Behind the Numbers: Walcott's half-century

This week Arsenal statistician Josh James takes a look Theo Walcott's half century of Gunners goals.

With his strike against Schalke on Tuesday night, Theo Walcott became the 47th player in Arsenal history to reach a half-century of goals for the Club.

The goal came on his 233rd appearance for the Club, meaning he has netted at the rate of once every 4.66 games. However, a big caveat to that stat is that just 145 (62 per cent) of Walcott's outings have been starts – only six other players on the list of 50+ goalscorers started fewer games.

So purely in terms of starts per goal, Walcott scores once every 2.9 games, similar to Dennis Bergkamp's starts per goal ratio of 2.88, for example.

The 47 members of the '50 Club' obviously include some of the biggest names in the Club's history - Walcott is now within 10 goals of both Liam Brady and Cesc Fabregas.

On average, the 47 players with 50 goals or more for Arsenal played 264 games for the Club.

Walcott has spread his goals around various competitions, scoring 28 in the Premier League, 11 in the Champions League, nine in the League Cup and two in the FA Cup.

Less than half (22) have been scored at home with 26 in away games and two at neutral venues – one at Wembley and one, his first for the Club, at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.

That first goal was the opener in the Carling Cup final against Chelsea in 2007 and came in his 28th game for the Club - 13 months after he joined from Southampton, aged 16.

At the beginning of the 2008/09 season Walcott was handed Thierry Henry's old No 14 shirt, and has scored 42 goals in 162 games since then, compared to eight in 71 games in his old No 32 jersey.

Walcott is Arsenal's top scorer so far this season, with eight goals, and he is only five goals away from matching his previous best seasonal tally of 13, set in 2010/11.

He's scored 15 goals so far in the calendar year of 2012, his most prolific year to date.

Behind The Numbers

Behind The Numbers

Walcott's 50 goals have been scored against 30 different teams, with London rivals Chelsea and Tottenham his most favoured opposition - he has four against each of them. His goals against Chelsea, incidentally, have come at four different venues: Millennium Stadium, Wembley, Emirates Stadium and Stamford Bridge.

His hat-trick against Reading last month was the second time he had claimed the match ball, following his treble against Blackpool in August 2010. He's also scored five braces.

Bold = home games

Behind The Numbers

As well as reaching 50 goals for Arsenal, Walcott has racked up more than a half-century of assists for the Gunners - his current tally of 54 is more than any other player on the books.

They include a hat-trick of assists in the Reading game, including two corners, meaning he was directly involved in six goals in the game.

In addition to his 50 goals for Arsenal, Walcott scored five times for Southampton's senior side, and has netted four times from 30 full England caps, including a hat-trick against Croatia in 2008.

Stats correct as at November 7, 2012.

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

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