Behind the Numbers: Arsenal substitutions

In the wake of the Premier League win at Sunderland, our statistician Josh James takes a look at the impact of Arsenal's substitutes.

Each of Arsenal's last three goals have been scored by substitutes, meaning 12 per cent of the team's total goals this season have come from the bench.

Aaron Ramsey and Thierry Henry both netted against Sunderland at the weekend (with the third sub, Andrey Arshavin, providing the assist for the winner), following on from Henry's goal as a sub, late on against Blackburn, the previous week.

Saturday's game was the first time two substitutes had scored in the same match since October 4, 2009 when Nicklas Bendtner and Theo Walcott both came off the bench to score in the 6-2 home win over Blackburn Rovers.

It took the total of goals scored by subs during the Wenger era to 161, from 2,206 substitutions made. That represents 9.9 per cent of all Arsenal goals scored under this manager, and they have come at a rate of one for every 13.7 subs.

Statistically speaking - and purely in terms of goals - the most effective Arsenal substitutions since 1996/97 have come in the FA Cup, in which goals are scored once every 10.7 replacements on average.

The most prolific season for subs under Wenger, and indeed in the history of the Club, was 2005/06, when 20 goals (a sizeable 21 per cent of the season's total) came from this source.

This season eight goals have come from subs, from 112 changes, just five fewer than last season's total. In the 2003/04 unbeaten season, no goals were scored by subs in the league, and just three overall that season in all competitions, one for every 46.67 subs made.

Overall in the Premier League era, Arsenal have made 1,695 substitutions (2.23 per game) who have scored 115 goals between them.

Arsène Wenger's full season-by-season substitute record

	Premier League		Europe		FA Cup		League Cup		Total
Season	Subs	Goals	Subs	Goals	Subs	Goals	Subs	Goals	Subs	Goals	Subs per goal	% of total goals
11/12	73	7	24	0	6	1	9	0	112	8	14.00	11.9
10/11	107	4	23	4	15	4	17	1	162	13	12.46	10.9
09/10	107	15	30	3	5	0	7	1	149	19	7.84	16.4
08/09	95	8	38	2	18	1	9	0	160	11	14.55	9.7
07/08	98	8	29	3	7	0	14	1	148	12	12.33	10.6
06/07	96	5	25	1	13	1	15	0	149	7	21.29	7.1
05/06	98	12	33	6	2	0	15	2	154	20	7.70	20.8
04/05	87	9	16	1	15	3	9	2	132	15	8.80	12.8
03/04	90	0	21	0	13	3	11	0	140	3	46.67	2.6
02/03	104	5	34	0	19	1	2	0	161	7	23.00	5.9
01/02	97	11	33	0	19	1	9	0	158	12	13.17	10.1
00/01	84	6	33	2	16	2	3	0	136	10	13.60	10.1
99/00	91	11	42	3	4	0	5	0	144	14	10.29	12.5
98/99	85	4	11	1	18	1	4	0	123	7	17.57	8.3
97/98	86	2	5	0	20	0	9	0	120	2	60.00	2.2
96/97	51	1	0	0	2	0	5	0	58	1	58.00	1.8
Total	1449	108	397	26	192	18	143	7	2206	161	13.70	9.9

The last time Arsène Wenger didn't make a single substitution in a game was last season, in the FA Cup Fifth-Round tie at Leyton Orient, on February 20, 2011.

However, the last time he didn't make at least one change in a league game was more than four years ago - at home to Blackburn Rovers on February 11, 2008. This season he has made 112 out of a possible 114 substitutions (98.2 per cent), last season the figure was 162/174 (93.1 per cent).

The most prolific sub under Wenger – and in fact, in the Club's history – is Robin van Persie, who has scored 15 of his 123 Gunners goals to date as a replacement. Then come Kanu and Thierry Henry with 12 each. Those 12 represented 27 per cent of all the goals Kanu scored for the Club.

As for Henry, all three of his goals in this comeback spell have been from the bench, as indeed his first ever goal for the Club was - against Southampton eight minutes after coming in the 71st minute, on September 18, 1999.

Other 'supersubs' have included Nicklas Bendtner, who registered 10 of his 45 goals (22 per cent) when not starting, and Carlos Vela, who grabbed five of his 11 Arsenal strikes (45 per cent) as a sub.

The last player to come off the bench and score a hat-trick was Emmanuel Adebayor, against Derby County away on April 28, 2008. He was introduced at half-time that day.

In total, 48 different players have scored for Arsène Wenger after being summoned from the bench.

On average so far this season the manager has waited until 61 minutes 52 seconds before making his first change of the game, rising to 63 minutes 2 seconds in the Premier League and 70 minutes 40 seconds in the Champions League.

The player involved in most substitutions this season is Andrey Arshavin, who has been brought on 14 times, and taken off nine times, meaning he has completed 90 minutes just four times this season.

Most goals as a sub (under Arsène Wenger)

Robin van Persie	15
Kanu	12
Thierry Henry	12
Robert Pires	11
Nicklas Bendtner	10
Dennis Bergkamp	9
Emmanuel Adebayor	7
Sylvain Wiltord	7
Andrey Arshavin	6
Cesc Fabregas	6
Carlos Vela	5
Theo Walcott	5
Aaron Ramsey	4
Jose Antonio Reyes	4
Tomas Rosicky	4
Emmanuel Eboue	3
Freddie Ljungberg	3
Christopher Wreh	2
Edu	2
Eduardo	2
Francis Jeffers	2
Julio Baptista	2
Kolo Toure	2
Mathieu Flamini	2
Abou Diaby	1
Alexander Hleb	1
Arturo Lupoli	1
Danny Karbassiyoon	1
David Bentley	1
David Platt	1
Davor Suker	1
Emmanuel Petit	1
Fran Merida	1
Gael Clichy	1
Gilberto	1
Giovanni van Bronckhorst	1
Jeremie Aliadiere	1
Marc Overmars	1
Marouane Chamakh	1
Mikael Silvestre	1
Paolo Vernazza	1
Patrick Vieira	1
Paul Shaw	1
Quincy Owusu-Abeyie	1
Samir Nasri	1
Silvinho	1
Stephen Hughes	1
Yossi Benayoun	1
Total	161

Most frequent substitutions this season

	Subbed on	Subbed off
Andrey Arshavin	14	9
Tomas Rosicky	12	4
Yossi Benayoun	10	2
Marouane Chamakh	8	3
Johan Djourou	6	4
Thierry Henry	6	0
Emmanuel Frimpong	5	5
Ignasi Miquel	4	1
Gervinho	4	15
Aaron Ramsey	4	8
Francis Coquelin	3	3
Robin van Persie	3	4
Theo Walcott	3	18
Carl Jenkinson	3	1
Abou Diaby	2	0
Henri Lansbury	2	0
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain	2	10
Ryo	2	0
Oguzhan Ozyakup	2	0
Bacary Sagna	2	2
Andre Santos	2	1
Thomas Vermaelen	2	3
Nico Yennaris	2	0
Chuks Aneke	1	0
Mikel Arteta	1	1
Daniel Boateng	1	0
Kieran Gibbs	1	2
Armand Traore	1	0
Sebastien Squillaci	1	0
Ju Young Park	1	3
Nicklas Bendtner	1	0
Vito Mannone	1	0
Alex Song	0	4
Laurent Koscielny	0	4
Per Mertesacker	0	4
Lukasz Fabianski	0	1

Substitutions were first brought into the English league in 1965/66, and for the first two seasons each team were only allowed a maximum of one sub per game, and only when a player was injured.

Consequently 11 games into the 1965/66 season, Arsenal used their first ever replacement. Jon Sammels was the player who made way for Alan Skirton to come on during a 1-1 draw at home to Northampton on September 28, 1965.

Skirton had earlier made another piece of Gunners history when he became the first Arsenal player to score a European goal at Highbury – in the 3-2 defeat to Staevnet on October 22, 1963.

Arsenal made seven subs in all during the 1965/66 campaign, and two years later replacements were permitted for tactical reasons too. The first man to come of the bench and score was Bobby Gould, who actually scored twice in a 3-0 win over Leicester City, on August 13, 1968, having replaced George Graham.

The first time Arsenal used two subs in the same game was in a 6-1 FA Cup win over Plymouth on January 31, 1987. Perry Groves - who himself had been brought on as a sub - later made way for Gus Caesar.

From the start of the Premier League era in 1992/93, clubs could name three subs, as long as one was a goalkeeper. Arsenal first used all three subs in the same match on November 30, 1994 in a 2-0 League Cup win over Sheffield Wednesday. In 1996 the number of players on the bench rose to five, and from 2008/09 seven could be named.

The Arsenal player who has come off the bench most often is Kanu, who was used a sub on 94 occasions, compared to 104 starts.

Behind him is Perry Groves, a cult figure of the late Eighties and Nineties who had a reputation as a 'supersub', largely down, perhaps, to his impressive showing from the bench in the 1987 League Cup Final win.

However whereas it's true that Groves was used more as a sub than any other player from that era, only four of his 28 goals (14 per cent) for the Club were scored when coming off the bench.

Thirty-one players only ever appeared for the Arsenal first team as a sub, 18 of those just once.

Arsenal players used more than 50 times as a sub

Kanu	94
Perry Groves	83
Dennis Bergkamp	78
Nicklas Bendtner	77
Theo Walcott	77
Ray Parlour	76
Robin van Persie	67
Kevin Campbell	62
Emmanuel Eboue	55
Edu	51
Sylvain Wiltord	51
Tomas Rosicky	51

Statistics are correct up to February 11, 2012. Josh James also provides the stats for the Arsenal Analysis pages of the matchday programme. To subscribe, or buy online, click here.

[Wednesday, February 15, 2012]

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