ARSENAL 3–1 BURNLEY: BY THE VISUALS
ARSENAL 3–1 BURNLEY: BY THE NUMBERS
24 – Heading into Saturday’s Premier League fixture, Mikel Arteta had faced 24 different sides at the Emirates. The only team he had failed to beat at least once or against whom his side had failed to score a single goal was Burnley (D1, L1).
The team made only one change from Wednesday, with Zinchenko replacing the unfit White.
5 – Jurrien Timber, Thomas Partey, Ben White, Martin Ødegaard, and Gabriel Jesus all missed out — five legitimate first-team players who would normally start. There isn’t a team in the league that wouldn’t struggle with a similar list of absentees. Yet, Arsenal secured a comfortable win.
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Trossard gave us the lead with a brave close-range effort (0.35 xG, 0.98 xGOT), connecting with a Saka header towards the back post as he crashed into the frame of the goal in the process.
Burnley levelled not long after the restart as Josh Brownhill’s finish (0.07 xG, 0.11 xGOT) flashed off Gabriel into the net.
Saliba moved in front of James Trafford to rise and head home (0.64 xG, 0.98 xGOT) a Trossard corner from close range, while Zinchenko made sure of all three points on 74 minutes with an acrobatic finish (0.04 xG, xGOT).
0.90 – Arsenal’s open-play expected goals against Burnley was the 6th highest total we’ve registered this season.
1.05 – Arsenal’s set-play expected goals against Burnley was the highest xG value from set-pieces we’ve recorded so far this campaign and the first time our xG from set-plays has exceeded open-play.
13 – Corners awarded to Arsenal. The 5th time this season we’ve taken 11 corners or more, surpassing the previous high of the 12 awarded during the 3-1 win against Manchester United.
Mikel Arteta said during his post-match presser: ‘We are the team that generates the most set-pieces; teams are really low against us and preventing the spaces, so it is a really good way for us to score goals as well.’
And he’s not wrong…
106 – Corner kicks Arsenal have been awarded so far this season (8.83 per 90), the most in the Premier League. The next highest is Manchester United with 84.
50 – Attempts directly from a corner, the most in the Premier League. The next highest is Liverpool with 42.
8 – Goals from set-plays, the most in the Premier League. The next highest is Manchester City with 7.
7 – Goals directly from a corner, the most in the Premier League. The next highest is Everton with 5.
4.49 – Total xG accumulated from set-plays, the 4th highest in the Premier League.
12 – Long passes attempted by both Zinchenko and Tomiyasu (joint 1st overall). However, Tomiyasu only completed 33%, while the Ukrainian found a teammate with 83%.
2 – Switches of play for Tomiyasu (1st overall). The Japanese also made the most blocks in the defensive 3rd for Arsenal (3), successfully tackled 3 of the 4 dribbles he faced (3rd overall), and recorded 1 interception.
6 – Bukayo Saka has provided more assists for Leandro Trossard than any other Premier League player has for another player across all competitions this season.
LEANDRO TROSSARD’S GAME BY NUMBERS
47 touches, with 12 in the opponent’s box (1st overall), 8 crosses (2nd overall), 8 passes into the penalty area (2nd overall), 2 carries into the penalty area (2nd overall), 3 shots, 2 shots on target, 2 chances created, 2 fouls won, 1 goal, and 1 assist.
15 – Leandro Trossard has scored more goals across all competitions for Arsenal this season than any other player. Only Bukayo Saka (20) has been involved in more Premier League goals for the club than the Belgian since he joined (15).
Whether played at centre forward, on either wing, or in midfield, he consistently performs. Trossard has scored or assisted in the majority of the games he has started for us, truly establishing himself as one of the most versatile and reliable players in our team.
OLEKSANDR ZINCHENKO’S GAME BY NUMBERS
Most touches (116), most completed passes (88), most passes in final third (45), most final third entries (17), most passes into the penalty area (10), most progressive passes (13), most duels won (14), most aerial duels won (7) and most tackles (5).
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Three lovely points — an example of how you win with little fuss and fewer players available. Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal took full advantage of Sp*rs’ loss earlier in the day and go into the interlull just a point off top spot.
Follow me on Twitter @jonollington
Sources: Opta, fbref, @Orbinho twitter feed
Excellent, interesting and encouraging!!!
Trossard need b on the team sheet every week
Trossard needs to start if Jesus is injured. He can also cover wings and odegarrd position. We are very lucky to have him. He seems very happy with us too.
A lot of those corners are from Martinelli giving a right back absolute hell for 80 odd minutes.
A sound reason to play Trossard in the middle, is that Martinelli is best for winning corners on our left, but Tross is best at taking them.
Thanks for a great article!
Also – completely OOT, but since it’s the interlull and not much going on – just wanted to state I miss Granit Xhaka playing for the Arsenal.
Imagine if we still had Xhaka playing in place of Havertz. He would be way more involved with goals and assists. I think we dropped the ball there. Same with Giroud, we sold him too early.
Trossard too good not to start.
Every time I’ve seen the graph on successful/unsuccessful passes leading to chance, Havertz is ALWAYS the lowest performer of midfielders and forwards of the lot (and often behind some of our defenders too).
Thanks for this.
Aren’t these stats an argument for Zinchenko starting in midfield? He is creative, energetic and skillful. Plus he plays forward whereas Havertz and others seem to be stuck in the dreaded horseshoe mentality.
He pretty much ran the offense for this game (most touches, most passes) in the absence of Odegaard and did a pretty good job. If he had Odegaard alongside him, I suspect that would bring some sparkle back to our attack.
Right now a rubber duck would play better than Havertz going forward.