EVERTON 0–1 ARSENAL: BY THE VISUALS
EVERTON 0–1 ARSENAL: BY THE NUMBERS
2 – Arsenal had managed to score just two goals in their last five visits to Goodison Park before Sunday’s fixture.
2 – With only two wins in our previous 11 Premier League visits (W2, D3, L6) and none in our last five (W0, D1, L4), The Gunners’ recent poor record at Everton had been widely publicised prior to kick-off.
1 – Yet the hosts had kept just one clean sheet in their last 10 Premier League matches and had won just one (W1, D1, L5) of their last seven league games at home.
Leandro Trossard’s goal marked the end of Arsenal’s disappointing run at Goodison Park, yet our performance in terms of chance creation remained unconvincing.
During a short corner, the ball was well-worked between Oleksandr Zinchenko and Martin Ødegaard before finding it’s way to Bukayo Saka, who delivered a cutback. Trossard steered it in via the far post (0.09 xG, 0.66 xGOT).
38 – Last season in the Premier League, Brentford, statistically the league’s slowest corner takers, averaged approximately 38 seconds per corner. The typical delay between a corner being awarded and a team taking it was 33 seconds. Arsenal’s short corner routine, which resulted in yesterday’s goal and seems to be a talking point, was executed in just 26 seconds.
16 – Since the beginning of last season, Arsenal have scored the most goals from corners in the Premier League.
223 – Arsenal recorded 223 touches in the opposition third, while Everton managed only 64. However, despite dominating field tilt and possession in general, Mikel Arteta’s side struggled to create meaningful opportunities.
109 – Benjamin White had more touches of the ball than anyone else, recorded 3 progressive carries, made 2 carries into the penalty area (1st overall), completed 13 long passes (1st outfield player overall) with a 77% completion rate, had 5 recoveries, and won 100% of his aerial duels. In a match where not much else stood out except for an earlier disallowed 19th-minute Martinelli goal, the Arsenal right back excelled.
13 – Declan Rice played thirteen passes into the final third (1st overall), completed 14 progressive passes (1st overall), made 3 interceptions (1st overall), and secured 4 recoveries. He single-handedly took on the physicality of Onana, Gueye, and Doucoure, winning the midfield battle. Our record signing has quickly settled into the team and our style of play and is a joy to watch.
7.7 – A non-penalty expected goals (npxG) tally of just under 8 from five games, despite facing relatively favourable fixtures, is not particularly impressive. While possession and territory have been strong, the execution of killer passes has been lacking and is an area that will be need to be improved.
10 – Eddie Nketiah had only made 10 touches before being substituted just three minutes before the goal. Eddie earned a call-up to the England squad following an impressive start to the season in red and white, but he struggled to assert himself during yesterday’s visit to Goodison Park and it might be time for Gabriel Jesus.
DAVID RAYA’S GAME BY NUMBERS
41 touches , 95% pass accuracy, 3x sweeper actions and 1 save.
The talking point prior to kick-off was the inclusion of David Raya over Aaron Ramsdale. Raya had a very good debut. He had to do very little in terms of shot-stopping, illustrating the complete dominance we had. However, his control in possession during a few pressured situations, his clipped balls out wide to the fullbacks, and his ability to claim crosses were all superb.
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For all the talk about Arsenal starting the season poorly, we now find ourselves one point better off in the same five fixtures compared to last season. Although, this marks the third game out of five that we’ve won by a single goal.
However, the satisfaction of securing a victory on a ground that has recently been a tough place to visit shouldn’t be underestimated. This win extends our current season’s unbeaten run and places us within two points of league leaders Manchester City ahead of next weekend’s North London Derby.
Follow me on Twitter @jonollington
Sources: Opta, fbref, @Orbinho twitter feed
We need to take more shots on target. Too many side to side passes. We won’t get away with 1-0 leads everytime.
Difficult when Dyche has not only parked the bus, but jacked it up, stuck it on four piles of bricks and nicked the wheels.
I’m not saying anything new: Arsenal will face more and more games, especially at the Emirates, where their opponents will sit deep and play for a draw or possibly a single successful counter to nick a win. That makes it much harder to create a lot of clear chances.
An interesting possibility: as Arsenal’s reputation for scoring on corners grows, opponents may be somewhat more unwilling to concede them. If a centre half like Tarkowski feels that way, and tries to play out, that can only help.
I was wondering this – whether it’s a cycle:
First you are good and win games against poorly prepared opponents.
Next, they sit deep and give you very little – if you beat them all anyway they go back to playing you and you smash them again (City now)
I’m still frustrated about Fulham. But only the most super optimistic fan would turn down 13 points from 15.
It’s a great start and we haven’t really gotten out of third gear yet. I’m a little bit scared of what might happen when this Arsenal side goes bang.
Sunday would definitely be a good time to go bang & put that lot back in their place
Thanks Jon, always interesting. We are certainly dominating games. Just need to create a few more chances / goals.
A couple of general non Arsenal questions.
Why are offside disallowed goals not reported for teams / players? This would be very interesting and more useful than things like the number of times a team is offside.
Will the reporting of stats change to take into account the extra time being added to games? Things like goals / actions per 90 and minutes played are quite distorted with significant extra time added.
I still have a sneaky feeling Arsenal will win the league this season. It is good we are winning games despite the relative “unconvincing” performances. I believe this team will hit their stride in the second half of the season rather than fall away like last season.
City, on the other hand, look imperious at the moment, but they will sure run into a headwind sooner or later. We should be poised to take advantage.
Ben Fucking White
Yeah. He was so good in this game!
Is there going to be a “By the numbers” for the United game?
No, sorry
0.66 xGOT for the goal? Is that suggesting 1 in 3 keepers would have saved that shot? Would love to know who they are…
2/3 of attackers miss that shot too.
This is more like it, not all strikers would have Leandrinho silky finish
Sure, that goes to XG tho. xGOT already means the shot is on target so one in 3 such shots are not goals but saves or blocks. But that’s just stats on shots from that position, and while it’s xGOT doesn’t take misses, it will include shots from that position which went straight at the keeper, or were certainly more saveable than Trossards perfect finish.
That make sense. It’s not about “that shot”, it’s about a shot on target from that position.
More by the numbers:
2 – The Neville Sisters. A pair of inbred cunts not long for this world.
0.34 xg ffs they should have gone down last season instead of wasting everybody’s time for another season. The worst thing is the win against us kept them up arrgghhh