Ahead of Gameweek 11, our Big Numbers article looks at the Opta and StatsBomb data available in our Premium Members Area.
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GOALKEEPERS
54 saves made by Mark Flekken (£4.5m) this season, the most among all Premier League goalkeepers through the opening 10 Gameweeks. Despite the extra points garnered from those saves, though, the Brentford shot-stopper is also the only first-choice ‘keeper in the top flight who has started more than half of his team’s matches who is yet to keep a clean sheet. He has failed to do so in all 10 fixtures so far.
-4.60 xGP by Alphonse Areola (£4.4m) is the worst mark in that metric across the league, with the Frenchman having conceded 14 goals from an xG on target conceded (xG OTC) of 9.4. Areola was of course replaced between the sticks over the last two Gameweeks by Łukasz Fabiański (£4.0m), who has done markedly better than his colleague to accrue an xGP of +1.1.
Hammers aside, the top performing goalies for this stat – aside from Bournemouth’s Mark Travers (£4.4m), who has been filling in for the injured Kepa Arrizabalaga (£4.5m) – are Andre Onana (£5.0m), Nick Pope (£5.0m) and Dean Henderson (£4.4m), whose xGP scores are all +3.0 or better.
DEFENDERS
25 is the number of chances created (CC) by Leif Davis (£4.5m). The Ipswich left-back continues to lead all Premier League defenders in that metric, followed by Trent Alexander-Arnold (£7.0m), Pedro Porro (£5.5m) and Lewis Hall (£4.3m). Davis – whose attacking promise has begun to be realised in recent weeks, with an assist and a goal in his last two league matches – is also joint-top for big chances created (BCC) with Aston Villa’s Lucas Digne (£4.6m), on seven to date.
5 attacking returns for the much-lauded Rayan Aït-Nouri (£4.7m) of Wolves is the most by a defender so far this season. With a goal and three assists, Nathan Collins (£4.5m) isn’t far behind. Aït-Nouri has had 12 goal attempts, 10 of them in the box and three of them big chances, and faces fellow strugglers Southampton at home next – though he is outperforming his expected goal involvement (xGI) by +3.37 as things stand.
-2.36 xGI delta, on the flip side, is the league-leading figure among defenders where we find Alexander-Arnold. Liverpool’s right-back still has no goals and only a single assist this season, despite being among the top defenders for CC and BCC and miles ahead of the pack for xGI.
2.42 xG delta by Joško Gvardiol (£6.3m), meanwhile, is the biggest margin between actual and expected goals scored among all Premier League defenders. The attack-minded City defender has three goals in his last five league matches despite having amassed a cumulative xG of just 0.58 from his 15 total shots (a tally bettered only by Porro’s 19), while he trails only Cristian Romero (£5.1m) for baseline bonus points (BBPS). Gvardiol’s 200,000 new owners ahead of Gameweek 11 will be hoping the Croatian can keep outperforming those expected stats despite his side’s stuttering form.
4 is the number of big chances that Nikola Milenković (£4.5m) has had through the first 10 Gameweeks. That puts him joint-top among defenders with Gabriel Magalhaes (£6.2m), although the towering Nottingham Forest centre-back is yet to tuck any of his big chances away. The Arsenal man has scored twice. Milenković has had seven shots in total, and his xG of 1.48 is better than all defenders bar Aït-Nouri (1.50). This suggests it might just be a matter of time before he finds the net.
MIDFIELDERS
