Bottom of the league for completed dribbles, top of the table
Seventeen. That is how many dribbles Arsenal have completed this season, the worst figure in the Premier League.
They are also four from four, with a single goal conceded, plus three more wins in other competitions. Opta’s supercomputer makes them clear favourites to retain the title, handing them 57.2% of its simulations. The reasoning is not complicated. They ended a 22-year wait in May, then added to a squad that was already winning without letting anyone important walk out the door.
One number stands out. Not a single goal this season has come from a set piece, penalties aside. The old jibe about Arsenal being a dead-ball team has quietly stopped being true.
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A title contender that hardly ever takes a defender on
Arsenal rank 19th in the division for attempted dribbles with 43. Only Hull have tried fewer, on 39, and Hull average 29.3% possession. Arsenal average 59.4%. So they have the ball twice as often and run at people less.
Bukayo Saka is in this side, which makes the completed-dribble figure stranger still. The England winger is choosing to move the ball on instead of going one-on-one, whether that is defenders doubling up on him or instructions from the bench.
In the final third they have the best pass completion rate in the league, crosses included, at 81.2%. Over the pitch as a whole they slide to fourth. The care is being spent exactly where a loose ball costs most.
Safe passing that still hurts you
Opta grades pass difficulty with xP, the passing cousin of xG. A pass rated 0.95 xP finds its man 95 times in 100. In the final third, Arsenal’s average xP is 0.796, third-highest in the league. Only Aston Villa and Tottenham play it safer.
The similarity stops there. Villa sit on 16.6% difficult passes in the final third, Tottenham on 16.9%, Arsenal on 17.0%. Tottenham have scored nothing at all this season. Villa have one, from a corner. Arsenal have eight, every one of them in open play.
Then there is xT, which tracks how much a pass raises the chance of a shot in the following ten seconds. Arsenal are fourth for final-third passing at 0.13. Tottenham are 12th. Villa are 20th. Low risk usually means low threat, and nobody has yet worked out why it does not at the Emirates.
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