Behind The Numbers: 900 up for Wenger

This week our statistician Josh James looks at another notable landmark for Arsène Wenger.

Arsène Wenger will take charge of his 900th match as Gunners boss this weekend, looking to register his 520th win.

Of the 899 matches so far, the vast majority (598) have been in the Premier League (66.5 per cent), while 147 have been Champions League fixtures (16.4 per cent). The FA Cup and League Cup account for 81 and 56 games respectively while the other two competitions Wenger has led Arsenal in are the UEFA Cup (11 games) and the Charity/Community Shield (6 games).

The Gunners have a 57.7 win percentage in all competitions under the boss, and have scored 1,654 goals at an average of 1.84 per game.

440 games (48.9 per cent) have been played at home – Highbury, Wembley (Champions League matches) and Emirates Stadium – while 435 (48.4 per cent) were away and the other 24 (2.7 per cent) staged at neutral venues.

Wenger's next win on the road will be his 200th as Gunners boss in away fixtures.

The manager has racked up 1,187 Premier League points in his tenure, which equates to 1.98 per game, and his overall goal difference for the 899 games is +799.

Behind The Numbers

Arsène Wenger's first game in charge of Arsenal was away to Blackburn Rovers on October 12, 1996 in the Premier League. Ian Wright scored both goals in a 2-0 win.

The starting XI that day was: David Seaman, Lee Dixon, Nigel Winterburn, Martin Keown, Steve Bould, Tony Adams, David Platt, Ian Wright, Paul Merson, Patrick Vieira, John Hartson. Ray Parlour came on as sub.

Five of those players (Vieira, Parlour, Keown, Seaman and Dixon) went on to become among the 20 most used players by the boss. Vieira still holds the record for most appearances under Wenger (402), which is 44.8 per cent of the total. He is followed by Thierry Henry (377) and Dennis Bergkamp (376).

Wenger went on to win his 100th, 200th, 400th and 800th games in charge.

He was successful in 54 of his first 100 games, and is also on 54 victories so far from his ninth century of games. The most successful hundred was the fifth (between November 2003 and August 2005). The boss won 64 of those games, drawing 23 and losing just 13.

Overall there has been very little difference in performance between each hundred games. Arsenal have always won at least 53 games in each ton, and won exactly 57 matches of each of the last three complete centuries.

Behind The Numbers

Arsène Wenger has taken charge of 26.2 per cent of all of Arsenal's matches since the war, and 17.3 per cent of the grand total during the Club's 125-year history.

He has overseen 359 more matches than Bertie Mee, who is second on the list for matches as Arsenal manager.

Behind The Numbers

Arsène Wenger's Arsenal have met 108 different teams during his 899-game reign. Just under half (51) of those sides are non-British, while he has taken on 43 of the 45 sides that have appeared in the Premier League.

Of the 108 overall teams played, Wenger has met Manchester United most often (47 times), which is 5.2 per cent of his total games. United are followed by Chelsea (44) and Liverpool (40) as the manager's most regular opponents.

Stats correct as at May 2, 2012. Josh James also provides the stats for the Arsenal Analysis pages of the matchday programme. To subscribe, or buy online, click here.