Pulisic on fire and a deserved win: All the key stats from Milan-Udinese | OneFootball

AC Milan secured their fourth win of the season last night as the odd goal was enough against Udinese. The Rossoneri were a man down from the 29th minute and still deserved to win, with some positive stats to take with them.

It ended up being a rather dramatic evening at San Siro as Udinese had an equaliser disallowed in the dying minutes. Correctly, we should add, but the refereeing left a lot to be desired and it certainly affected the game a lot.

In the end, however, Milan came away with all three points and it was fully deserved. They played better than Udinese despite being one man down and the stats back it up. So without further ado, let’s take a look at the key stats and facts.

Good defending and attacking

Taking a look at the key stats from the game, it’s clear that Milan were the better team despite the red card. Udinese may have won possession, as you would expect, but they only mustered up one shot on target while the Rossoneri had five of them.

The XG also confirms that Milamn had the more dangerous chances and the truth is that they should have scored a second. Tammy Abraham missed a big chance to kill the game and also got himself injured in the process.

Pulisic on fire

It has been a very successful start to the season for the American and although he didn’t score last night, he got the decisive assist. Playing in a more central role, it felt like he was everywhere and the pass for Samuel Chukwueze came at just the right moment.

Thanks to this, he became the first player in the top-five leagues this season to have a goal contribution in seven straight games. Furthermore, only Cole Palmer (44: 28G, 16A) has more goal contributions than Pulisic (28: 17G, 11A) among midfielders since the start of last season.

Pavlovic does the dirty work

The Serbian international worked incredibly hard from start to finish last night, winning duels and above all making life difficult for Udinese with his physical presence. His passing was also much better, which was nice to see given that he has struggled on this front before.

It’s clear that the competition is fierce in the heart of defence, with Matteo Gabbia, Fikayo Tomori and Malick Thiaw also knocking on the door, but it’s perfect to have this depth with so many games coming up. Of course, Pavlovic could still work on being ‘less rash’.

Questionable refereeing

We can all agree that the officiating was far from perfect last night, but one stat that stands out is the fact that Milan and Udinese got three cards each. It might not sound strange at face value, but when you consider that the Rossoneri committed a total of three fouls and the away side 14, it’s a bit strange.

In particular, there was one incident when Samuel Chukwueze was on the receiving end of a nasty stamp by Isaac Toure. The referee Daniele Chiffi didn’t even show the yellow card, which rightfully left the fans furious.