There is no easy way to write this, this was a very poor result for Arsenal. This was one of the worst performances I have seen from Arsenal in a competitive match in some time, especially when you consider the competition that Arsenal were up against.

There is still at least 90 minutes left in this tie but Arsenal have put themselves in a position where they have an uphill climb to move on to the round of 16 of the Europa League.

BATE Borisov 1-0 Arsenal: By the graphs

Running xG

xG Shot Map

Shot Placement xG Map

Two Leg Tie Simulation

BATE Borisov 1-0 Arsenal: By the numbers

63 – The number of days since BATE had last played a competitive match, they really had that rest advantage

1521 – The ELO Rating of BATE according to Club ELO, that is the second lowest rating of any team in the Europa League. This is on par with Championship teams like Aston Villa, Swansea City and Bristol City. It is however a higher rating than the team that Arsenal struggled to beat over the weekend in Huddersfield Town with a rating of 1502

190 – The ranking of BATE by fivethirtyeight in their Global Club Soccer Rankings

€10.7 million – The transfermarkt squad value for BATE, that’s 1/4th of Shkodran Mustafi transfer fee when he joined Arsenal.

BATE Borisov are not a high quality team, you are not likely to confuse them with one of Europe’s elite teams any time soon. This is the same team that Arsenal beat on aggregate 10-2 last season and 2-4 away last year with a team that was very heavily rotated.

Arsenal fail to take their chances early, then… well not much

2 – The total big chances created by Arsenal in this match, the first was the Henrikh Mkhitaryan one on one that was saved and the second was the Alexandre Lacazette header that was missed.

6 – Shots that Arsenal took in the second half, worth 0.27 xG

40 – The total number of touches that Arsenal had in the box in this match, of which just 14 came in the second half when Arsenal needed a goal.

308 – Final third touches that Arsenal had in this match, of which 188 came in the second half. Overall 40.3% of their touches in this match were in the final third.

26 – Crosses attempts by Arsenal, of which 18 were from open play and 12 of those came in the second half.

In the opening 20 minutes of the match Arsenal looked dangerous, cutting open BATE several times. After that Arsenal were neutralized pretty effectively by the combination a BATE’s deep block and their own inability to find the final pass. Once they went down a goal, Arsenal created just one very dangerous move and it did end up in a goal but it was chalked off to a very marginal offside call. In the end Arsenal once again failed to turn a lot of possession into shots.

Lacazette struggles and is sent off

2 – Shots, 1 on target, 1 off target (big chance)

6 – Touches in the box, of which 3 were within 10 yards of goal

72.4% – Pass completion percentage

3 – Successful dribbles

3 – Fouls suffered

0 – Chances created

2 – Tackles

2 – Clearances

1 – Red Card

This was a tough match for Alexandre Lacazette and ended with him earning a red card and suspension for the second leg. The numbers above show the issues that Arsenal had creating chances and Lacazette was the main culprit in being let down by the service of this teammates.

Live by the wingback for attack die by the wingback

7 – Chances created by the wingbacks, all seven from Sead Kolasinac. Including both big chances.

10 – Passes completed by the wingbacks into the box of 15 attempts.

1 – Cross completed by the wingbacks of 3 attempts.

74% – Pass completion percentage for the wingbacks

0 – Dribbles

6 – Tackles, all by Ainsley Maitland-Niles

3 – Aerial duels lost, including the duel from the corner that turned into the goal

This season, Arsenal have really leaned on the wingbacks and full backs to create offense. In this match it was no different. Arsenal had 16 shots, of which 12 were taken by or created by the Arsenal wingbacks. Overall the Arsenal wingbacks had an xG of 0.27 and an xG Assisted of 1.47, that is 86.6% of Arsenal’s total for the match.

On the flip side, when BATE did attack they attacked the found the most joy going after the area that Kolasinac vacated. The goal that BATE did score came from Kolasinac getting out jumped on a corner kick.

You live by the wingback, you die by the wingback.

@oh_that_crab

Sources: Opta via Whoscored, StatsZone and my own data base