Arsenal stats comparison with last season after eleven games

Arsenal have started the 2013/14 season extraordinarily well and find themselves top of the table after 11 matches. Their five-point lead over Liverpool and Chelsea was cut short to just two after defeat to Manchester United at the weekend, but they remain the team to beat. It is a completely different story to last season’s start for the Gunners, who struggled in the early part of last season, eventually finding form when it mattered to secure their place in the top four.

Season	Played	Won	Draw	Loss	GF	GA	CS	FS	Pts
12/13 Season	11	4	4	3	18	11	4	3	17
13/14 (This Season)	11	8	1	2	22	10	3	1	25

This season, Arsene Wenger has amassed 25 points from the opening 11 games. In comparison to last season, the Gunners managed to reach just 16 points and were in eighth, 11 points off the leaders, Man Utd.

Arsenal were closer to the bottom of the table than the top after 11 games last season.

Key Arsenal Stats (After 11 Games) From Last Season

Their goals scored and conceded are an improvement this season, too, which is no surprise. Having scored 22 goals so far this season, that’s an improvement on 18 and 10 conceded this time around is also better than 11 last season.

Key Arsenal Stats From Opening 11 Games This Season

In 2013/14 the north Londoners have lost just twice compared to three last season. They also drew more of their opening games last season.

There is a clinical and hard-faced edge to Arsenal this season, something not seen for several years. For the first time in a while, their defence is hard to knock down and break through; their midfield is controlling games with ease and Olivier Giroud, up front, is leading the line well. They look like a solid unit and things have finally clicked into the right places when, last season, they looked slightly disjointed and inconsistent.

Saying that, though, last season they won a higher percentage of their duels and kept possession more.

This season, they have won 54% of their duels (notably 174/252 tackles) compared to last season’s slight improvement of 57% (184/239 tackles).

Arsenal Duels Won (This Season)

Their average possession over the 11 games of both season’s has decreased slightly this year, too. At the start of 2012/13, the Gunners were averaging 56% compared to this season’s 53%. This shows that while Arsenal dominated the ball slightly more often in their games last season, they weren’t as dangerous with it as they are so far this season.

Their shot accuracy has increased considerably this season, rising from 47% to 58%. The 2013/14 Arsenal have also been more effective from set-pieces, scoring once more this season than last (4 to 3).

Arsenal still play the same silky football as they always have, but this season they’re more clinical with the ball. They have created 21 less chances than last season (139) but have managed to score slightly more goals as well as provide more assists (18 to last season’s 11).

Due to their more aggressive attitude, they have received more yellow cards and reds than last season. So far, they’ve had 20 yellows and three reds, compared to last year’s 11 and one.

Their points-per-game is 2.27 this season. That would be good enough to put them in second place last season due to Man Utd’s superb start of 9 wins in their opening 11 matches.

Last season, Arsenal’s p/g were a poor 1.45, a considerable difference to this season’s figure.

2013/14 is an immeasurable improvement on 2012/13 so far for the Gunners. While they had more possession and created more chances last season, they looked fragile at times and lacked the clinical touch to dispatch teams. This season is a complete turnaround as the defence is as solid as ever and their attacking intent is impressive and hasn’t been as threatening as it is for a while.