ARSENAL 5–0 CRYSTAL PALACE: BY THE VISUALS
ARSENAL 5–0 CRYSTAL PALACE: BY THE NUMBERS
Arsenal returned to winning ways over the weekend after their much-needed break in the Dubai sunshine. The victory against Crystal Palace, a team they had managed to defeat only once in their previous five Premier League home matches, took place last season, on a day when they scored four goals from just five shots on target. Ah, those halcyon days.
1 – Arsenal had scored one goal from 61 shots in their previous three games and hadn’t scored at home since Christmas, despite attempting 43 shots.
Gabriel nodded in the opener (0.15 xG) for The Gunners after the ten-minute mark, leveraging the shoulders of Palace defender Chris Richards from a Declan Rice corner.
Dean Henderson was credited with an own goal after a Bukayo Saka corner found Gabriel, whose headed effort (0.74 xG) was on target.
Leandro Trossard grabbed the third after Jesus was beautifully found on the break by David Raya following his claim from a Crystal Palace corner. Jesus’ pinpoint pass found the Belgian, who sat Nathaniel Clyne down and finished with aplomb (0.66 xG, 0.98 xGOT).
In stoppage time, Gabriel Martinelli, who had earlier replaced Trossard, added a fourth (0.21 xG) and a nearly identical fifth (0.53 xG), doubling his Premier League goal tally for the season in the process.
102 – Seconds between Martinelli’s two goals, making him the first Arsenal player to score twice after 90+ minutes in a single Premier League game.
5 – Goals Arsenal scored, more than they had netted in their previous six matches in domestic competition combined.
16 – Goals and assists via substitutes for Arsenal in the Premier League this season (10 goals, six assists), a total surpassing that of any other side.
21 – Shots by Arsenal (4th most this season domestically), with 15 from open-play (5th most this season domestically).
6 – Shots from set-plays, accumulating in 1.04 xG.
6 – Big chances for Arsenal, four of which were scored, although one of the misses was Gabriel’s shot that hit Henderson.
+1.79 – Delta against expected goals. The first time in four games Arsenal’s goal tally has exceeded their expected goals tally.
40 – Touches in the box for Arsenal (their 7th most domestically this season), with Gabriel Martinelli leading the pack with 8.
Last season in the Premier League, Arsenal scored 88 goals from an xG of 72.3. Now, post-match, we’ve scored 40 goals from an xG of 39.6, with this season’s shot average at 16.2 compared to last season’s 15.6. The average xG per game is only slightly lower (1.88) than last season (1.9). We’re not creating significantly lower-quality chances; until Palace, we simply weren’t converting as often.
599 – Attempted passes by Arsenal, with 504 passes completed (84.1% success rate).
9.9 – Passes per possession percentage, above the average of 8.9 passes per possession.
58 – Long passes attempted by Arsenal, with 34 long passes completed (58.6% success rate), a slight decrease from the season average of 59.8 long passes per game, and a long ball usage of 4.8 per total passes, down from the season average of 5.2.
2,499 – Progressive distance from overall passes in meters, slightly below the season average of 2,650.
4.8 – Average progressive distance per pass per game, just under the season average of 5.2 meters.
It felt like Arteta had worked on the ‘intent’ of passing during the break, but we actually played more passes per possession with fewer direct balls and less progressive distance from overall passes; however, there was definitely more of a willingness to play first time or through the lines.
103 – Touches recorded by Oleksandr Zinchenko (1st overall), including 12 progressive passes (1st overall) and 444 meters of progressive passes toward the opponents’ goal (1st overall). He also delivered 5 passes into the final third (1st overall), 4 passes into the penalty area (1st overall) and won 6 duels (1st for Arsenal).
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We needed that: 5 goals, 3 points, and a clean sheet. While the first half was challenging in terms of producing clear-cut chances that weren’t from set-pieces, our defence remained solid, limiting Palace to a couple of speculative efforts. The third goal opened the game up, showcasing Raya’s ability in transition, in the process.
Martinelli reminded everyone of his qualities with two late confidence-boosting goals, and Emile Smith Rowe showed glimpses of his undoubted ability but needs more minutes to adjust to the pace of first-team football.
With Nottingham Forest in eight days, there’s time for rest, player recovery, and the return of injured players. Until then.
Follow me on Twitter @jonollington
Sources: Opta, fbref, @Orbinho twitter feed
“Dean Henderson was credited with an own goal after a Bukayo Saka corner found Gabriel, whose headed effort (0.74 xG) was on target.”
If Gabriel’s header was on target why was it given as an own goal Jon? I thought shots on target that go in always get given to the shooter regardless of any touch from the opposition, though could be wrong.
This doesn’t make any sense to me either.
It was off target in my opinion.
It wasn’t. If it missed the keeper’s head, it was going in at the other end.
Yet, strangely, all those 25 yarders from Rooney and Fat Frank, deflected massively so the keeper had no chance, were always given to them…..
Seems a bit petty doesn’t it. Not sure who benefits from this clearly wrong decision. If the ball is going in (which it was), Gabriel should be credited.
This is it to meet. There is no way there is any definitive evidence it’s not going in (I read it’s allegedly based on a behind the goal image…🤦🏽♀️). Give Gaby the benefit of even any slim doubt (I’ve looked at all the available replays a few times and they all suggest is going in to me). Instead, they give it OG because? Because it will piss off Arsenal and the fans.
It wouldn’t surprise if the goals panel were that infantile. I can’t genuinely find a reason why they wouldn’t give it to him. It’s so inconsequential to Arsenal and the fans but it’s obviously not very nice for Gabriel (or the defender who is credited with the OG). Maybe someone somewhere rich and powerful had a bet that Gabriel would only score one goal in this game…
Ah yes, the other evil money in the game…gambling. Between gambling, oil tycoons play, and spiteful, corrupted FA/PMGOL, to me it’s actually less plausible the league is NOT bent AF.
I thought because the deflection completely altered the direction of the ball, but what do I know? I just count the numbers and put them into graphs.
I still don’t understand the Field Tilt graph. Shouldn’t the sum of field tilt figures for both teams at any one time equal 100%? If so, why is there nothing under the x-axis for Palace?
It would do if it was a minute by minute breakdown, but the graph shows a 30-minute rolling average, giving a broad overview by smoothing short-term fluctuations for trends.
I would like to say reading this comment made me smarter, but all I could visualize was a monkey banging two symbols together. You lost me at ‘rolling average’ 😂
Still makes no sense to me. Why would it being a 30-minute rolling average mean the total for that 30 minutes is not 100%?
And what is the scale along the x-axis? It’s broken down into 7 segments – what are those supposed to represent?