It is well documented that the arrival of Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola to the Premier League coincided with the increase in popularity of a ball-playing goalkeeper.
One of his first actions was to replace Joe Hart with Claudio Bravo, before bringing in Ederson in the summer of 2017.
The Brazil goalkeeper, who had been an outfield player as a youngster, was brought in largely because of his excellent passing ability and comfort with the ball at his feet.
With Ederson in goal, Manchester City won a first Premier League title under Guardiola in 2017-18 after amassing a record-breaking 100 points.
The statistics suggest that from then, playing out from the back was becoming more popular with the percentage of goal-kicks landing in the opposition half – which had not deviated from about 75% for a number of seasons – dropping to 67.8% the following season.
It has continued to drop after that, although there was another reason that had a significant contribution.
For 2019-20, the International Football Association Board (IFAB) introduced a new rule allowing goalkeepers to pass the ball to team-mates inside their penalty area from goal-kicks, having previously only been allowed to pass outside the box.
At the time, the body said this change would result in “a faster and more dynamic/constructive restart to the game” that would “reduce time lost/wasted”, suggesting it would cut down on defenders time wasting by playing the ball before it leaves the area – knowing it would result in the goal-kick being retaken.
The rule was buried among several other changes, suggesting the lawmakers perhaps didn’t quite anticipate the impact it would have.
But since then goal-kicks have got shorter and shorter, and now it is common to see two centre-backs standing alongside the goalkeeper inside their own area in preparation to build an attack.
Read more from Gary on the evolution of goalkeepers