Analytics Report: Premier League Match Of The Week – Matchday 10 – Arsenal vs Liverpool

An exhilarating game transpired at the Emirates between league leaders Arsenal and Jurgen Klopp’s struggling Liverpool. The Gunners went into the game on the back of a huge result against potential title-challengers Tottenham, while Liverpool came into the game after luckily getting a point against Brighton in their 3-3 draw at Anfield.

Also read: Winners and Losers: Premier League Gameweek 10

Liverpool’s poor starts to matches continued and they conceded inside the first sixty seconds as Van Dijk kept backing off against Saka before Martinelli applied the finishing touch. Of course, Trent was under the microscope, but Van Dijk could have stopped Saka from coming inside.

Liverpool then had a pretty good spell, as they always do after conceding. They equalized as Nunez got a goal after great work from Diaz to assist him. Diaz was later taken off due to injury and is expected to be out for at least a month.

Despite having a good half, Liverpool conceded another easily avoidable goal right before the break. Firmino made it 2-2 in the second half before a highly controversial penalty was converted by Saka to win the game for Arsenal.

In the chart below, we have the analytics data from the game.

It was yet another game where Liverpool were average offensively but simply dreadful defensively. Arsenal recorded 12 interceptions while Liverpool recorded 7, which speaks volumes about the failing efficiency of Liverpool’s press.

Arsenal recorded one tackle more than Liverpool, with the away side making 15 and Arteta’s men making 16 tackles, which also shows the level of physicality of the game.

Arsenal registered 32 progressive passes, with Liverpool registering 30, representing the obvious skills both sides have regarding vertical and attack-minded football in possession. Arteta’s side dominated the ball with 57% of possession, ending up in their favour against Liverpool.

This is where it gets interesting. Arsenal had a total of 13 shot-creating actions, while Liverpool had just 9 in the whole game. The home side had 6 goal-creating actions to Liverpool’s 3. The Gunners simply created more chances and openings for themselves.

The npxG is an eye-opener in this case as it suggests the two goals Liverpool scored were unlikely goals, especially Firmino’s goal, although it was undoubtedly a world-class finish. Arsenal’s npxG was 2.1, while Liverpool’s was at 0.8.

Jurgen Klopp Confirmed Liverpool Arent In The Title Race

In his post-match interview, Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp said, “We’re not in the title race. Imagine I would sit here and think we’re nearly there, wait. We have problems at the moment but we caused the team in form, the leader of the table, massive problems today.”

“Even in a really bad situation for us, with early changes and stuff like this, we caused them real problems. We have to continue. We will go out there and fight. We are not here for being happy with the situation and thinking about last year.”