Part 1 - English Premier League: Figures and Statistics
As the English Premier League reaches its second international break, some teams have come up with astounding figures while others are sources of statistics that baffle the mind. Seven whole weekends have passed now as the English
Premier League is set to enter its busiest period of the season after the two week international break. One of the team’s at the weekend which did themselves no favors by losing to their local rivals is Arsenal F.C. The Gunners faced Chelsea at the Stamford
Bridge on a Sunday evening clash between the two London clubs.
Both Arsenal and Chelsea have tried to achieve total dominance over the club football scene in London. It is safe to say that over the past five or six years, Chelsea have been the superior club with around three to four UEFA Champions
League semi-finals to their name along with a runners up medal from the loss to Manchester United in Moscow in the final match of the Champions League competition. Whereas on the other hand, Arsenal have not won even a single piece of seasonal silverware in
the past five years of football but all is not doom and gloom at the emirates stadium because fans do believe that this current year can be their year under their long standing manager, Arsene Wenger.
At Stamford Bridge not only were Arsenal dealt a stern blow to their title hopes but they were also given a class in how to play incisive, attractive and yet effective football. Arsenal’s own brand of football has been quite spectacular
of late, they mesmerize teams with their movement and skill but in reality they do lack the cutting edge sometimes to materialize such eye-candy into success. In the end at the Stamford Bridge, thanks to goals from Drogba and Alex, Chelsea inflicted two goals
to nil defeat.
So far in the 2010-2011 season, Arsenal have amazingly had more shots on target this season than their rivals, Chelsea. Despite having a tendency to try their luck on the target more often than not, Arsenal do have lesser number
of goals than the Blues. Wenger’s team has sixteen total goals in seven English Premier League matches so far while Carlo Ancelloti’s boys have netted twenty three goals in seven games. The difference in terms of converting shots into goals can be realized
by the fact that Chelsea are currently top of the table whereas Arsenal are languishing at the 4th placed spot in the Premier League table.
Jack Wilshere featured for Arsenal in their encounter against the Blues; the young Englishman has played quite a few times for Arsenal in the presently on-going club football season as a result of Cesc Fabregas’s injury. Jack’s
performances have earned him a lot of praise in the media as well as from the current English national team manager, Fabio Capello. Against Chelsea, Jack was entrusted to play as Arsenal’s main central midfielder and it should be said that Wilshere played
this role to the best of his abilities. Regardless of the fact that Chelsea ended up as comfortable winners, Jack passed the ball more than any other footballer on the field at the Stamford Bridge. However, there was a downside to his game as he failed to
carve up any shooting opportunities for himself.
Despite having the ball at his feet and distributing it with a high frequency, Jack Wilshere did not have even a single shot on Chelsea’s goal. Arsenal have been blamed over the past few seasons for shying away from tough competition,
competition which adopts a physical approach rather than a technical one. However, one can see that this is soon changing as Alex Song; Arsenal’s young Cameroonian midfielder is the third highest “foul player” in the English Premier League so far. Song is
only bettered by Andy Carroll of Newcastle United and Kevin Davies of Bolton Wanderers.
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