Arsenal 2-1 Aston Villa: The Debrief

Arsenal leave it late but get the first win of the season

One of the things that I wanted to get more into this season was expanding the coverage here to include the women’s team. It has become significantly easier to follow and watch the WSL and with the expanded stats on FBRef and now Whoscored as well it is even easier to also be able to produce the same types of graphics and content that I do for the men.

I am still a newbie and learning about the team so it might still be a bit surface level of analysis but you have to start somewhere. I would have loved to have started with the first matches but my travel schedule got in the way. It better I guess because I get to start with the first League win of the season.

Arsenal 2-1 Aston Villa: The Graphics

Arsenal 2-1 Aston Villa: The Debrief

28 - Shots by Arsenal in this match

9 - Shots in prime locations (within 12 yards)

4 - Shots on target

2 - Shots on the inside of the post

9 - Shots from headers

21 - Shots with a chance quality rating under 10%

3 - Big chances

10 - Shots by Arsenal after the 80th minute

1.1 - xG for Arsenal after the 80th minute

This was an interesting match, Arsenal got a lot of shots off but the quality of the shots was pretty poor, especially early in the match.

39 - Final third touches by Arsenal in EXTRA TIME

36 - Final third touches by Aston Villa in the whole match against Arsenal

331 - Final third touches by Arsenal in the whole match.

Arsenal had the majority of the ball and dominated the field tilt but they often looked like they had just one idea for getting the ball into the box, to try a cross.

40 - Crosses attempted (excluding set plays) by Arsenal

79 - Attempts into deep areas (within 25 yards of goal)

51% - The percentage of deep pass attempts that came from crosses

9 - Crosses completed

7 - Shots generated from crosses

25% - of Arsenal’s shots were generated by crosses

Arsenal had a fair amount of possession central with 36 touches in zone 14 and 69 touches within 25 yards of goal but it really did look and feel like the first and often only idea was to get it wide and try a cross. With the number of bodies in the box from Aston Villa this was unsurprisingly pretty easy to handle. The few times Arsenal did create real danger was from the times they were able to play through the defense or split them open with a pass.

Katie McCabe does it all

52 - Pass Attempts

37 - Pass Completed

71.2% - Pass%

103.6% - Pass Efficiency

6 - F3rd Entry Passes

7 - Progressive Passes

4 - Box Entry Passes

3 - Key Passes

0.14 - xA

7 - Shots

0.42 - xG and a well taken goal

5 - Progressive Carries

7 - Touches in the box

5 - Tackles

0 - Dribbled Past

1 - Interceptions

11 - Ball Recoveries

It is hard to put it better than what Ian Wright said here. McCabe was everywhere and doing everything for Arsenal. A great performance from her.

Stina Blackstenius, impact sub

7 - Shots

1 - On Target

3 - Shots in Prime

0.88 - xG

4 - Progressive Carries

6 - Progressive Passes Received

8 - Touches in the box

3 - Aerial Duel Won

100% - Aerial Win%

6 - Pass Attempts

1 - Progressive Pass

1 - Key Pass

27 - Minutes played

Arsenal looked devoid of ideas for a long stretch in this match, one of the things that seemed to turn around the possession into true threat was the introduction of Blackstenius. She came into this match and gave a focal point to play off of and made it so that so many of the passes that failed to find an Arsenal player did find a home. She was a real force in this match and nearly had the winner herself.

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More of these to come as the season progresses, I am looking forward to learning more and getting up to speed on this team.