Set Plays Turning Key
Arsenal scored two first-half goals off set plays, one corner and one crossed free kick, and then held on for all three points as Newcastle mounted a decent comeback. Set plays have now become a key component of Arsenal’s attack.
19 – Arsenal now lead the League in set play goals with 19
6 – Arsenal lead the League in penalties scored with 6
13 – Arsenal are second in the League in set play goals minus penalties (Tottenham are 1st with 14, Chelsea have 12)
7 – Arsenal are third in the League in goals scored off corners with 7
4 – Arsenal are tied for 4th place in the League in goals scored off crossed free kicks with 4
1 – Arsenal are one of only three teams in the League to score a goal off a throw-in (Arsenal, Sunderland, Burnley)
10 – Arsenal now have 10 headed goals, 4th best in the League behind West Ham (15), Stoke (11), and West Brom (11) — Man U also have 10 headed goals
How many goals did Arsenal score off set plays in the last three seasons?
A tale of two halves
Individual Stats
Chambers led all players with 9/12 tackles on the day which is a tremendous amount of work, especially when you consider that he was also the game’s second most prolific passer in the attacking third, completing 15/19 passes and 1/3 crosses. And fourth overall in passing with 38/50. He even had 2/4 dribbles, was 2/2 in attacking aerial duels, and had 4 interceptions.
Coquelin was second among all players with 6/7 tackles 4 of which he made in the second half. He also led all players with 13 ball recoveries and was second among all players with 46/56 passes. What’s funny about Coquelin is that he only made 3 passes into the Newcastle final 1/3, one of which was for a Welbeck shot. That was his first key pass since the Southampton match!
Ramsey had an odd game. My recollection was that he stood around a lot in the center forward spot. But if that’s true, how did he lead all players in passing with 49/59, yet only had 10/15 final third passes, didn’t create a single shot, didn’t take a single shot, didn’t have a single successful dribble (0/2), and made 2/6 tackles in his own half but 2/3 tackles in the opposition half?
Did you know? Welbeck had 7/10 dribbles today??? That’s just nuts. He had 2 “multiples” where he successfully dribbled two consecutive players in the same move.
Alexis had another “almost” match before being withdrawn for a rest: he led Arsenal with 2 key passes and led all players with 18/22 passes in the final third. He was also second in take-ons with 4/8 and second in ball recoveries with 9. He also made two tackles in the Newcastle half, and failed in all 3 tackles in defense.
Gabriel led all players with 7 interceptions. This is actually a bit fascinating and an indication of Arsenal’s playing style. On a per90 basis, Gabriel averages 5.8 interceptions.
What’s interesting is that Arsenal have multiple players who are top of the League in interceptions. If we limit to players with more than 10 appearances, Coquelin leads the League with 3.9 interceptions per90, Koscielny is 2nd with 3.8, and Monreal is 6th with 3.6. Former Arsenal players fill out the top 10: Clichy is 7th with 3.4 and Traore is 10th with 3.3. Clearly Arsene drills his players to read the passing lanes and step to the ball.
Coquelin is third in the League in tackles per90 with 4.5. He’s also a 76% tackler which is tops. He’s also second in the League among DM’s in aerial duels won per game with 3.7. The aerial duels stat is underrated for defensive midfielders — breaking up opposition high balls before they get into the defense is crucial. He won 2/2 of those today.
This “mopping up” that Coquelin does (tackling, intercepting, winning headers, and ball recoveries) is a major reason why Arsenal have been winning matches lately. He stepped in to kill off a Newcastle counter at least three times in the first half. It’s important to note that those counter attacks typically produce what Opta terms “big chances”¹ and that when Arsenal play without Coquelin in the DM role, we concede 1.67 big chances per match. And when we play with Coquelin in the DM role, Arsenal concede just 0.50 big chances per match.
Clearly Arsenal are stiffer in the middle with Coq.
@7amkickoff
¹Big Chances are those one-v-one shots that teams get with our keeper when we are pressing high up the pitch and they dribble or pass straight through our midfield because we don’t have a defensive midfielder there to break that play up.
“stood around a lot in the center forward spot”
Infuriating when Ramsey does that…
Guess it’s ok as long as the arse win and also don’t concede because Baberaham Lincoln is too busy chasing the limelight and too important to do his day job of supporting Le Coq Majestique.
Arsene needs to sit down with ramsey and remind him that he is a midfielder. When was at his best last season, he was the perfect box-to-box player. The goals were great but they were only part of what made him a great player.
Simple facts reg. Ramsey (whether we like it or not): 1. Ramsey hasn’t mastered the MF basics.. he hasn’t got the quality necessary or the quality we expect from a player in a crucial position. 2. Has little to no sense of positioning, is selfish as well and ends up running to places up top better filled by others. 3. Ramsey looks like he runs a lot and covers a lot of ground but most of it is useless since he has no real pace.. 4. His first touch always makes you nervous and he always leads the team in… Read more »
Yeah, well this post bigs up Chambers and Welbeck because of stats, but if you watched them today you’d know they were total shit. Chambers’ mistakes led to chances and Welbeck led to no chances.
Like to think that the Chanbers and Welbz stats present facts about their performance that, in this case, exemplify their contributions. Was Chambers exposed a few times? Yes. Did Welbz final ball let him down? Yes. Were they both ‘total shit’? No. Absolutely not.
We made one of the shittiest Newcastle sides of the last decade look amazing.
Ramsey probably did that last year too. Problem is that he is not making good use of the ball this year. He lacks sharpness. It was not infuriating when he saved our season last year.
Interesting re Chambers as I really thought he had a poor game, but reading that I guess I must apologise! Shows that what we see sometimes isn’t really what we’re seeing!
Never Forget…There are lies,Damn Lies and Statistics.
Statistics can be used to prove anything you want
i’m not sure what that means. the number of interceptions, tackles, duels won, etc is factual evidence of what he’s accomplished in the game. if he hadn’t played well he would have made less interceptions and tackles and lost more duels.
Well, there is a certain amount of truth to what Runcorn Gooner has said. For an instance, number of tackles will tell you how many tackles were attempted and how many were successful but it doesn’t tell how many the player should’ve attempted suiting the pace of the game. That is something you can only see through your eyes while watching the game. So, as a player I may attempt 10 tackles and win 9 of them but what if all the opposition attacks are directed to my side of the pitch and I actually had the opportunity to make… Read more »
But you do realize that stats around here never include the negatives. Like the number of times Coquelin was dispossed in dangerous areas of our own half, especially in the 2nd half.
Twice.
But they didn’t cost Arsenal a goal or really change the game.
Twice and he made amend by chasing the ball Alexis style
like those stats that prove Ozil is so keen to avoid any hard work that he’ll run further than anyone else on the pitch to avoid having to do anything?
There’s lies, damn lies, statistics, and people who clearly misunderstand the use and misuse of statistics.
Two thirds do, 40% don’t.
That’s what the stats say.
He attempted one too many take ons. Was dispossessed a lot. That’s why you think he had a poor game. He had an average game at best, most of their attacks were down his side and he got passed way too easily a couple of times (without even attempting to tackle).
Gotta say, I thought more went down our left but looking at the numbers that might not be true, then again I thought Chambers did alright this game, aside from the times when he was badly positioned, and as you say, they simply bypassed him using the extra width he allowed them.
There were 14 dribbles attempted down Chambers’ side of the pitch. He attempted 12 tackles and was successful 9 times.
There were 12 dribbles attempted down Monreal’s side of the pitch. He attempted 5 tackles and was successful 3 times.
Though he made 9/12 tackles, how about the tackles he didn’t make? How many times he got dribbled pass by opposition? How many times did he get his position wrong allowing opposition? I think you should also consider those numbers to judge the defnder performance in ghe match, don’t you think?
He was dribbled past 3 times. They were all in or around the 18 yard box.
I disagree…watching the game, it was apparent to me that Chambers was targeted by the Newcastle team for his lack of pace from the beginning of the game. What has improved, is compared to when Per is playing or earlier in the season, we were able to support him better. He also has learned not to dive in as much and backs off when there is space behind him for a faster attacking player to exploit. That being said, I don’t think he has enough pace to play for Arsenal…especially in the right back spot… Bellerin on the other hand,… Read more »
how old is chambers
19 ? for fuk sake , eze learning th game
give him some slack, he,ll cum good!
Ewwww
i dont see chambers long term future at right back. center back or defensive midfield seems a better fit. I personally dont think he was too bad at all for a third choice right back.
Gabriel and Chambers as a future centre back partnership?
i would rather have Hayden in there instead of Chambers
I and many fans alike 9 out of 10 times will pick Bellerin over chambers. He is what you call a traditonal Arsenal RB.
In my humble and maybe mistaken opinion, those stats shows that he is indeed a good defender and if something shows he could make a good CB in the future, I still cant see him as a RB due to his lack of speed, but he can tackle, he can anticipate and he can head, good things to have for a CB and if he had more pace he could be a good RB (after all they are defenders first). Either if he gonna end as RB he needs to somehow gain more speed or time the moments where to… Read more »
Lots of insight into the Coq, I didn’t think he was that bad in the second half and he wasn’t. And Ramsey was working hard but not so effective as usual.
Shows we lost energy in the second half, glad we got through.
Who let the Coq out? WHO WHO WHO WHO!
If you wanna get down, down on the ground
Coquelin
credit to eric clapton
should be sung after he flattens someone in a tackle
Come on Hull, take 3 points and snap some chelsea legs in the process including their managers!
Never were finer words spoken.
A statistician went hunting deer. His first shot missed left by 5 metres. His second shot missed right by five metres.
‘Got it!’ Said the statistician.
Precisely.
Completely missed the point
Can we have a stat for bloodied noses? We all know who’d be tops for that right now.
Maradona after all the cocaine he inhaled?
Good to win
Win
What about big chances against tonight? Did Opta record any?
0
I actually am worried about the liverpool game they play the same way newcastle played against us fast pressing football but more clinical we have to be on our top form against them disciplined in attack as well as deffence and for gods sakes learn to hold onto the ball when under preassure we lost the game at white heart lane juz because of that
Also coqs one key pass for the day happened to be a 4o yarder over the top from which welbeck tested the keeper.
Brilliant.
Stats ! If your number of clearances increases dramatically, that means you are being dominated like hell.
i’m not sure what that means. the number of interceptions, tackles, duels won, etc is factual evidence of what he’s accomplished in the game. if he hadn’t played well he would have made less interceptions and tackles and lost more duels.