Behind the Numbers: Arsenal in 2012

This week our statistician Josh James provides a statistical review of Arsenal's year.

Arsenal ended 2012 with a marginally higher win percentage than the previous year, and also scored more goals - despite playing eight fewer games than in 2011.

The overall win rate for the calendar year was 51.9 per cent from the 52 matches played, a shade higher than the 51.7 per cent from 2011. The Gunners also scored at a very healthy 2.1 goals per game, netting 109 in all competitions, and finishing the 12-month period with a +42 goal difference.

In effect Arsenal played a full Premier League season during 2012 (38 games), and would have earned 67 points, with a record of W19 D10 L9. In a hypothetical Premier League table for 2012, Arsenal would have finished fifth, though having played three fewer games than fourth-placed Everton who earned 68 points.

It was the seventh year in a row the team amassed 100 or more goals, and the rate of 2.1 per game has only been bettered once this century (in 2004).

The overall win percentage was very similar to 2011 and 2008, but some way short of Arsenal's best ever year in terms of win ratio, which was 2002 (66.7 per cent). That year even compares favourably to the Double-winning years of 1971 (63.9 win per cent) and 1998 (55.9 win per cent); and the best year from the glorious 1930s era, which was 1930 (54 win per cent).

The tally of 52 games played is the lowest for a calendar year since 1997, when Arsenal - who weren’t in the Champions League - played just 45 games.

* includes defeat on penalties to Bradford after 1-1 draw

Analysing the year month by month reveals a familiar tale: there was another November to forget, with one notable exception.

Arsenal recorded a stunning 5-2 win over Tottenham on November 17 - repeating the scoreline from February 26 - but that was one of only two November wins. The win percentage of 29 was the lowest of any month in 2012, other than August, which contained just the two goalless draws.

The best month statistically was March, when the Gunners turned their season around with five wins out of six.

The best run of the year was undoubtedly from late February until the end of the season, and then into the new campaign. Arsenal lost just two of 21 games in all competitions between February 26 and September 26, triggered by the first 5-2 north London derby win of the year.

* includes defeat on penalties to Bradford after 1-1 draw

Thomas Vermaelen - who was named club captain midway through the year - made the most appearances for Arsenal in 2012. He played 45 games and spent 3,989 minutes on the pitch - over 11 and a half hours more than anyone else.

Arsenal played 4,740 minutes in all competitions in 2012, so Vermaelen was on the pitch 84.2 per cent of the time.

Nobody played in more wins than Vermaelen (24), and he had an individual win percentage of 53.33 per cent. Looking at those who played five or more games in 2012, the player with the best win percentage was Jack Wilshere. Arsenal won 58.33 per cent of the games (seven out of 12) with Wilshere back in the team, following his long awaited return from injury.

Bacary Sagna's own return to the side following injury was also significant - he had the second best win percentage (58.06) from his 31 appearances, followed by Theo Walcott and Thierry Henry (both 57.14 per cent).

Arsenal used 39 players in all during 2012 (seven fewer than in 2011) and handed out eight first-team debuts.

Twenty-two of the 39 players (56 per cent) got on the scoresheet during the year, scoring 106 goals between them, at an average of 4.8 each. There were also three own goals in Arsenal's favour.

Walcott led the way with 21 goals, which was 19 per cent of the total. 2012 was his most productive year yet in terms of goals scored, and 13 more than he netted in 2011.

Despite only arriving in the summer, Lukas Podolski, Olivier Giroud and Santi Cazorla scored 25 goals between them.

Behind The Numbers

Behind The Numbers

Fittingly, Arsenal's last game of the year featured plenty of goals. In fact it was the eighth time in 2012 that the Gunners scored five or more in a single game. That's 15.4 per cent of the total matches, or once every six and a half fixtures.

Unfortunately Arsenal's first result of the year - a 2-1 defeat at Fulham - also set something of a precedent. That was the most common scoreline of the year. Seven of the defeats were by the odd goal in three, though Arsenal only lost by more than one goal four times all year.

Johan Djourou was sent off on the opening day of the year at Craven Cottage, but that proved to be one of just two red cards all year for Arsenal - a vast improvement on the seven dismissals in 2011.

Saturday's win over Newcastle threw up a number of stats and milestones.

Theo Walcott's opening goal was the 250th Arsenal have scored in the Premier League at Emirates Stadium (from 123 games) while the third goal, scored by Lukas Podolski, was the 400th overall the Gunners have registered at the venue, from 184 games in all competitions.

Walcott scored his third hat-trick for the Club, becoming the 26th player to net three or more trebles for Arsenal.

It was the 36th hat-trick of the Arsène Wenger era and Arsenal's 34th Premier League hat-trick overall.

It was only the 14th occasion in the club's history of a game featuring 10 goals or more, and the first time it's happened in a home match since a 7-3 win over Man City in 1956/57.

More details here

Behind The Numbers

Stats correct as at December 31, 2012.

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

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