced over Forest defender Nikola Milenkovic, into Yoane Wissa’s path, and the Brentford striker raced through to dink it over the onrushing goalkeeper and into the net.

In doing so, Flekken registered the ninth assist by a goalkeeper in the Premier League this season to set a record for a single campaign in the competition.

It happened eight times in 1992-93, when goalies such as Peter Schmeichel and Hans Segers set up their team-mates, and again in 2007-08. But never nine. There were only two last season. None in 2011-12.

What’s clear is that Premier League clubs of all shapes and sizes are much better at pressing than ever before. The number of times a team has won possession in the final third has risen in each of the last 10 seasons. 

That pressure, coupled with the modern-day Pep Guardiola-inspired obsession of playing out from the back, has led to a huge spike in teams making errors that lead to opponents having shots and scoring goals.

Mark Flekken registered the ninth assist by a goalkeeper in the Premier League this season

Of the nine assists this season, four of them have been by Manchester City keeper Ederson

The stats show the dramatic rise in goalkeeper assists throughout recent campaigns

So, this season, there has been a bit of a pushback. Goalkeepers are starting to go longer to bypass the press. The average length of a keeper’s passes has dropped steadily over the last decade but, this term, has shown a little upturn. 

Keepers hitting more balls over the top means more chance of something happening. That’s why five of the top nine seasons for goalkeeper assists came from the good old Route One days of the 1990s.

But there is an outlier in all this. Of the nine assists this season, four of them have been by Manchester City keeper Ederson. Only former England goalkeeper Paul Robinson set up more over his entire career than Ederson has managed this season.

Ederson has provided seven since his debut, more than anyone else – and his are usually different to the rest.

Flekken’s against Forest was a hoofed goal-kick up-field. His other one this season was a long free-kick towards the box that bounced over a jumping attacker and defender that Nathan Collins eventually found himself on the end of.

It was a similar tale last term, too, as Flekken again provided one of the pair of assists when he punted a long ball forward that just missed Ivan Toney’s flick-on, and the challenging defender, and ran through for Neal Maupay. The other was when Wolves keeper Jose Sa threw it to team-mate Matheus Cunha, who ran from his own half to score.

The only keeper to create more chances than Ederson since his debut is Everton’s Jordan Pickford – but that’s mainly because he goes long more than anyone else. He rolls the dice more often.

Pickford had ‘launched’ the ball, what Opta describe as a pass longer than 40 yards, 719 times ahead of this weekend, the most in the league this season. Ederson is on less than 150.

Five of the top nine seasons for goalkeeper assists came from the Route One days of the 1990s

Brentford goalkeeper Flekken has recorded two assists for his side throughout the season

The only keeper to create more chances than Ederson since his debut is Jordan Pickford

Pickford’s long passing is more about putting the ball into an attacking area and hoping his forwards do the rest than an arrow to a specific target.

His assist for Abdoulaye Doucoure’s 10 seconds in to their victory over Leicester came from him launching it long from the kick-off. That is the case for most goalkeepers. All of Robinson’s assists in his career came from long punts up-field.

That’s where Ederson, and to a similar extent Alisson, differ.

All three of Alisson’s are when he’s picked up the ball and spotted Mo Salah charging into space but the Egyptian King still often had a lot still to do.

To be fair to Peter Schmeichel, he set up two of his three goals with those famous pinpoint bullet long throws to set up Manchester United counter-attacks.

Ederson is on a different level. He spots team-mates making a run and finds them from 50 yards away, just like his most recent assist against Crystal Palace last month when he saw James McAtee making a dart behind the high backline.

He did the same for Erling Haaland against Brentford and Chelsea and Omar Marmoush versus Newcastle.

So, yes, the game is changing but, more than anything, there’s a freak of nature helping to bump up the numbers.