Arsenal finally got off the mark in the Premier League this weekend courtesy of Podolski’s deadly double and Giroud’s 2nd goal in 2 games. The match against Fulham was however won in the mid-field. The trio of Ramsey, Rosicky and Cazorla formed an effective partnership and controlled the game right from the start. With the victory, Arsenal became the first team to have won 100 London derby games, an achievement that they can better against traditional rivals Spurs this Sunday.
After Arteta’s injury, things looked to have turned for the worse for Arsenal. The problem was further aggravated by the manager’s reluctance to sign a marquee player without any visible twists and turns. Arsenal were exposed at the start of the season as was evident from the shocking defeat at home against Aston Villa. The onus was on the likes of Ramsey, Cazorla, Podolski and Giroud to come to the fore and arrest the slide. And how well did they respond! In the game against Fulham, the team looked in great spirit and played as a unit. They looked determined to prove the manager’s point that the squad has enough class and quality to be title-contenders (even without any marquee-signings). With an in-depth analysis of the performance of Arsenal’s 2 best players against Fulham with respect to Defending, Possession, Passing and Creativity, I will try to show just why Arsenal fans don’t need to panic due to the lack of mid-fielder signings after injuries to key players.
I. Defensive:
In the absence of Arteta, the defensive duties had to be shared between Ramsey, Cazorla and Rosicky. Although Cazorla played in a more advanced position, he responded well whenever he was required to defend, as he did when the team pressed forward.
Ramsey attempted a ground-duel every 11 mins and 15 seconds, while Cazorla attempted one every 6 minutes and 26 seconds. Ramsey won 1/2 aerial-duels attempted but Santi Cazorla could not manage any. Neither of the players made any defensive errors.
II. Possession:
Moving on to the next part of this analysis, let us see how the 2 players fared with regards to possession. Ramsey managed to win back possession an impressive every 10 minutes and Cazorla every 15 minutes. Ramsey won possession 5 times in defensive-3rd and 4 times in the mid-3rd, Cazorla on the other hand won possession 4 times in defensive-3rd and 2 times in the mid-3rd. This analysis gives an insight into why Arsenal managed to attack more and keep players like Berbatov and Bent mostly at bay.
III. Passing:
Coming on to the passing aspect, what is impressive is the minutes per passes and pass completion percentage of both the players. What Arsenal lacked in the previous game was the co-ordination in the center of the pitch. The improvements that they made is also visible from the stats. Ramsey completed the most number of passes in the game and Cazorla had the best Passing-Accuracy in the game of 94%, (Ramsey completed 87% of the total attempted passes). Ramsey attempted a pass every 54 seconds, while Cazorla attempted a pass every 42 seconds. Both the players completed 100% Defensive-Zone Passes. Not surprisingly, Cazorla had the best Attacking-Zone and Final-3rd Pass Completion, completing 41/45 Attacking-zone passes and 25/29 Final-3rd Passes.
What Arsenal missed the most in the last game was not just Arteta’s presence but also his pin-point accurate passing. This particular analysis shows that the 2 players managed to subside to some extent the damage to the team caused by the absence of the pass-master. With this, let us now move on to the last part of this analysis.
IV. Creativity:
Ramsey created one clear-cut chance which resulted in a goal (the only goal-assist provided by him), while Cazorla created a chance every 6 minutes, very impressive! Cazorla provided 1 goal assist, however he could not manage to create any clear-cut chance in the entire game. Neither of the players managed to score any goals or have any significant chance at goal. That however doesn’t undermine the impressive creativity of Cazorla on display. Playing in a slightly deeper role, Ramsey was confined mostly to the mid-3rd and as a result did not have enough opportunities to create goal-scoring chances.
With this, we come to the end of the analysis. It may not be wise to read too much into this particular performance as was the case last week. Hence, I will reserve my judgement for until a few more weeks and just say that Arsenal have bounced back and bounced back in style. Their opponents better not count them out or take them lightly. The squad, although a little thin at the moment, has enough quality to beat the best teams in the league. With a few more players to shoulder the burden, the first team from London to have won 100 derby games will be a real title contender and surely break the trophy-drought even if they don’t manage to clinch the league. For a statistical analysis of the game, you may want to take a look at my previous article. Here’s the link: Fulham 1 Arsenal 3 Stats Report
Please note that the comparisons made and inferences drawn are based purely on statistics, which may not always correlate with the actual performances of the players. Some of you may have a different point of view or may look at the statistics differently, so feel free to share it with me here or on twitter (@SilverHawk_24). Until next time, this is me signing off hoping for a good result against arch-rivals Tottenham Hotspurs and few  ‘Intelligent Signings’ before the close of the transfer window.
