Arsenal in 2012/13

For the 16th consecutive season, Arsenal finished in the Champions League placings.

Overall the team scored 105 goals from the 53 matches played throughout the season (at 1.98 goals per game) and conceded 60 (at 1.13 per game). Both of these figures are improvements on 2011/12, when Arsenal scored 1.78 per game, and conceded 1.24 each match on average.

The final league record was P38 W21 D10 L7 F72 A37 Pts73, meaning the team amassed more points than the previous season (73 compared to 70) and suffered three fewer league defeats.

Arsenal had the second best defensive record in the Premier League this season (compared to the eighth in 2011/12), and conceded just 14 on the road - the best in the division, and Arsenal's best away defensive record since 2003/04.

The Gunners kept 14 clean sheets throughout the Premier League campaign - nine of which came away from home. In fact the only goal Arsenal conceded on their travels since the middle of March was a penalty at West Brom, and they kept a clean sheet at Bayern Munich during that run.

The strong end to the season enabled Arsène Wenger to extend his record of finishing in the top four in every season in charge.

It's the 40th time from 96 top-flight seasons Arsenal have finished in the top four (42.5 per cent of those have come under Wenger) and the 17th in a row. That beats Arsenal's previous longest run of consecutive top four finishes - five, between 1930/31 and 1934/35.

So Arsenal will take part in the Champions League qualifiers in August, should they progress they will preserve their status of being Champions League ever-presents since 1998/99 - an achievement matched only by Real Madrid and Manchester United.

Arsenal used 35 different players in 2012/13 - three fewer than last season - though nine of these players did not appear in the Premier League.

Santi Cazorla, in his debut season, was the only member of the squad to appear in every Premier League match. He started all but one of the 38 games, and came off the bench for the last 22 minutes of the 1-0 home win over Stoke in February.

In all he was on the pitch for 3,308 minutes of the league campaign (97 per cent), ahead of Per Mertesacker (3,028 minutes) and Mikel Arteta (2,984).

This is only the 11th instance of an Arsenal player appearing in all Premier League games in a single season, and Cazorla is only the fourth outfield player to do it since the turn of the century (Cesc Fabregas, Gael Clichy and Robin van Persie are the others).

Cazorla also had the most overall appearances in the squad (49), missing out in just four games.

Twelve players made five appearances or fewer, though included in this is Lukasz Fabianski, who won all five of his games.

During the season nine players made their Arsenal debuts, taking the all-time figure of Arsenal players to 812 in the Club's 126-year history.

As far as goals were concerned, Theo Walcott led the way with 21 in all competitions, which was 20 per cent of the team's total.

The three summer signings - Cazorla, Olivier Giroud and Lukas Podoslki - also reached double figures in the Premier League scoring charts. It's the first time since 1991/92 that Arsenal have had four goalscorers netting 10 or more in the league (Kevin Campbell, Ian Wright, Alan Smith and Paul Merson).

Arsenal had 18 different scorers in all competitions - the same number as last season - and three own goals too, all scored by Southampton.

Arsenal finished the season with a 10-game unbeaten streak, their longest unbeaten run of the campaign, and the first time they had not lost any of the final 10 matches of a league season since the 'Invincible' 2003/04 campaign.

Arsenal took 26 points from the last 10 matches to produce an eight-point swing over Spurs and climb from fifth to fourth. That 26-point tally for the Premier League run-in is the second highest Arsenal have ever amassed for the final 10 games, beaten only by the 100 per cent record in 2001/02. It is eight more points than Arsenal managed for the same period in 2011/12.

Arsenal continued a trend by improving their form over the last 10 games to reach the top four. The three previous times Arsenal were below fourth place with 10 games to go (2000, 2006 and 2009) they were also particularly impressive during the run-in, winning at least seven of the last games in each season.

Throughout 2012/13 Arsenal won at least two matches in each month, and were unbeaten in August, April and May. They also had 100 per cent record for league matches in February and May - the previous time Arsenal had won each of their league matches during a month was March 2009.

The win rate before Christmas was 48 per cent, compared to 62 per cent for games post-Christmas. 

THE RUN-IN

It was fitting that Arsenal rounded off the season with a 1-0 win over Newcastle - that was the Gunners' most common scoreline this season. It was the eighth time Arsenal scored the only goal of a game with more than a quarter (28 per cent) of wins by that scoreline.

In 32 of the 53 games this season (60 per cent) there was no more than one goal between the teams.

There were 19 different scorelines, though no 3-0 or 4-0 wins, and the 15 cup and European matches produced 13 different scorelines alone.

Among them was a 7-5 win over Reading - the first time an Arsenal game has finished with that scoreline. There was also the Club's first ever 7-3 win in the Premier League, against Newcastle in December. Seventeen of the 53 games (32 per cent) featured four goals or more. 

All stats correct as at May 21, 2013