Arsenal 5-0 Nottingham Forest: By the numbers

In the buildup to this match, Mikel Arteta stressed that the team needed a reset. They had just been through a punishing schedule of 8 matches in 27 days, with 4 of the last five away from home. Looking at what teams that have had to do a similar schedule had done this weekend it would be pretty hard to say anything other than this is taxing and makes the a vulnerable.

Well, it sure looks like he got it as Arsenal came out and re-found their attacking mojo and put themselves back on top of the table.

Arsenal 5-0 Nottingham Forest: By the graphics

Arsenal 5-0 Nottingham Forest: By the numbers

24- Shots for Arsenal, a new high for the Premier League this season. This is the 4th time this season Arsenal have taken more than 20 shots, and is more shots than Arsenal took combined against Leeds and Southampton.

9 – Shots on target for Arsenal, tied for the most Arsenal have had this season, this is the second time after Tottenham where they have put this many shots on frame.

5 – Goals for Arsenal, their highest tally this season. This equals the total that they had produced over the 3 previous matches in the Premier League.

91.8 – Arsenal’s current pace for goals scored this season (excluding own goals), in line with Arteta’s target for what it takes to compete with the best teams.

5 – Shots allowed by Arsenal, this is tied for the second-fewest this season. This is the 7th time this season that Arsenal have allowed less than 10 shots.

3 – Shots from Nottingham Forrest that were the results of Arsenal Errors (Xhaka, Partey, Gabriel)

20.3 – The average distance in yards for the Nottingham Forrest shots, the longest average that Arsenal have allowed this season.

0.8 – Arsenal’s goals allowed this season (excluding own goals) per match.

This was pretty much as complete of a team performance as you can ask for. Arsenal were simply dominant in this one by just about any measure you can come up with. I was starting to get a little bit of worry in the first half that we might see an unfortunate repeat of other performances where Arsenal failed to add on to a 1 goal lead but the team came out strong in the second half and put that to bed early. The second goal looked to be a lubricant to getting everything else flowing as the team from that point forward played some really nice attacking soccer.

I would be a bit remiss if I didn’t also call out that in the second half the defense did an amazing job keeping Forest away. Forest managed just one shot in the second half and that was with the last kick of the match.

Reiss Nelson surprises and delights

38 – Pass Attempts

92.1% – Pass completion %, 3rd highest among all players

3 – Deep Completions (passes completed within 25 yards of goal)

2 – Open Play Key Passes

3 – Shots (all three big chances)

1.38 – Expected Goals

2 – Goals

9 – Progressive Carries, leading all players

9 – Progressive Passes Received, 2nd highest among all player

9 – Touches in the box, 3rd highest among all players

4 – Times Dispossessed

1 – Tackle

2 – Fouls

5 – Ball Recoveries

If you had Reiss Nelson comes on and score a brace and looks like a dominant player on your bingo card congratulations. I don’t believe you if didn’t have a bit of worry when it was his number that came up to replace Bukayo Saka.

All I can say is WOW and congratulations to Nelson. He was spectacular today. After so much time on the fringes and getting an unfortunate injury that limited him in the Europa League it is great to see a player that has always held so much promise and came through the Arsenal academy come on and perform well. It looked like it meant a lot to him as well.

Thomas Partey was the hub

103 – Passes completed, leading all players

90.4% – Pass completion percentage

10 – Progressive passes, leading all players

16 – Final third entry passes completed

830.5 – Yards of progressive passing, leading all players

0.5 – Goal probability added (a measure of how the change in scoring probability changes between actions) with his passing in this match, leading all players.

0 – Times Dispossessed.

1 – Miscontrol (this was deemed the error and led to a Forrest shot)

4 – Shots, 1 on target, 1 goal

2 – Tackles and dribbled past 0 times

6 – Ball recoveries

In this match Partey showed that he was one of the best defensive midfielders in the Premier League. After a few rocky matches where teams were able to quiet him down a bit, Partey looked back to his best. Nottingham Forest will probably have regretted giving him the time and space to pick out the passes because on this day he absolutely punished them. He played several passes in the left channel to Granit Xhaka (whose attacking instincts continue to impress) that made you want to applaud and did well to set the tempo.  In the second half I think that he was also much better at helping to shift the ball from the left to the right much quicker adding energy to an attack that at the end of the first half at times grew a bit static.

Sources: Opta via Whoscored, FBRef, and my own database.