How do you start with a match which Arsenal played so badly? In a hugely hyped match, due to Robin Van Persie’s move to one of the team’s biggest rivals in Manchester United, Arsenal didn’t put in a good display. The team were totally outplayed, and didn’t really look like winning the match. For me, Per Mertesacker was our best defensive player. While he didn’t have his best match, the score could have been much more without him there. So I’ll focus this piece on a stats analysis of Mertesacker’s display.

Sir Alex Ferguson made the following comment after the match.

“It wasn’t a close game. I think it was a lack of urgency in the game throughout, far too casual.”

Defence

The key statistic for Mertesacker’s defensive display is that he was in position to make 8 clearances throughout. That, obviously, suggests Arsenal were under a real lot of pressure and that Arsenal struggled throughout the match. One reason that Arsenal were under so much pressure was Thomas Vermaelen, who had a very poor game in his central defensive position.

Throughout the match, Mertesacker was only able to execute 1 tackle. This is not, generally, one of Mertesacker’s strong points, as he has only averaged 1 tackle per match so far this season. However, even though Arsenal had more possession (52-48) in the match, Manchester United were able to execute 22 tackles to only the 10 which Arsenal completed. This suggests that Manchester United were able to position themselves much better in their defensive position and structure.

Mertesacker was also able to complete 1 interception in this match. The Manchester United forwards/midfielders were able to smartly position themselves and play smart passes so that not many interceptions were successful from Arsenal’s defence in this match. As expected, most of the matches interceptions were made by the midfielders from both sides, along with Wayne Rooney, who did 5 interceptions throughout the match.

Passing

In this match, Mertesacker was able to play 101 passes at 97% accuracy. As these statistics reveal, Mertesacker was able to keep the ball very well, and keep Arsenal in possession. Arsenal’s next highest player in terms of passes, Thomas Vermalen, with only 73 passes throughout the match. As Arsenal’s defensive pairing played 174 passes, this shows how deep Arsenal were playing for much of the match. Mertesacker, in his 11 Arsenal matches so far, has averaged 57.2 passes per match, so the 101 passes show how much more involved he was in this match, compared to others.

Conclusion

Arsenal need to thoroughly improve, as they have some massive matches coming up in the coming weeks- Schalke in the Champions League and Tottenham at home in the EPL to name a few. The past few results show we really need our first choice players to get back to full fitness, such as Gibbs, Oxlade-Chamberlain, etc. When this happens, Arsenal will be able to compete better in the high pressure matches, and hopefully will start to get better results in all the competitions we are competing in this season.

This match also showed in certain positions, Arsenal lack depth. Arsenal need to make some smart transfers in the January transfer window, so to improve the squad and to better compete with Manchester United, Manchester City and also Chelsea, week in and week out. We have played well in most matches far far this season, except for our last few where the club has dropped points (Chelsea, Norwich and Manchester United).

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All stats via WhoScored