The stats behind Arsenal’s record-breaking performance vs Leicester City | OneFootball

Arsenal’s win over Leicester City set all sorts of records, with the Gunners eventually rewarded for their dominant performance with three points.

LONDON, ENGLAND: Gabriel Martinelli of Arsenal celebrates scoring his team’s first goal during the Premier League match between Arsenal FC and Leicester City FC at Emirates Stadium on September 28, 2024. (Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)

At a glance, Arsenal’s win over Leicester City may appear rather a fortuitous one. The Gunners were still level at 2-2 after 93 minutes, only going on to score their third and fourth goals late in injury time.

Yet that view of the game ignores the context that Arsenal completely dominated the match, and conversely, they were rather unfortunate to have been brought level in the first place.

The stats bear this out, so let’s take a look at a few of them.

LONDON, ENGLAND: Kai Havertz and Leandro Trossard of Arsenal celebrate victory following the Premier League match between Arsenal FC and Leicester City FC at Emirates Stadium on September 28, 2024. (Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)

For a start, Mads Hermansen was easily Leicester’s best player, despite conceding four goals. The goalkeeper made 13 saves overall, the most in a Premier League match since December 2017 – David de Gea vs Arsenal.

Hermansen was called into action so often because Arsenal simply made so many chances.

Sofascore report that it was the most shots by a team in a match in any of Europe’s top-five leagues this season, the most shots on target in a PL game since December 2017, and the first team with 10 big chances in a PL game since September 2019.

All that led to Arsenal creating 4.98 expected goals, the highest they’ve managed in any league game since the stat was first tracked in 2010/11. It was also the fourth-highest non-penalty xG tally by any Premier League club.

LONDON, ENGLAND: Kai Havertz of Arsenal celebrates scoring his team’s fourth goal during the Premier League match between Arsenal FC and Leicester City FC at Emirates Stadium on September 28, 2024. (Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)

Unsurprisingly, Arsenal were helped by some strong individual performances.

Bukayo Saka became the first player this decade to create eight chances and complete eight take-ons in the same match, whilst Jurrien Timber became one of just two defenders to create seven chances and provide an assist since 2016/17.

The other defender was Trent Alexander-Arnold, so Timber is certainly in good company there.

In spite of the absence of key creator Martin Odegaard, Arsenal put in an excellent creative performance. Thankfully, they were ultimately rewarded with the win and another two goals for their goal difference tally.