Man City 6-3 Arsenal: The key stats which defined this Top-Of-Table clash

Premier League leaders Arsenal travelled to title hopefuls Manchester City on Saturday, where the two teams served up one of the most eventful games of the season, ending in a 6-3 win for the home side.

The back-and-forth match saw play move quickly from end to end, with both sides looking dangerous on the counter-attack in numbers. Theo Walcott twice scored for Arsenal after Sergio Aguero, Alvaro Negredo and Fernandinho had seen City in front, but David Silva swept home from close range to put City 4-2 up.

A mad last few minutes saw Fernandinho, Per Mertesacker and a Yaya Toure penalty all hit the back of the net to rack up the score at both ends.

Arsenal stay top despite the loss, but Manchester City move up to second and are just three points behind the Gunners following their eighth straight home win of the season.

So much happened in the game that it’s difficult to pick out exactly where the key moments lie, but the pass completion for both sides indicates that the match might have been relatively close; City had 51% possession to Arsenal’s 49%, with the away side completing 85% of their own passes, City 84% of theirs. However, the team pass graphs show a marked difference in the number of attempted (and successful) passes in and around the edge of the opposition penalty area, with the home team having a far greater penetration behind Arsenal’s defence than the Gunners managed at the other end.

There were not a terribly large number of shots in the game, as can be the case between two big sides in the league, though it is notable how many of the shots on target found the back of the net.

From City’s 22 shots including blocked efforts, seven were on target—six finished as goals. Arsenal managed 12 attempts, six on target, with half of them resulting as goals.

Man of the Match

The Squawka Man of the Match by virtue of Performance Score was City’s central midfielder Fernandinho. The Brazilian scored his first two league goals for his new club, which certainly contributed to his Score of 91.

Fernandinho managed three shots during the game in total, with all three on target and of course two ending up as goals, a fine curled effort from outside the box and a clipped finish late in the match.

In a good all-round performance, he contributed well with both defensive and offensive aspects of his game. He made four tackles, winning three—though the one he lost was inside his own penalty box. Furthermore, Fernandinho contributed two clearances, two interceptions and two take-ons in attacking positions for his team.

An 80% pass completion rate wasn’t the game’s highest by any means, in fact it was the lowest of City’s four midfielders and an area he could improve on, but his double strike and impressive running off the ball in both halves more than made up for it.

City edged their way ahead in the game and in truth rarely looked as though they would lose control after taking the lead, but Arsenal’s ability to pull themselves back into the match ensured that they were never too far away from City’s Performance Score until the latter stages of the game when City finally pulled away with a flurry of goals.

After 30 minutes with the score at 1-0, City led 134-14 in the Performance Score, but Walcott’s equaliser and Arsenal being on top at that point meant the 35-mark showed a big turnaround, 86-65 in factor of Arsenal.

With City back in front, 2-1, by half time, the Performance Scores stood at 155-40 at the break and the home side remained in front thereafter. Walcott’s second goal helped Arsenal close the gap to 167-68 by the 65-minute mark, but Silva, Fernandinho and Toure’s strikes put City out of reach.

The final Performance Scores stood at 366 to City and -21 for Arsenal.

Key Observations

Vincent Kompany put in an outstanding performance at the back for City, not giving Olivier Giroud the slightest chance to make a mark. Kompany didn’t need to make a single tackle during the game on account of his ability to read play and position himself accordingly; instead, three interceptions and six clearances are where the Belgian made his impact.

He was also able to quickly move his team onto the front foot with quick transitions, completing an impressive 89% of his passes and completing all five attempted take-ons, three in Arsenal’s half—extraordinary for a centre-back.

City’s great strength in staying ahead during the match was their ability to bounce back after conceding; Negredo scored within eight minutes of Walcott’s first, Silva replied within just three minutes of the Arsenal man’s second and even Mertesacker’s 90th-minute header was wiped out seconds later by City’s sixth from Yaya Toure.

One final noteworthy statistic was notable right from the first goal; Aguero’s excellent finish came after a flicked on corner kick. During the match, City had eight corners in total and managed to find their own players from no less than seven of them, an excellent rate of accuracy, though Aguero’s was the only goal which arrived from such a circumstance.