v. Aston Villa

608 – Attempted Arsenal passes in the entire match

307 – Attempted Arsenal passes in the second half

226 – Attempted Aston Villa passes in the entire match

152 – Completed passes by Aston Villa full time

187 – Completed passes by Song, Sagna, and Arteta

7 – Arsenal players who completed more than 90% of their attempted passes (Sagna, Ramsey, Santos, Ox, Arteta, Song, Djourou)

247 – Attempted Arsenal passes in the Aston Villa final third

103 – Attempted Aston Villa passes in the Arsenal final third

49 – Attempted passes in the Aston Villa final third by Tomas Rosicky

41 – Successful passes in the Aston Villa final third by Tomas Rosicky*

59 – Successful passes by Tomas Rosicky

70 – Percent of Tomas Rosicky’s successful passes that were in the Aston Villa final third

27 – Successful passes in the Aston Villa final third by Bacary Sagna

27 – Attempted passes in the Aston Villa final third by Bacary Sagna

9 – Successful passes in the Arsenal final third by Marc Albrighton**

14 – Key Passes by Arsenal

2 – Key Passes by Aston Villa

3 – Successful take-ons by Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (of 4 attempted)*

2 – Successful take-ons by Carlos Cuellar (of 2 attempted)**

19 – Arsenal shots

8 – Arsenal shots on goal

3 – Aston Villa shots

0 – Aston Villa shots on goal

1 – Blocks by Djourou to prevent what probably would have been an Aston Villa shot on goal² but that still doesn’t count as an Aston Villa shot on goal no matter how much you think it should, or how crazy that seems to you, or how much you think it makes stats meaningless

5 – Yellow cards given to Aston Villa

44 – League matches since the opposition team was given 5 yellow cards in an Arsenal match (Arsenal 2-1 Everton, 1 February 2011)

9 – League matches since Arsenal were given 5 yellow cards (Arsenal 1-2 Man U, 22 January 2012)

17 – Different goalscorers in the League for Arsenal this season¹

2 – Career Arsenal goals, Gael Clichy

2 – Career Arsenal goals, Kieran Gibbs

264 – Career Arsenal appearances, Gael Clichy

66 – Career Arsenal appearances, Kieran Gibbs

28 25 – Premier League matches since Robin van Persie went two consecutive games without scoring ( A-Newcastle, H-Liverpool H-Swansea, A-Blackburn)

10 – Assists by Alex Song for Arsenal in all competitions

17 – Career Arsenal assists by Alex Song

3 – Tackles by Alex Song v. Aston Villa (of three attempted)

Just how good have Arsenal been in this 8 match unbeaten run?

Some of you may remember a post from March 15th on 7amkickoff where I took the Arsenal season, split it in half, and compiled the averages for goals scored (GFA), goals allowed (GAA), shots per game by Arsenal (SPG), shots on goal per game (SOG), the oppositions shots ans shots on goal (OSPG, OSOG), and then the ratios of goals per shot on goal (GPSOG) and the percent of overall shots that Arsenal score and allow the opposition to score (CONV).

Just for fun, today I compiled the Arsenal season then I split off the first 22 matches and the last 8 match unbeaten run. That, folks, is what an unbeaten run looks like: allowing less than a goal a game, scoring nearly three, converting 43% of our shots on goal, keeping the opposition to just 8 shots per game, and allowing them to convert a stingy 9% of those shots.

Arsenal are working very hard right now and playing some great football both offensively and defensively.

Qq

*Leads all players

**Leads just his team

1. United are second with 16 different goal scorers

2. See the comments in Everton 0-1 Arsenal: By the Numbers