Behind the Numbers: Tomas Rosicky

In the third of our mini-series analysing Arsenal's top five players of the season, our statistician Josh James reflects on Tomas Rosicky's 2011/12 stats.

Tomas Rosicky made more appearances last season (38) than in any of his previous five campaigns.

One of the longest-serving players in the squad, the Czech midfielder started 25 matches, came off the bench a further 13 times, and was involved throughout the campaign, playing at least twice in each of the ten months of the season. He was an unused sub on four occasions.

His appearance data can be broken down as follows: Premier League 28, Champions League 8, FA Cup 2; and his individual playing record was W22 D7 L9 F69 A50 for a win average of 57.9 per cent.

Both of his goals came in home games, in the wins over Tottenham and AC Milan. Having missed much of the past few seasons with injury, his strike against Spurs was his first in the league for more than two years, while his Champions League goal against Milan was his first in that competition since August 2007.

An increasingly influential member of the team as the season wore on, he was on the pitch for 2,335 minutes (just under 39 hours) of 2011/12, which averaged out at 61.4 minutes per outing. He played the full 90 minutes 17 times, and captained the team to victory over Olympiacos.

As an illustration of Rosicky's growing importance to the team in the second half of the season, his average time on pitch for his first 19 games of the season was 45 minutes 29 seconds compared to 77 minutes 25 seconds per game during his last 19 games of the season.

To express it another way, between August and January he played 29.7 per cent of the available minutes, yet between February and May that rocketed to 81.9 per cent.

Rosicky also produced three of his five assists at the business end of the season – against Wigan, Stoke and Norwich. His longest run of consecutive appearances was 16 - between January 15 and April 8.

Behind The Numbers

Behind The Numbers

Behind The Numbers

Stats correct as at May 30, 2012. Josh James also provides the stats for the Arsenal Analysis pages of the matchday programme. To subscribe, or buy online, click here.