Everton’s defeat at Ewood Park was a major disappointment and with Wildcards already being fluttered around the Fantasy Premier League fraternity, there is already talk of Mikel Arteta being sacrificed for cheap emerging talents such as Marc Albrighton at Villa.

Some quick analysis of Arteta’s performance however shows that while David Moyes’ side were largely neutralised by an effective defensive display from Blackburn, the Spaniard typically remained at the forefront of Everton’s attacking play.

The playmaker enjoyed 82 touches in the game, that’s just 2 less than his average last season over his 13 appearances, ranking him up there with the most involved midfielders over the weekend (11th overall). Distribution stats show that the Spaniard made 67 passes and significantly 4 of these led to Everton attempts on goal. While this total was matched, no midfielder bettered that key pass tally in gameweek one. Added to this Arteta put in 5 crossed balls and completed 7 successful layoffs and only three other midfielders completed more passes (40) in the opponent’s half so far in the gameweek.

Last season’s performance stats show that Arteta average of just over 4 crossed balls per game and just over 2 key passes per game over his 13 appearances. It all indicates that Arteta put in a decent shift then and, had Everton turned any of their 12 attempts into goals, he may well have notched Fantasy returns or fallen in favour of the Fantasy Premier League Bonus Point judges.

With home games against Wolves and Newcastle to come over the next four, patience looks the best policy with Arteta judging by this analysis.

Just a reminder that these kind of performance statistics from Opta are available to all Members. A Members only article providing further analysis of key performers from the weekend is on its way after tonight’s game.