Before we get down to the Liverpool v. Arsenal numbers I wanted to show you all something. There’s been a lot of talk about Song’s through ball numbers this season and how he’s top of the League in terms of through balls per game with 0.7.
Arsenal play a Barcelona style of football which means that they play a large number of through balls per game. In fact, Arsenal and Man City have been battling it out for supremacy in that category all season with the Citeh team just edging Arsenal with 8 per game to Arsenal’s 7 per game.
Predictably, Barcelona destroy both of those teams with their whopping 13 through balls attempted per game. And as a result, Barcelona have four players in the top 15 in Europe’s top Leagues for successful through balls per game (Messi 1.5, Cesc 0.7, Iniesta 0.7, Xavi 0.6).
And then there’s Song. The only player on an English team who is in the top 10 and nestled between Cesc and Iniesta in 8th place with his 0.7 per game.
But you know what’s even more striking? How similar his other numbers are to Cesc.
It’s pretty clear by these numbers that Song has to do more defensive work than Cesc (tackles and interceptions) and doesn’t get forward as much as Cesc (goals) but those other numbers are eerily similar.
I’m not saying that Song is Cesc’s replacement but it’s pretty clear that in the absence of Cesc and Wilshere, Song has stepped up his game. As we witnessed up close on Saturday.
Liverpool 1-2 Arsenal
10 – Fouls called for Liverpool
6 – Fouls called for Louis Suarez
1 – Blatant dives by Suarez to win a penalty
10 – Fouls called for Arsenal
1 – Two-footed tackles by Spearing that Halsey missed
1 – Elbows to the face by Kuyt that Halsey missed
1 – Concussions suffered by Arteta when Henderson challenged him off the ball that Halsey missed
1 – Times the Scousers sang “same old Arsenal, always cheating”
38 – Crosses attempted by Liverpool
8 – Crosses attempted by Arsenal
12 – Corners attempted by Liverpool
0 – Corners attempted by Arsenal
20 – Successful clearances by Arsenal
8 – Successful clearances by Liverpool
8 – Successful crosses by Liverpool
3 – Successful corners by Liverpool
18 – Interceptions by Arsenal
6 – Offsides by Liverpool
320 – Completed passes by Arsenal at Anfield (worst of the season so far)
337 – Completed passes by Arsenal at Swansea (previous worst)
77 – Percent of passes completed by both Arsenal and Liverpool
100 – Percent that kicking people and not passing the ball suited King Kenny to a tee
90 – Average pass completion rate by Arteta so far this season
78 – Percent he completed against Liverpool
1 – Touches by Andy Carroll
1 – Aerial duels won by Andy Carroll
28 – Minutes by Abou Diaby v. Liverpool
56 – Abou Diaby minutes for Arsenal 2011/2012
55 – ‘000 £/minute that Abou Diaby has played this season
173 – Abou Diaby minutes for France 2011/2012
00 – Pounds Sterling that France pay in Abou Diaby’s Arsenal wages
1343 – Abou Diaby minutes for Arsenal since 2010/2011
2 – Shots by Robin van Persie
2 – Shots on goal by Robin van Persie
2 – Goals by Robin van Persie
25 – League goals by van Persie
30 – League goals by Liverpool
5 – Years since Arsenal had a player who scored more than 20 League goals in a season (Adebayor -24- 2007/2008).
Sorry to have missed the Anniversary post, but just popped in for my ‘at random’ post.
Still read you every day via the iPhone App, very happy you’re still going and still obscene 🙂
Anyway, keep on keeping on
Up the Arse!
TG
Song has the character which allows him to do great things. What some players consider risk, he sees as opportunity
a little more than a week ago I was extrememly frustrated by my beloved Arsenal…..
Now I am loving every moment!
Oh, to be an Arsenal Fan,…… You complete me!
one week ago, 10 points off Sp*%s, now a meager 4 …….. it’s going to happen!!!
COYG!!!!!
1- Buck toothed racist on the pitch
1- Racist bald Barcelona shirt force-oning(?) twat goalkeeper on the pitch
[…] out the By the Numbers post over at Arseblog news. Match preview in the morning. […]
I would disagree with your statement that Song has stepped up his game in Cesc’s absence. From an attacking POV, the difference is clear, obvious and huge. 11 assists for a sitting midfielder is quite exceptional. However, Song’s primary job (the way I see it) is to provide protection to the back four, something which I didn’t recall him doing well in a single game since that amazing Dortmund one (what, 14 tackles?!). I’m sure I must be missing a few good defensive performances, but by and large he has disappointed in that respect and allowed our midfield to be… Read more »
Totally agree.
Song can be the best defensive midfielder on his day. Song is also very effective at providing assists. It’s when he gets caught between the two that it becomes a problem.
We only have one Song. We actually need two.
isnt worth arguing that wenger should buy another DM (m’villa?) and push song forward??
You’re looking at Wenger’s tactics and blaming the players. It’s his job, just like the other midfielders in the Arsenal system, to go forward. Which he does with the best.
He also leads Arsenal’s midfield in tackles and interceptions.
Wenger hasn’t had a pure defensive midfielder since Gilberto and I don’t expect we’ll see another until Wenger leaves. Even the much hyped Frimpong didn’t just sit back and shield.
I’m not saying that Song should stay back all the time. He does stay back *most* of the time. What I’m saying is that when he IS staying back, he’s not doing his (defensive) job.
I like Song’s forward forays, but that doesn’t mean that he gets a free pass for not defending well.
I think we probably need to reasses our definition of Alex Song ‘s position . These numbers confirm what i have suspected for quite some time. Alex is not a ‘defensive midfielder,’ he is a deeplying midfielder. He defends and attacks. DM’s provide nothing going forward and guess what, as a team we like to go forward.
On a second note, its seems strange to complain about our most effective midfielder in terms of defending and creating goal scoring chances. Alex contributes more than his peers in our teams midfield, shouldn’t we be asking more from the other midfielders?
Absolutely. Ever since Makelele arrived in England, and DM became “the Makelele role”, it seems like everyone wants to have a player on the team who plays exactly the same as Makelele. Song CAN play as a purely defensive deep-lying midfielder if that is the job that he is given. And that would have its benefits, for sure. But the flip side is that we’d miss his creativity. Right now our team is really lacking someone else who can play through balls, and without Song’s assists we would have even greater trouble scoring. Right now, if Song were the strictly… Read more »
All I’m saying is that Song has not *defended* well for the last 15-20 games. Does anyone disagree with this statement?
Yes. Though I will agree, if it’s up for such, that he hasn’t defended well in all those games.
But he has won us 5 points and got us through the FA cup so…..
Football isn’t that black and White. We have two sitting midfielders, Arteta & song. They working in tandem, are you saying that he should hold back his effective attacking instincts because you want him to sit and clear up our messes. No way, plus that is completely against our team philosophy. A complete contradiction. Song is the most improved player of the last three years in the league.
That is not what I’m saying. I’m saying that he’s a midfielder and he has to defend sometimes (along with Arteta). He has not defended well. Offensively he might have only 2 assists less than Di Maria, but he has not played defensively for quite some time now.
Song is very, very good in attack, but he’s even better in defence. But he hasn’t played anywhere near his best. That’s all I’m saying.
Very happy to see diaby get a run out on saturday hopefully his hamstring is ok for the weekend and we can see the diabong axis in action.
Its funny they say spurs have more depth than us but we have wilshere they have parker, we have arteta they have sandro, we have diaby they have livermore. we have frimpong and coquelin they have danny rose. Media love blowing tottenham a new bellend.
I remember when people were crying out for a holding midfielder because Song wasn’t good enough. And how Arsenal needed a keeper.
Wenger knows!
25 – League goals by van Persie
30 – League goals by Liverpool
WOWWWWWWWWWW
I think 5 of those Liverpool goals were own goals as well so actually RvP is tied with their entire squad
great win coupled with a loss for 5pu2s.
Blogger any thoughts on the idea of referring to scum as above for the foreseeable future 😀 ?
Doesn’t 5pur2 make more sense?
Also, isn’t celebrating one result like you won the Premier League something that Sp*rs fans do? We’re a good few decades away from needing to stoop that low.
Few decades???? We will NEVER stoop to their level. NEVER!!!
Don’t see how making a joke about our rivals after a 5-2 win in a derby equates to celebrating like we won the premier league, but ok.
Point taken on the better spelling though.
So can we please get a defensive stats comparison between song and one sergio busquets at barca since the two teams play the same game and stop this madness of wanting song to defend in a high line system like their ideal DM playing in parked bus systems? And please dont mention the name scott parker here because we all know in the press it’s says so but in reality its less true. Just like it’s preached xavi, iniesta, steve G when we know it’s cesc at the end. Or messi, ronaldo, rooney(on some strange days, g. Bale) when we… Read more »
He dives when he wants,
he dives when he wants,
Luis Suarez,
he dives when he wants
Any L’Pool fans on here that could tell me what the chances are that this song could catch on with their supporters? I think it should be sung home & away for him!
4 own goals for liverpool this season leaves it 26-25 to liverpool. Bit disappointing, lets hope RvP kicks it up a notch!
…For a team that has long been reputed for being poor at defending corners we did a really good job. I think they only had one good chance from Skrtel
Bro, with the crosses Adams was banging in like some sort of decapitated hybrid of Jamie Carragher and a sloth the Arsenal defence didn’t have much to do. But yeah, with Verminator and Kosc willing to get their head on anything we seem more assured in the air.
I think that with another defensive midfielder there, song can do a great job for the gunners in a slightly different position
I was thinking about a midfield trio of Song, M’Vila and Wilshere
M’Vila is a great defensive mid who I think would suit Arsenal well
M’Vila plays in front of the back four in this midfield, while Song plays in the middle both attacking and defending while Jack plays further up the pitch.
This trio would bring both steel and creativity to the midfield and improve the gunners offensively and defensively.
5 – Years since Arsenal had a player who scored more than 20 League goals in a season (Adebayor -24- 2007/2008).
That’s stretching technicalities to call it five, isn’t it? It’s more like four years.
Thank fuck song doesn’t read Le Grove.
Song is as important as RVP for arsenal’s bright future.
Thank fuck nobody with half a brain reads the nonsense on that site! There have been days when the idiot Piers Morgan has made more sense than the guys at le grove.
I used to think that they were spuds trying to ‘blend in’ but even the spuds dumb and deluded as they may be have more sense and are more coherent/eloquent than the like of Myles Palmer, Le Grove etc. And I have never ever said anything nice about a spud in any form ever before. 🙂
No doubt about it – Song has been more than rock solid, he’s been that and spectacular at times.
77 million Euros – The amount of money Chelsea has spent over the last 4 years in hiring and firing coaches. (Source: L’Equipe)
Would love to see some stats regarding own goals, we must have set kind of record with the amount we’ve been scoring this season!
Is anyone else really excited about Arsenal all of a sudden? We’ve had a poor season, definitely. If we’d have shown some passion against Birmingham, we’d at least be sitting here with a trophy under our belts from last season. We’re still trailing the dirty Spuds, and we’re effectively out of any major competition this season by early March. But I don’t buy the “fact” we’re a team in decline. Look at the spuds team versus mighty Stevenage – a youth team that struggled and looked distinctly average. For them to have another season like this one, they’ll need reinforcements… Read more »
Hard to get seriously excited when the most we have to play for is 3rd place. The youngsters definitely promising, problem is they all get injured so much – Gibbs, Frimp, Jack and Jenk have all spent more than half the season out (alongside Diaby, Santos, Sagna and Vermaelen) while Ramsey still hasn’t shown that he’s completely recovered and Theo still with a lot to prove. I’d be extremely excited about our long-term future if it weren’t for the fact that every single season we get completely decimated by injuries. Nonetheless I agree that with the win vs Spurs we… Read more »
I actually called this on twitter, WAY before anyone else 🙂
What gets me a little moist is the idea of a fit Diaby and Song playing together for an extended period of time, with Wilshere playing further up.
All thre can stick a boot in and win the ball, and are naturally inclined to do so. All of them can pick out a pass, or shot, and drive forward. and are naturally inclined to do so.
Song has been decent this season. His actions in some games leaves much to be desired but thats just a reflection of the season the team is having. More like a ‘Brownian motion’. I hope that our trajectory would continue to rise till the end of the season. Up gooners
How is it possible that as a lifelong Gooner I’ve only just discovered this site??? I’ve been absolutely laughing my ass off over some of these comments!! I must make a point though to the guys talking about our midfield. The way we play doesn’t have a stereotypical defensive midfielder. Both Song and Arteta are the “deep-lying playmakers” as Football Manager would call it. And defensively they’re not expected to do as much as a Scott Parker (which essentially means that they don’t run around like headless chickens, fouling players and basically being knackered by the 60th minute!!) Personally I… Read more »
Agree. i think one of the reasons we’ve done so well since the close of the transfer window is Artetas hard work for the team, and the way he frees up song a little bit to ping in ever so sensual crosses to the van man.
Well there’s no doubt Song has picked up his passing/setup game this season. Is he as good a passer as Cesc? No. Is he close? Maybe, but regardless with all the defensive work he has to do we can’t rely solely on him for that, someone playing further up the central part of the pitch (Arteta/Ramsey/Rosicky) has to start doing a consistently decent job with some through-balls. But hats off to Song, he may not be the most defensively talented defensive midfielder but he does make up for it with his attacking play.
100 – percent chance that RVP is a fucking legend