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Why Premier League scoring is on record pace this season

Last week, Arsenal squeaked by Porto in penalties in London. Inter Milan coughed up a two-goal aggregate lead and eventually succumbed to Atletico Madrid in a shootout in Spain. Barcelona bounced back from a first-leg draw against Napoli to advance to the quarterfinals. And Borussia Dortmund held on for dear life as they gritted their teeth to a 2-0 victory against PSV Eindhoven.

If you watched any midweek soccer last week, you probably watched one of those Champions League games -- and you probably missed out on one of the games of the season because of it.

While Inter and Atletico were duking it out at the Metropolitano, the more exciting match in Europe was in the Premier League, played at a 12,000-person stadium by the 18th- and 13th-place teams in England's top flight.

In that game, visiting Luton Town jumped out to a 3-0 first-half lead and were seemingly cruising to a result that would've lifted them out of the relegation zone. And then, five minutes into the second half, Bournemouth pulled one back, and then another, and another, and another to cap off one of the greatest comebacks in Premier League history.

If you'd bet 10 bucks on Bournemouth at half-time, you would've won $150 -- they became only the third Premier League team ever to go into half-time down three goals and still win the match. Yet while the comeback was historic, it shouldn't be so surprising. In a larger sense, Bournemouth-Luton was nothing new: Premier League teams are scoring goals for fun this season.

All of a sudden, teams in the Premier League are on pace to shatter the previous record for goals scored in a season. This raises a pretty simple question: what the heck is going on?