Things of note from this weekend's Premier League games, as spotted by FourFourTwo ? but also by the general public sharing their Opta-powered StatsZone screens... have a go yourself, we'll credit you if we can
Making a little go a long way, Stoke managed only 27.3% possession against Liverpool. No wonder, frankly, considering their 64% pass completion rate was lower than any other Premier League team this weekend ? Liverpool completed 425 passes to their hosts' 124.
As @Chrisham812 noted by sharing a StatsZone screen ? easily done, why not try it yourself? ? the visitors also had 24 attempts on goal, compared to the hosts' three? but Stoke got the points.
Meanwhile Manchester United were allowing Bolton 22 shots ? but of these, only six were (unsuccessfully) on target, compared to the champions' eight, with which they scored five goals. Not quite the exceptional return of their last away game, when they won 2-1 at West Brom despite only registering one shot on target, but still frighteningly efficient.
Bolton also completed nine of their 29 crosses while United completed just three of their 18, but two of those were assists. Alex Ferguson might have been more annoyed by the foul ratio ? Wanderers were penalised 15 times (including for Kevin Davies's Cleverley-crocking foul) to the visitors' one.
Mancunian tiki-taka buffs would have loved the game at Eastlands. Man City's 89% pass completion rate was the best in the league this weekend, but visitors Wigan also stroked it with aplomb, attaining 82% pass completion themselves. That's a combined 826 successful passes out of an attempted 956. And they say you won't get passing under an English manager... oh.
Enabling City to smoothly slide past their visitors was super-sub Samir Nasri. Assisting Aguero within a minute of coming on, he went on to complete 30 or 31 passes, including 11 out of 12 in the final third. Adding in his figures against Spurs, Nasri has now completed 99 of 102 passes, including four assists, in two hours flat. In three seasons at Arsenal, he got seven assists. At this rate he'll have topped that by next week.
On the subject of passing the thing, plaudits to Chelsea's Raul Meireles, whose through-ball for Daniel Sturridge's brilliant winner at Sunderland was just one of 74 completed passes ? as applauded by @CFCReport.
Considerably less successful ? as noted by @Georgina_Turner ? was the crossing at Craven Cottage. Blackburn completed three of 12 crosses, while Fulham failed with a phenomenal 41 of 45 crosses.
A word for the hardest-working men in football: full-backs. Often blamed for goals coming from crosses, they have to get up and down the line as both creators and destroyers. When they get it right, though, it works a treat ? and Spurs' pair got it bob-on at Wolves. Kudos to Benoit Assou-Ekotto and Kyle Walker, who were among the best five passers at Molineux but also did the mucky stuff, making nine out of 10 successful tackles between them. No wonder their names loom large on the Player Influence screen.
And finally, a Spot the Difference contest. Judging by their near-identical performances against Swansea, it looks like Mikel Arteta and Aaron Ramsey are already well in harness in the Arsenal midfield?
Calling armchair analysts! Check out the Stats Zone app and share your thoughts ? the best will be displayed to the world in blogs like this...
Source: http://fourfourtwo.com/blogs/statszone/archive/2011/09/12/what-you-may-have-missed-120911.aspx
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