This past weekend City edged out a 3-2 victory over newly promoted QPR. In many ways, City did not deserve to win the game. QPR hit the woodwork twice and had many chances that they could not convert on to take the lead or tie it up at the end of the game. Statistically, QPR outplayed City.
From the chart above, it is clear that QPR deserved at least a tie in this game from a statistical perspective.
Shots
QPR and City both managed 12 shots inside the box. However, QPR holds the advantage in total shots (22 to 18) from their 10 to 6 advantage in shots taken outside the box. Shots are not always the best indicator of which team dominated, since not every shot is the same.
Passes
This season we have witnessed City dominate their opponents in passing numbers. In almost every game so far this season, City has had the advantage in both amount of passes and passing completion percentages. In this game, QPR held an advantage in both of these categories. Why did this happen? One explanation could be that SIlva was not his extraordinary self in the game. Usually, Silva is a passing machine, completing a high number of passes with a high completion percentage. However, this was not necessarily the case against QPR. SIlva completed 89% of his 71 passes against United. Against QPR, he only completed 82% of his 38 total passes. There is a stark contrast between these games. It could be said that City goes as Silva goes. He also created a whopping 6 chances facing United, but only created 1 chance against QPR. When your best player fails to dominate the game like he usually does, it is harder to win.
Crosses
Another piece that stuck out to me was the difference in the number of crosses for each team. QPR attempted a total of 26 crosses, completing 27% of them, while City attempted only 9 crosses, completing a third of them. I’m not exactly sure what to make of this. Maybe its simply because City does not rely on crosses to score goals, whereas QPR attacks out wide.
Overall
In general, it was a tough game for City. However, these are the games that a club must win if they want to be champions at the end of the season. City did not give up after the game was tied at 2-2, and continued to press to get a 3rd goal from Yaya. It wasn’t pretty, and it wasn’t 6-1, but at least it was a win.
