Behind The Numbers: Arsenal's helping hands

This week our statistician Josh James looks at Arsenal's record of Premier League own goals.

Arsenal profited from two own goals in the same game against Southampton last weekend - the first time that had happened since Wolves away in November 2009.

Jos Hooiveld and Nathaniel Clyne's goals brought the total number of own goals scored for Arsenal in Premier League history to 42. They are - despite the evidence to the contrary last Saturday - rare occurrences: own goals account for just 3.1 per cent of all the goals Arsenal have scored in the Premier League.

Indeed the stats suggest that the Gunners may already have used up their quota of own goals for the campaign, as the average per season is exactly two.

The most own goals scored for Arsenal in one Premier League season was six, in the 2009/10 campaign.

That season was also the only time when Arsenal lost a Premier League game in which an own goal had been scored for them. Hull City's Paul McShane scored at the wrong end at Emirates Stadium on September 27, 2009, but the visitors still triumphed 2-1.

Generally though, an own goal from the opposition usually puts Arsenal on course for victory - of the 40 Premier League games that have featured an own goal in Arsenal's favour, the Gunners have won 35 (87.5 per cent), drawn four and lost just the once.

Southampton's double at the weekend also saw them join the list of teams that have scored three own goals for the Gunners - along with Birmingham City, Fulham, Leicester City, Liverpool and Wolves.

Jody Craddock of Wolves remains the only player to have scored more than one own goal for Arsenal in the Premier League.

Of the 42 own goals, 26 (62 per cent) came in home games, the other 16 away.

Behind The Numbers

Of those 40 matches with own goals, the opposition's inadvertent strike proved the difference between a draw and a win in 14 of them, and changed a further four matches from a defeat to a draw.
Therefore 18 (45 per cent) of the results were altered by the presence of the own goal. All in all the OGs earned the Gunners an extra 32 points.

It's also interesting to note that the stats seem to suggest that, generally, these own goals can be viewed as extra or 'bonus' goals, rather than goals that otherwise would have been scored by an Arsenal player.

The evidence for this comes when comparing the playing record for the matches featuring own goals, against the Club's all-time Premier League record.

The points per game in the 40 matches with own goals is 2.73, way above Arsenal's overall Premier League average of 1.88. Similarly, the average goals per game in these 40 matches is 3.2, compared to a Club average of 1.74 per game overall in the Premier League.

Now let's look at the numbers as though none of those own goals had been scored. The points per game for the 40 matches would be 1.93, while goals per game would be 2.13. These are much more in line with the Premier League averages, suggesting that these games may have played out along those lines, if it wasn’t for the intervention of the own goal.

The theory that own goals are indeed 'bonus goals' would also help to explain why the record for such games is so impressive, as effectively the team have been given a one-goal advantage.

Arsenal have also scored their fair share of own goals, but at the moment they have benefited from 10 more than they have conceded (32).

However whereas the own goals in their favour make up 3.1 per cent of all the Club's Premier League goals, the 32 they have scored in the wrong end represents 4.5 per cent of all goals conceded in the Premier League era.

Kolo Toure (three) has scored the most, while 25 different players have scored Premier League own goals for the Club.

Last season Arsenal scored five own goals - their highest tally in any single Premier League campaign. Overall in the past five seasons Arsenal have scored 13 own goals, at a rate of 2.6 a season. That is double the rate for the previous 15 years of Premier League history, when Arsenal scored 1.3 own goals per season on average.

Behind The Numbers

The 32 own goals Arsenal have scored puts them second in the all-time Premier League charts, behind Everton, who have put through their own net 36 times.

Both these sides are Premier League ever-presents, so naturally they have played more games. As such Arsenal's own goals have come once every 24.25 games on average. So, looking purely at own goals per game ratios, Blackpool lead the way, scoring at the wrong end once every 7.6 games in their only season in the Premier League.

At the other end of the spectrum, Sheffield Wednesday have scored the fewest own goals proportionately - once every 52.67 games.

As for individual players, Richard Dunne has scored the most OGs (nine) though none for Arsenal. The man third on the list is Phil Jagielka, who went down in history as the first ever scorer of an own goal at Emirates Stadium in September 2006.

Overall 3.2 per cent of all Premier League goals are own goals (almost the same as Arsenal's own ratio of 3.1 per cent). There have been 656 in the league overall, which works out as one every 24.04 games.

Stats correct as at September 20, 2012. With thanks to Opta.

Josh James also provides the stats for the Arsenal Analysis pages of the matchday programme.

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