Is Alexander-Arnold as attacking as in previous seasons?

A clean sheet and two bonus points in last Saturday’s narrow win at Crystal Palace took Trent Alexander-Arnold (£7.1m) top of the FPL defenders points table after the opening seven Gameweeks of the season.

That’s far from unfamiliar ground for the Liverpool right-back, and is perhaps expected by the roughly 31% of managers who own him, given he’s the most expensive defensive asset in the game by nearly £1.0m.

But how do Alexander-Arnold’s stats compare to last season, and to the dizzying 200-plus point heights of 2019/20 and 2021/22?

As we contemplate what to do with him from Gameweek 8 onwards, let’s take a look.

The basics

This season

Heading into this October international break, Liverpool have by far the Premier League’s best defensive record, with five clean sheets and just two goals conceded (GC) in seven games.

A mainstay in the Reds’ backline when fit, Alexander-Arnold has started all seven of those fixtures, with the shut-outs and six total bonus points (joint-top for defensive options in FPL alongside Diogo Dalot and David Raya) helping him rake in 41 points so far at an average of 5.9 per appearance.

Not for a lack of trying, Alexander-Arnold’s only attacking return so far has been an assist against Bournemouth in Gameweek 5. 

Last season

Overall, it has been a much better start than Alexander-Arnold managed in the same period during an injury-hit 2023/24 campaign, which saw him make five appearances (four starts) and earn 17 total FPL points, at a per appearance average of 3.4.

Over those opening seven games last autumn, which Alexander-Arnold missed two of through injury, Liverpool were admittedly a poorer defensive unit, keeping just one clean sheet and conceding seven times.

All in all, injuries limited him to 25 league starts in his last season under Jurgen Klopp.

With only three additional substitute appearances, that restricted gametime brought just five assists – his lowest tally since 2017/18 – and three goals, with eight clean sheets and 19 total bonus points averaging him out to 4.4 FPL points per appearance. 

If he can stay fit, those are numbers we’d expect Alexander-Arnold to pass quite easily this year, at least based on the first seven weeks of evidence.

2021/22

As Liverpool ran Manchester CIty down to the wire in that season’s title race, Alexander-Arnold bagged two goals, 12 assists and a whopping 18 clean sheets in 2021/22, adding 32 bonus points for an FPL total of 208 points.

He averaged 6.5 points per appearance, with a goal involvement roughly every 180 minutes.

2019/20

Back in the Reds’ title-winning season, meanwhile, Alexander-Arnold secured his best total FPL tally to date, with 210 points (5.5 per appearance).

Though his clean sheet (14) and bonus point (24) stats were lower than 2021/22, that all-time mark was achieved by Liverpool’s home-grown full-back appearing in all 38 matches, scoring four goals and notching 15 total assists.

Now we’ll check out some of the key underlying metrics from the opening seven weeks of this season to see how Alexander-Arnold’s stats stack up against his old self in years past.

Chance creation

He’s proven to have some brilliant goals in his locker, but assists have long been Alexander-Arnold’s bread and butter – and the main reason for his status as an FPL all-time great.

• 2024/25: 7 matches, 1 assist
• 2023/24: 28 matches, 5 assists
• 2021/22: 32 matches, 12 assists
• 2019/20: 38 matches, 15 assists

As well as those tallies above, Alexander-Arnold managed 11 assists the season before last, and 13 assists in 2018/19 – meaning he has only failed to rack up double-digits in the assist stat column twice since his breakout season).

This season so far, a look at the xA stats show he’s perhaps unlucky to have just one assist to show for his efforts.

Alexander-Arnold is averaging 0.4 xA per appearance over these first seven matches, which matches his performance in that metric over the course of 2021/22 as well as bettering last season (0.2) and even his 15-assist campaign in 2019/20 (0.3).

In terms of chances created per appearance, his current average of 2.3 so far in 2024/25 trails his season-long rate of 2.8 per appearance in 2021/22 and equals both last season and 2019/20. Alexander-Arnold’s current rate of 0.7 big chances created per match, however, is his best-ever.

Alexander-Arnold’s number of crosses per appearance (4.9) over these first seven Gameweeks is the lowest of the four seasons we’ve looked at – and trails his averages of 8.5 and 10.1 in 2021/22 and 2019/20, respectively, by some ways. 

But, his cross completion rate (32.4%) is around the same as last year and trumps both of his top-scoring FPL seasons – quality over quantity?

Though his number of corners taken per appearance has dropped from a peak of 4.3 in 2019/20 to around 2.5 both last year and so far in this campaign, the number of those deliveries which have been successful (around one per match) has stayed roughly the same. 

That also means no defender has more successful corners this season than Alexander-Arnold’s six (from 18 attempts), although Leif Davis (£4.5m) and Andy Robertson (£6.0m) have attempted more corner kicks, with 27 (five successful) and 24 (six successful), respectively.

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