One of the frustrating things about collecting stats is that no one will collect them for you.
I’m half joking and half being serious.
The service that WhoScored.com, ESPN.com, and Squawka.com¹ provide for us data nerds is exactly that: these sites curate a collection of data. In a sense, these sites are data libraries.
And like all libraries they have limited resources and so they have to focus their collection. So, for example, you can go to Whoscored.com and get the data for the Premier League and the Champions League presented to you in a nice package. But if you want data for the League Cup and the FA Cup, you have to dig around. All the sites do this, they pick and choose which data packages they can afford to purchase, then choose how to present that data, and they present that data to us for free.
This isn’t a complaint. They are collecting this information for me and making it easily accessible. I thank them all for the work they do and gladly click on an advertisement to help them pay for their work.
The only “problem” is that FA Cup stats are a bit buried. The FA Cup stats are there, but they are only in match reports. If I want to write a report like this I have to dig through individual match reports. That’s my reality.
So, in my reality:
Arsenal have won 5 FA Cup matches to get to the final and have performed almost exactly the same in the FA Cup as they have in the League.
One of the hallmarks of this Arsenal team is that they spread the scoring around. They have 21 different goal scorers already this season and 7 players who have scored 5 goals or more (all competitions). Last season, Arsenal only had 18 different goal scorers. In fact, Arsenal have had 18 different goal scorers in each of the last 4 seasons.
In those 5 FA Cup matches this season Arsenal have scored 11 goals (2.2 GPG and in the League they average 1.97 GPG) but like the League they spread the scoring around and there have been 8 different goal scorers: Sanchez (3), Giroud (2), Mertesacker, Monreal, Rosicky, Walcott, Ozil, and Welbeck.
Arsenal have also spread the assists around. Wenger’s men have 10 assists on 11 goals and those assists have come from 8 different players: Ozil (2), Sanchez (2), Cazorla, Chambers, Rosicky, Giroud, Gibbs, and Ox.
Sanchez leads Arsenal with 22 goals in all competitions, so it’s no surprise that he’s leading Arsenal in FA Cup goals as well. Giroud is right behind Alexis with 18 goals in all competitions and… yadda yadda no surprise.
As for the match, Giroud showed his importance when he came on for Welbeck in the 71st minute. Welbz had more time on the pitch than Giroud but the Frenchman had a significantly more active match:
| 7amkickoff | Giroud | Welbeck |
| Touches | 41 | 26 |
| Shots | 4 | 1 |
| Shots on goal | 1 | 1 |
| Shot hit post | 1 | 0 |
| Dribbles | 1 | 2 |
| Passes | 28 | 17 |
| Key Passes | 1 | 1 |
| Aerials won | 3 | 1 |
I don’t want this to seem like a criticism of Welbeck. I suspect that Giroud is slightly easier to find than Welbeck. Welbz looks to make runs, whereas Giroud tends to be a static target man² so it’s easier to find Giroud. But there is no doubt that Giroud’s physical presence, ability to hold the ball, and bring his teammates into the game was crucial to Arsenal winning yesterday. Arsenal nearly scored immediately after his introduction, with Ramsey screwing wide, in what would have been a mirror image of Arsenal’s cup heroics last year.
As important as Giroud was in leading the line I think my man of the match has to be Özil. You might be tempted to pick Alexis but both of his goals had a hint of luck to them and it was Özil who provided both passes which set up Alexis.
And more than just the two assists, Özil ran the show for Arsenal. He led the Gunners with 136 touches, led Arsenal with 114 passes, had 9 key passes (shots created for teammates), and passed at a 90% rate. I’d like to say that last bit again, he completed 90% of his passes!
In fact, Ozil and Cazorla both completed 90% of their passes and were first and second in total volume. Arsenal’s other two midfielders, Ramsey and Coquelin completed just 85% of their passes, on much lower volume, and neither of them had a single key pass. Maybe they were trying to create for teammates and it just wasn’t coming off or maybe this performance by Özil, completing 90% of over 100 passes, creating 9 shots for his teammates, and mailing two assists is an indication of what Arsenal missed when he was out injured following the World Cup. Man, if he comes back and plays like this next year, with a summer of rest under his belt, well.. Arsenal are going to be pretty good!
Defensively, Coquelin had yet another outstanding statistical match: he led Arsenal with 6 aerial duels won, with 9 interceptions, and with 5 tackles. He was dispossessed twice, one of which led to a shot by Reading’s Mackie. That last bit is something that he needs to work on because as the last man shield he can’t be giving the ball away cheaply. But other than that he was nearly perfect in his role.
It was a tight match but Arsenal get back to back FA Cup final’s appearances for the first time since…
2003.
The birth of the Invincibles.
Maybe Wenger’s right? Maybe there is something special about this Arsenal team?
¹And Transfermarkt and Arsenal.com and Statto.com and…
²Not entirely, both players do both things but Giroud is more static and Welbz is more active
And remember if we come second in the league this year we will have had symmetrical results going back to 2004/5. And we will have to win the league next year to keep that going…
So both the league and Cup may both show eerie coincidences.
There is undoubtedly top top top exceptional quality in this team. But maybe it is a little bit linked with fitness of the players and confidence from a good run.
and a better depth of squad
and resulting from that improvement in tactical managing due to more, fitter options
I love giroud
2 static. Statuesque.
Wenger OUT!!!!!!!!!
Give me Bredan Rodgers, Klopp or Martinez. Ponchentino even, we clearly need a tactical genius.
This is a good example how sarcasm should not be done. Poor.
Not exactly poor but yeah there has been better ones
Rather second and a shot at the FA cup to win it for a record 19 times (10 appearances with Wenger) than be Liverpool, a team the media keeps telling us is rebuilding for the last 5 seasons and have spent 120m quid on transfers to still be out of Top 4, our of Europe (both CL and Europa), and out of any cup competitions.
We have Chelsea to beat for consistency now next season.
even my diehard Liverpool supporting brothers have (finally) both admitted that most of the transfers have been pretty poor. Not sure where that teams go from here, but I don’t care because I support Arsenal, haha. Tribalism is great sport in my family; my dad’s a bloody Sunderland fan. Apparently they were all the rage in the ’50s. Paying the stadium and generating new/better sponsor deals, keeping faith in le Professeur, and here we go!!! It’s funny that people are debating whether to start a French international RB or leave the place the a young player who has been just… Read more »
#Giroud’s shooting accuracy has improved to 57% this year from 43% last year. If you slagged him off last year and argued that he worked hard and improved this season, you’re probably right! #If there’s anything Sanchez needs to improve on, it’s probably his passing. He’s around 77%. Exceptional in every other aspect. #Ozil’s key passes/game in the PL is better than Fabregas. He has played fewer games than Cesc, but it’s still impressive for a so called “lazy player”. We started off poorly this season, but seem to finish on a high. Last year it was the other way… Read more »
Would like to start seeing the same kind of year on year improvement from Welbeck now, he has everything to be just as good as Giroud. Ollie has turned himself into one of the very best forwards in the league, I was laughed at for saying he was as good as Benzema last season, if he continues this form next season he’ll be comfortably better than Benzema…
There’s been a lot written and said about last season, how we started on a high and finished the campaign struggling to get 4th place. Sure, that’s how it seemed, as we dropped away from 1st to 5th and managed to get 4th place in the end. The facts are not quite so black-and-white. Our record in the first half of the season was W13-D3-L3, in the second half it was W11-D4-L4 – that’s just one more loss, one more draw The problem was that those losses (and draws) tended to be in matches against our challengers at the top… Read more »
“when you match the results so far this season against those same matches last season…”
then you find that the comparison is of questionable applicability, as the composition of both our team and our opponents has changed since the prior year.
I think there is more than 1 way of skinning a cat and there’s more than 1 way to look at data available. A lot of people say, our form against the top teams has been really poor and that’s why we lose the title. Not an incorrect statement. However, had we beaten Stoke (Ars 0 – Sto 1), beaten Southampton (Ars 2 – South 2) and beaten Swansea (1-1) all winnable games, we would have been Champions last season. Not that I disagree that we have to perform better against the top teams to win the title, all I’m… Read more »
Excellent piece yet again .
I really hope this is the precursor to an unbeaten season and treble .
Aim high gooners
What Alexis has is an unbelievable engine. At the end of normal time I was looking at him and he looked absolutely knackered, lying down longer than anyone else. But in extra time he ran and ran and ran and deserved his bit of luck. Everyone around me was pointing out the difference between his energy and Theo’s lack of it. The balance, however, is still not right. Giroud obviously should have played from the start and Aaron is not a right sided attacker. That’s where Welbeck should be, at least while the Ox is not fit. Shame we can’t… Read more »
I want to have Giroud’s babies. I suspect I might have to grow a vagina.
There’s this song with a line that goes “Becareful for what you wish for, for you might just get it all”. Might want to try listening to it and maybe learn something new or two.
Mate wtf
Should be easy, you are already a c*nt.
[I have to add lol, jks, just in case you don’t get jokes, eg you are from Canada]
Are we still talking about football here? Guys?
I think a uterus is more important for that sort of thing. “what will you do with the fetus, keep it in a box?”
‘Man, if he comes back and plays like this next year, with a summer of rest under his belt, well.. Arsenal are going to be pretty good!’
Wow, you jinxed it so bad…
Here’s hoping the atmosphere will be better at the final you could hear a pin drop yesterday. I know the team did not play brilliantly but the fans did not do much to cheer them on. It was pretty poor.
So numbers, much pretty, very Özil
Awesome stuff! I wanted to explain to people that Welbeck is a different type of striker than giroud and this sums it up nicely. Danny wants to make runs and get in behind while giroud is the front man that shows for the ball to hold it up or play those quick give and go’s. That said it wasn’t Welbz best game but I think Giroud is just a better striker against the kind of challenge Reading posed. Welbeck will need have a real job to do trying to replicate Girouds effectiveness. He doesn’t have to emulate his style but… Read more »
I liked some of what Wele did yesterday with his team play, control, and recycling of the ball – he was pulling defenders with him all the time as well. Needs more goal attempts, but at least he dovetails better with Alexis, Ozil, Santi & Aaron than Theo seems to. I really got the feeling when they were both on the field that Alexis and Theo are a million miles from understanding how to complement each other. They rarely broke together at pace (both had individual breaks when the other was 30-40 yds behind) and I think despite our goal… Read more »
Yeah okay this joke is just dead.
And Danny Murphy wanted Ozil subbed off in the second half as he’d not done much.
Ozil my MOTM.
Wenger & Mourihno football managers of wildly divergent successful football philosophies both think he is the messiah. Danny Murphy, Michael Owen, Paul Scholes who think he needs to “Ruuun abaaat a bit” all show that top level football playing does not lead to football management or indeed lead to garnering of a football clue. No body liked Owen as a footballer and no body likes him as a commentator Paul Scholes can’t shut up after a career of letting his football do the talking and Danny Murphy has to say shocking controversial shit because he is a scouser and its… Read more »
Sometimes I have the suspicion that Arsene bought Ozil to troll the British press as much as anything else. It’s like was born to expose the stupidity of the “ran aaaaarrraaaand a bit” contingent that is so prominent in punditry.
Starting Welbeck with ramsay on the flank and reinstalling debuchy and gibbs at FB was the problem, Giroud is the best back to goal striker in the league since drogba was diving his way around flattening senderos. Welbeck is not a back to goal striker, he needs balls to run on to and with no width he had scraps to feed on in terms of through balls – he snatched at his few chances and would probably do better in a two with giroud or on the flank. If he’s going to be central , i’d have either ozil or… Read more »
Just bring on those cunts at the west side. Beat them and win the F.A. And let’s start our invincible part 2 next season.