Aston Villa vs Arsenal: The Debrief

Stats and analysis of Arsenal's win away to Aston Villa

This was a game that was sweet revenge.

Aston Villa vs Arsenal: The Graphics

Aston Villa vs Arsenal: The Debrief

9 - Shots for Arsenal, last season Arsenal were held to 9 or fewer shots just 4 times. It happened at Tottenham, at Bayern Munich, at Manchester City, and at Porto.

4 - Shots on target, in those matches last year it was 3, 3, 2, and 0.

1.6 - Arsenal’s expected goals on my model, Arsenal generated 2 big chance (missed both) but were able to finish two of the half chances that they had. In the other matches with 9 or fewer shots the xG was 1.0, 0.4, 0.7, 0.4.

39 - Deep touches for Arsenal

30 - Touches in the box

0.2 - Shots per touch

In this match, Arsenal did okay getting into the spots needed for threat but they didn’t quite have the efficiency to turn that into enough medium or high quality shooting chances. This was especially apparent at 0-0, with just one chance rated above 10%. One of the themes for the offseason from Mikel Arteta was efficency in the box and with Arsenal getting two goals from minimal chances (missing the two best ones) it does seem that the team has taken that heart.

Overall, the final third play lacked much in the way of penetration, with Aston Villa making it tough to break through. A lot of the passing was around the block with some the attempts to go over or through not perfectly executed.

I think that some of this was that it was not easy to move the ball against Aston Villa. Arsenal. Aston Villa’s defensive shape was looking to deny entry into central locations. Arsenal were very patient with their buildup, favoring keeping the ball vs forcing passes through the lines and providing Aston Villa a chance to break.

108% - Arsenal’s buildup pass efficiency, completing more passes in their own 40% than expected.

3% - The percentage of passes in Arsenal’s half that were “long balls”

29 - Pass combinations of 7 or more passes for Arsenal.

In the match it did feel like Arsenal were a passer short. Thomas Partey and Gabriel were particularly good and important for the progression, but it was a conservative day passing for William Saliba and especially Jurrien Timber.

26% - Percentage of passes forward by Saliba, he added three final third entries, and two progressive passes.

22% - Percentage of passes forward by Timber, he added two final third entries, and had no progressive passes (on my progressive pass rating system, which uses distance toward goal, rather than just raw distance up the field in comparison to FBref which gave him two).

I do think it is possible that this was an instruction from Arteta, or it was just his first start in the Premier League since returning from injury and he wanted to make sure to not make a mistake. Overall, Timber’s passing game stands in stark contrast to the type of passing a player like Zinchenko brings to the game.

What he did bring was something to help the solidity of the team. This was again a plus for Arsenal.

11 - Shots for Aston Villa, three on target, zero goals

0 - Shots from fast breaks or direct attacks

1.6 - Expected goals for Aston Villa, 1.1 of that came on the two big chances that fell to Ollie Watkins, where he dragged the shot wide, and forced David Raya into an excellent reflex save

18 - Touches in the box for Aston Villa

24 - Touches within 25 yards of Arsenal’s goal

One of the metrics that showed up when I was getting reacquainted with Aston Villa before the match is that they are not a team that performs well (both points and xG difference) when they cannot control the territory of the game. When they lose the field tilt battle or are forced to have more of their possession in the defensive third they don’t create many chances.

41% - The percentage of Aston Villa’s passes that were in their own defensive third

34% - The field tilt share for Aston Villa in this match

That was the case in this match as well. They did have two massive chances, but they didn’t come from what they generated in possession.

The first chance is without a doubt a foul, that sort of contact was a foul all game and should have been so there as well. I don’t have faith that it would have been called that way on a review but with the softness of some of the fouls called that one really sticks out.

The second big chance is a rebound off of a deflected shot. The Aston Villa players did well to anticipate and react quickly to it but it was also not something that their possession play created.

The overall final third play really illustrates the struggle they had to play through Arsenal.

Arsenal’s own midblock this game was nasty and gave Aston Villa no sight at breaking through. Saliba was a stalwart at the back and kept Watkins incredibly quiet (in collaboration with Gabriel).

Watkins has been on an impressive run of form and in his 64 minutes he managed just 12 touches, 6 pass attempts (completing just 2), 5 on the ball turnovers, 1 aerial duel won, and two massive misses.

There are still things for Arsenal to clean up in their game but overall this was a positive performance against a tough team.