Manuel Pellegrini’s West Ham United were the team to finally end Maurizio Sarri’s Chelsea’s 100 per cent Premier League record on Sunday afternoon, with a keenly-contested goalless draw at London Stadium, in which both teams had plenty of chances. Today, we crunch all the key statistics from the fiery encounter, join us.
Possession
The first team statistic from Stratford that we are going to analyse is possession, the percentage of the amount of the ball that each team saw in the match, usually dominated by the winning side.
With such a landslide in terms of the possession, the visitors enjoying 71.8% to the hosts’ 28.2, it is a surprise that the Blues didn’t leave East London with the three points, but as we will find out later, it doesn’t matter how much possession you have, you still need to create and score clear-cut chances.
Shots
We are barely one stat in and we are already seeing a trend develop in this analysis, Chelsea dominance, but that wasn’t necessarily the way the game actually panned out.
The visitors to London Stadium managed to get 17 shots away at goal, evidence that they were wasteful with their opportunities, meanwhile, the Hammers could only just about manage a third of that total, with six, although they had the better chances on home soil.
Shots On Target
You can have all the shots in the world, but if you can’t get them on target, then, you won’t be successful, a further clue as to how and why Pellegrini’s men were able to prevent Sarri’s from winning the game.
Of their 17, the away side could direct just six at goal and get them on target, that’s comfortably under half, however, having said this, West Ham could only register one of their six on target themselves, not a day for the strikers.
Pass Completion
Passing completion is a crucial aspect in any game at football, especially when it comes to the flow of the match and a free-flowing side like Chelsea will always be expected to do better than their opponents, in this regard.
This was exactly the case on Sunday afternoon, the West Londoners managing to complete 87.6 per cent of their passes, while it was a more dogged, battling and scrappy effort from the home team, achieving only 74.4.
Key Passes
Once again, key passes is a stat that is usually dominated by the team on top in the match, in this case, the side from West London, as they opened up the home defence, wiuth many more key passes, than vice-versa.
Pellegrini’s men could only sign for five, which may seem like a snall amount, however, against the team that had a 100% record and sat at the top of the table ahead of the weekend, that is a much better figure, which was trumped by an opposing 16.
Corners
Things were not much tighter when it came to corners, either, which will have disappointed the Claret & Blue Army, with many eariel threats on their team, namely the likes of Andriy Yarmolenko, Issa diop, Fabian Balbuena and co.
The PL’s 17th-placed team at the ed of Sunday could win just one, eight was the number for the Blues and this is yet one more stat that will leave them pondering why they didn’t get that elusive goal, given the height in their ranks, too.
Clearances
Our final two team statistics are a measure of the performance of the defence and goalkeeper of the two Xls, as opposed to their midfield or their attack.
This is also a rare area where the home team have higher numbers, when it comes to the stat oif number of clearances completed, weighing in with a whopping 44, while their opposition were forced into just eight, though, it must be said that some of them were crucial.
Saves
The saves made stat is certainly one of the more positiove ones for Hammers fans and players and more soecufucally, goalkeeper, Lukasz Fabianski, who picked up the Man of the Match award, at full-time.
The Polish Internaional was tasked with keeping out six shots on target, and made six saves, two of them ourstading inside the final hakf-hour, firstly,m to keep oyr substite Alvaro Morata with his face and then, to deny Ross Barkley’s accurate long-range effort, up the other end, Kepa Arrizabalaga had one save to make, albeit a good one, to stop Michail Antonio from breaking the deadlock.
So, now that all the key team stats from another excellent result for Pellegrini’s West Ham have been well and truly crunched, will we be analysing yet more positive stats come Thursday afternoon, after the Hammers have faced off with Macclesfield Town in the Carabao Cup, at London Stadium? Join us, once again, then, to find out.
