Arsenal’s Attacking Options

There appears to be an abundance of Arsenal attacking options at the moment but which ones should we be investing in? I have carried out some analysis on the most common Arsenal attacking options: namely Alexis Sanchez, Olivier Giroud, Santiago Cazorla and Mesut Ozil. I will also be investigating the effect that Mesut Ozil has on each individual player.

Player overview

Alexis Sanchez is the most popular and highly owned Arsenal player in the Fantasy Premier League game with an ownership of 31.6%, whilst also being the most expensive at 11.3. This is due to his early-season form which persuaded many managers to snap up the Chilean. Santiago Cazorla is the second most owned player with 18.1% ownership followed by Olivier Giroud and Ozil at 11.3% and 5.3% respectively. The low ownership for both Ozil and Giroud could be due to injuries which have kept them out for extensive periods throughout the season.

Attacking Data

Many owners have been left frustrated at the lack of form shown by Sanchez since his return from injury in Gameweek 25 and this can be seen when compared to his team-mates. The table below shows a comparison of attacking statistics for each player.

Looking at the data above, we can see that Alexis Sanchez has registered the second most chances (five) and goal attempts (eight) compared to team-mate Mesut Ozil (11 and six) whilst also being second for shots inside the box (four) compared to Giroud, who has registered double that number.

However, the most surprising statistic is that Sanchez has neither had a single shot on target nor contributed to any of the six goals the team has scored in their last three games. This is the reason why his points per minute is the lowest out of the group. His touches in the penalty area (17) and the final third (85) are not bad compared to the rest of the players, though his minute per touch is the lowest of them all at 1.4, suggesting that Sanchez is not seeing the ball or getting involved in attacks as much as he has been before. Interestingly, Mesut Ozil has registered the highest number of chances (11) and touches in the penalty area (108) in the last three games. This remains true for all of his games that he has started this year (Gameweeks 23-27) as can be seen in Figure 3.

Gameweeks 23-27 Attacking Data

From the table above, we can see that Mesut Ozil remains top for chances created (14) and touches in the final third (172), whilst being joint top for shots on target (four). During this period, Ozil has registered two goals and five assists and has been involved in half of the goals Arsenal have scored, whilst he also has the highest points per minute of the group (0.103448). This suggests that the return of Ozil has had a positive impact on the team but a negative impact on the input of other attacking players.

The Ozil Effect

In order to test the hypothesis that Ozil has negatively impacted on certain players while helping Arsenal’s overall attacking play, I have compiled two tables of attacking data for the periods in which Ozil has started (Gameweeks 23-27) and compared it with the period of games where he did not start any games (Gameweeks 8-22). This can be found in Figure 4 below.

By analysing the data in the two tables above, we can see that, for the period of games without Ozil (Gameweeks 8-22), Alexis Sanchez was superior in terms of attacking threat, registering the highest chances (0.03211) and goal involvement (59.3%). He also has the best stats for touches in the penalty area/min (0.07244) as well as touches  in the final third/min (0.50187), whilst being on a par with Giroud for both goal attempts per minute (0.04182 vs 0.04212) and minutes per chance (25.2 vs 24.7). It should be noted that Giroud played under half the number of minutes so these comparisons should be taken with caution.

In addition, Sanchez has a very high minutes per touch average, second to Santiago Cazorla (1.2 vs 1.1). This attacking display has attributed to Sanchez scoring 10 goals and assisting six others and is the reason why his points per minute are so high (0.08887 compared to 0.06096 and 0.06593 respectively).

However, the introduction of  Ozil has seen a severe decrease in attacking input for Sanchez. This can be seen from the second table above where there is a reduced rate of chances created per minute (0.02075 vs 0.03211) and goal attempts per minute (0.04182 vs 0.03320), in addition to higher minutes per touch (1.4 vs 1.2) and minutes per chance (34.9 vs 25.2).

Although Sanchez has a similar number of touches in the penalty area per minute (0.07244 vs 0.07054), his touches in the final third have dropped slightly (0.35270 vs 0.50187), indicating that other players such as Ozil are more involved in that area. Shockingly, Sanchez has gone from having the highest goal involvement (59.3%) to not being directly involved at all.

A similar effect can also be found for Cazorla’s statistics where he has registered a decrease in many of these areas. Most notably were his touches in the penalty area (0.04090 vs 0.01639) and in the final third (0.43441 vs 0.33021) as well as his minutes per chance (29.3 vs 50.2). Cazorla’s goal attempts have also reduced (0.03627 to 0.02108) in addition to his chances created (0.03086 vs 0.02342). It seems that with the addition of Ozil in the side, Cazorla has had to adopt a more withdrawn role playing in the centre of midfield instead of his preferred no. 10 role behind the striker and the statistics prove this. Interestingly, only one of his goals has been scored from open play, the remaining six being penalties. The only player to have gained any benefit from Ozil’s return is Olivier Giroud, as can be seen from his improved minutes per touch (1.2 vs 1.5) and goal involvement (62.5% vs 35.7%).

Conclusion

In conclusion, the introduction of Ozil has had a detrimental effect on other Arsenal midfield options, especially Sanchez and Cazorla, while Giroud has gained a slight benefit from the playmaker’s ability to create numerous chances. I would highly recommend transferring the German international into your teams as soon as possible as there is still enough time to profit from the nice run of fixtures they have remaining as Arsenal look to clinch a top-four place.