Kevin Davies’ exclusion from English team raises no eyebrows- Fabregas top chance creator according to Opta Stats
Despite all the chin-wagging and finger pointing about the inclusion and exclusion of players from Fabio Capello’s provisional 30-player world cup squad, one man’s exclusion did not raise any eyebrows whatsoever and that man being Kevin Davies of Bolton. The barrel-chested marksman has been one of the most effective targets-men in the Barclays Premier League for more than a few seasons now and yet Capello like the ones preceding the Italian did not even consider him for a training run out along with the others.
One would have to delve into the tiny winy bits and details filed by the fine men at Opta Stats to come up with a reason. Last season, the Bolton front man committed more fouls that any other player in the premier league-yet again. For the sixth time in seven seasons, Davies topped the unwanted stat with Aston Villa’s John Carew only disrupting his dominance back in 2006 but the man responded emphatically last season and carried on in this one as well with 121 fouls, way to push for a world cup spot.
But to the poor man’s defense, he was also the player to have suffered the most fouls only behind Everton’s Stephen Pienaar, but his uncanny knack of giving away silly free kicks all over the park is surely a liability. Stats, however, do not paint the full picture with fine details but for those of us with an unashamedly geeky disposition of delving into the fine details presented here are some of the vital stats of the season:
We all know the top goal scorer and who came second so barring that and starting with the chance creation, who else can it be than the barca target Arsenal playmaker Cesc Fabregas with a chance created every 23.1 minutes played. This is no surprise but what is indeed one is the number 7th on that list behind the likes of Giggs, Florent Malouda, Lampard, Kalou and Luis Antonio Valencia. He is the Wigan midfield schemer Chris Iwelumo with a chance created every 29.1 minutes played. Of course, he did it over a shorter period of time than his peers but who ever created more than 10 chances was eligible for the list and the Wigan man featured above the likes of Robin Van Persie and Nani of Manchester United.
The Opta stats also helped in finding out the answer to the mind-boggling question of what is Lucas Lieva for? And the fact that the Brazilian outcast put in more tackles than any of the other players barring only three in league is a fine testament to that. Lieva put in 148 tackles out of which he won 102. Ahead of him in the list are Javier Mascherano (178 won 144), Muhammad Diame (176 won 125) and Fabrice Muamba (152 won 102).
There are four Liverpool players in the list of league’s top 30 tacklers this season while Arsenal has only one and that being Song at the 23rd spot. But that can be argued with the fact that the gunners tended to have the ball most of the times and needn’t tackle as much. The Opta stat for the most possession is a testament to that statement as the gunners had 59.3% average possession throughout the season only marginally behind Chelsea’s 59.8%. Surprisingly, Liverpool averaged 59.1%, it is true that they may have the ball at their feet a lot but they also had their head in their hands more often than not. The Liverpool club was denied by the frame of the goal 20 times this season, more than any other team in the league.
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