Arsenal totally dominated ‘Boro, except for one category, clearances. Which I will talk about in a second. But first, this is what domination looks like numerically:
716 – Arsenal passes
249 – Arsenal passes in the Boro final third
19 – Arsenal key passes
23 – Arsenal shots
14 – Arsenal shots in the 18 yard box
8 – Arsenal shots in the Prime Area
377 – Boro passes
118 – Boro passes in the Arsenal final third
3 – Boro key passes
6 – Boro shots
1 – Boro shot in the 18 yard box (it was also in the prime area)
29 – Dribbles attempted by Arsenal
12 – Dribbles successful by Arsenal
9 – Dribbles attempted by Boro
1 – Dribble successful by Boro
(Dribbles are related to tackles…)
19 – Arsenal tackles, out of 20 attempted
25 – Boro tackles, out of 37 attempted
(Arsenal even out-intercepted them)
20 – Arsenal interceptions
13 – Boro interceptions
This fits with my pre-match article on Boro: they aren’t a very good offensive team and they don’t really play an active style of defense (playing passing lanes and diving in for tackles).
The one thing they did do was force Arsenal to make a lot of clearances. They actually forced Arsenal to make 25 clearances to Boro’s 19. But… only 12 of the clearances Arsenal made were in the 18 yard box while 15 of Boro’s clearances were in the 18 yard box. Ergo, Arsenal still won the pressure battle.
Individual stats:
Sanchez tried the most dribbles, 8, but was only successful 3 times. Though all of his attempted dribbles were around the 18 yard box.
Sanchez also attempted the 2nd most shots, 5, but only 2 were inside the box and just 1 was on target.
Flamini was 6/6 tackling, yay. But Boro’s Clayton was 9/11!
Cazorla played the Ramsey role and led Arsenal with 117 passes.
Özil had 105 passes, but he beat Cazorla in final third passes 62-47.
Özil also had an incredible 7 key passes, that means he created 7 shots for his teammates. That’s a high number.
Giroud took 6 of Arsenal’s shots and got 4 on target and scored 2 goals. How does Giroud score those goals? He French kisses the ball.
Giroud also has 10 goals or assists in the last 10 games, 3 of those games he has at 2 goals or a goal and an assist.
Gabriel had just 1 tackle, but it was a great tackle which stopped a shot in a dangerous area. He also led Arsenal (tied with Chambers) with 8 clearances, finished the game with 94% passing on 79 attempts. Hell of a debut from the new guy.
Oh yeah, Arsenal scored off a corner for the second game running. We aren’t real good at corners. Remember?
@7amkickoff
Stats today all from WhoScored.com
Liking the improvement of set piece’s this season!
This team is percolating nicely for the buisness end of the season.
1 Arsene Wenger.
1 Mesut Özil
How is that for a routine corner kick? Loiter outside the box to occupy their markers and let Giroud French kisses the ball at near post.
Lovely stuff. I’d have Santi next to Le Coq instead of Rambo at the moment, he’s great in that role.
Not sure I’d want him there against a side with better attacking options and a stronger midfield, but it is another option Wenger has available now if we go all-out to overwhelm the opposition.
It also (hopefully) means that with more and more players back fit, there isn’t one first team as such and Arsene has both the pleasure and pain of choice throughout out setup.
“Not sure i’d want him there against a side with better attacking options and a stronger midfield…”
Like city, say?
Cheers for the breakdown Tim! Love to know how you see the Koscielny – Gabriel partnership evolving? The fact that it looked comfortable for Gabriel on his debut indicates his quality but also that they’ve already been working hard at it in training. Promising signs.
1 game, too little data!
Gabriel is the new “Chopper” for more than one reason, imagine the damage Suarez could with that set.
He was hard into challenges and precise with his passes. Loved the head knock on his one misstep giving up the corner.
and we even played Flamini.
Clean sheet.
Apparently we are now able to play with just 10 men because clearly Flamini is non existent and useless.
that’s not true. I was very impressed by his passing and defending
he’s had some absolutely terrible games this season, but come on lad. it’s a long-established fact that anti-flamer comments will get downvoted out here. obviously you must be more shrewd with your commenting m8. never mind his howlers and all
Great breakdown as always. Hey, @7amkickoff, the 716 passes are the most Arsenal have played this year? I don’t recall another passing performance like this one this season. Thanks.
I like the fact we had all 11 players involved in the goal. According to GUnnerblog, Flamini clearly rubbish as the game passed him by :
Former Scotland international Pat Nevin
at The Emirates for BBC Radio 5 live
Arsenal 2-0 Middlesbrough
Posted at
“It was never in doubt after the first goal, Arsenal were playing within themselves. Cazorla in attack, Flamini holding things together. We will hold our judgement on Gabriel for a little while longer.
With 69% possession calculated from 90 minutes that’s a *successful* pass every 5.2 seconds. When you account for dead ball situations etc. that’s insane.
The lads did well statistically …..
My favourite feature of the blog I look forward to it win lose or draw.
What is “the Prime Area” exactly?
Coyg
Is that you ma’am?
We are steadily metamorphosing into the team that we ought to be given our stature.
Ozil impressed me most with his telepathic passing which he did with brazen non nonchalance.
Ozil, Sanchez, Cazorla, Ozil, Sanchez, Cazorla, Ozil, Sanchez, Cazorla.
Boy that’s fun to say.
I mean brazen nonchalance
I loved how being trapped against the sideline against two of theirs didn’t mean losing the ball. We were incredible in tight spaces.
“this is what domination looks like, numerically’
What about visually? Uhhh for research purposes.
Thought Chambers did really well today.
Giroud is captain of my fantasy team so wishing he could replicate the same next game. COYG
Where’s FAT BOY ?? Long time no c !!
He’s about as absent as Striker, Rich, and the rest of the haters/trolls. Not much for them to talk about now that we’re winning.
Very good around team performance. Should have been 4 or 5 but hey a wins a win. The competition for places is better now than it has been for a long while. What’s the betting we get Manure in the next round, providing they beat Preston.
Well done lads
For me the ideal draw would be for us to get Preston at home, and Liverpool to get Bradford away.
Happy with the win! A very attacking side that played like it. Would have liked more goals, but it’s a dominant win and builds confidence.
Still torn up that we didn’t buy Fabregas in the summer. Even if you assumed Ramsey would be in the form of last year, it creates competition, and provides cover for 2 players with an injury history, and weakens Chelsea. Oh, what could have been! Imagine that team – Fabregas, Ozil, Sanchez, Cazorla…. guess we’ll have to wait for the Arsene memoir to understand what went wrong there.
Great performance by a team growing in fluidity. If Giroud can keep this form, especially with the quality of the second goal and Welbeck gets his scoring boots on, we might have a thing or two to say about who wins the title.