ARSENAL 2–1 WOLVES: BY THE VISUALS
9 – Nine players from yesterday’s starting eleven have scored in the Premier League this season, with eight of them recording both a goal and an assist.
ARSENAL 2–1 WOLVES: BY THE NUMBERS
Arsenal secured a 2-1 victory in a match where early goals marked the pinnacle of a performance that promised more than it delivered. The team made only one change from the midweek thrashing of Lens, with Trossard replacing Kai Havertz.
15 – The Gunners finally scored their first Premier League goals of the season within the opening 15 minutes. Last season, we scored a division-high 13 during this period.
Saka needed less than six minutes to put us in front after Jesus held off Toti Gomes and fed Tomiyasu, who then slipped him the ball to finish with his right foot (0.18 xG, 0.16 xGOT).
Just seven minutes later, Jesus was involved again as his deft touch played in Zinchenko during a one-two, who squared for Ødegaard to slot home (0.17 xG, 0.27 xGOT) and finish off a fantastic team move.
0 – Direct goal involvements on the day for Gabriel Jesus, who played a pivotal part in both of Arsenal’s goals. Despite his recent comments about his scoring ability, the fact remains that our attack functions better with him.
4 – Big chances created (according to Opta) and 0 big chances scored:
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- Trossard (20′) – 0.18 xG
- Jesus (38′) – 0.43 xG
- Trossard (82′) – 0.39 xG
- Nketiah (88′) – 0.52 xG
19 – Attempts in total, the most Arsenal have registered so far this season, with 14 coming from inside the box.
2.89 – Expected goals (xG) for Arsenal, 2.48 from open-play and 0.40 from set-pieces.
5.2 – Minutes per shot for Arsenal compared to 16.5 minutes per shot for Wolves.
2 – Arsenal shots that hit the woodwork.
69 – Arsenal enjoyed 69% possession in the opposition half and an impressive 76% possession in the final third.
99 – Declan Rice had 99 touches in the match, leading all players. He also shared the second-highest number of shots with Saka and completed 49 medium passes (1st overall), 5 long passes (2nd overall), and made the most interceptions with 5.
There may come a ‘By The Numbers’ that doesn’t mention Declan Rice one day, but today is not that day.
30 – Touches for David Raya in the defensive third (1st for Arsenal).
15 – Passes into the final third for Oleksandr Zinchenko (1st overall). Zinchenko completed 76 passes (2nd overall), played 5 progressive passes (2nd overall), executed 3 tackles, made 1 interception, recorded 8 ball recoveries (2nd for Arsenal) and contributed 1 assist.
1 – An error leading to a goal was also attributed to Zinchenko.
The only way Wolves were going to score in yesterday’s match was either through a lucky goal or a defensive mistake. We were in total control. If Zinchenko gets beaten by a winger due to skill, that’s understandable, but continually risking dribbling in dangerous areas is unnecessary, especially so late in games. It’s a shame because he’s excellent for 80% of the matches he plays.
MARTIN ØDEGAARD’S GAME BY NUMBERS
Most attempted passes (94), most completed passes (81), most key passes (6), highest xA (0.8), most passes into the penalty area (8), most progressive passes (13), most carries (47), most carries into the final third (3), most passes received (81), and a trademark finish.
6 – Ødegaard created six opportunities from open play against Wolves, the most of any player in a single Premier League game this season, apart from Phil Foden against Newcastle (7).
Back to his very best. It looks as if the time he’s had off has done him good; yesterday, he looked fit and seemed to thoroughly enjoy himself, displaying fantastic movement throughout. However, he missed out on two potential assists due to teammates’ shortcomings in front of goal, which would have added more icing to an already well-iced cake (or something like that).
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Arsenal began exceptionally well but occasionally succumbed to overconfidence after scoring two early goals. We also missed some big chances that could have secured the game convincingly, even before the Zinchenko error. At times, I thought that we were treading a fine line between control and arrogance, with the possibility of being accused of leaning towards the latter. Nevertheless, the overall performance was excellent, and we were never truly in danger of anything other than securing the three points. Now, we head to Kenilworth Road on Tuesday night with a two-point lead at the top of the Premier League.
Follow me on Twitter @jonollington
Sources: Opta, fbref, @Orbinho twitter feed
We certainly showed some arrogance after going 2 nil up. It’s a dangerous score to play the rest of the game, by thinking we can just pass the ball around like a training game and hope they don’t up their levels and make us shit our pants. That’s happened a few times this season, where actions in the final third are attempted too precisely. Like we are trying to score the perfect goal.
What are you talking about? We dominated the game and hit the post twice.
Even after they scored I didn’t feel scared at all, we controlled them.
What does ‘too precise’ even mean? We’re Arsenal we don’t hood the ball about.
I was perfectly fine with our game management. You just can’t sustain those same energy levels for 90 minutes. Plus there’s another Premier League fixture 3 days later.
Love the numbers. The conjecture about the team being overconfident and that’s why we didn’t score a 3rd is certainly an opinon not data driven. Martinelli being overconfident is why he hit the post? How did you get there?
It’s an opinion yes which maybe goes against the brief of the article, but he’s still got a very good point. Not necessarily Martinelli hitting the post but there were numerous times where we could easily have turned an opportunity into a goal (Jesus not passing to Rice, Saka not passing to Nketiah) that would have killed the game off. It’s not quantifiable with numbers but a solid psychological explanation of what happened yesterday would be that we scored two early, got complacent thinking we’d roll them over, and then never found the killer goal. I don’t know if your… Read more »
Definitely entitled to his opinion. I was hoping there was some evidence or examples to back that opinion. You gave some examples. You may be right about the cause of those mistakes. Possible other causes could be fatigue or simply lacking the vision to make the pass. Anyway it would have been good to get the third. let’s take it out on Luton!
Loved the piece, thanks Jon. I have to say I don’t think I saw a team being arrogant at all. I thought the focus, workrate, application was incredible throughout. Zinny tired and made a few bad decisions, but overall it was such a complete performance. Coming after the Lens result, it feels like we’ve finally clicked. Fingers crossed this first team can stay fit!
Yeah also with the chances Nketiah, Jesus and Trossard had as well, reroll the dice and we score 5 again. Very encouraging.
We are firmly in a three-horse title race. Exciting times ahead.
Great summary of zinchenko. An error, yes (needed communication from his teammates too), but outstanding in possession. It still cannot be understated how special he is to our best attacking play. Our possession game with zinny is faster and more direct. It’s a bit sad seeing how much of a hammering he’s getting. A leader too!!