Arsenal are a team known for their passing and possession based game, so you’d expect them to be near the top of the pass accuracy rankings.
The Express put together the full top 20 for the Premier League sides so far these season, and no surprise Arsenal made the top four.
However, there were three sides ahead of the Gunners.
Here’s the full list from top to bottom:
- Manchester City – 88.6%
- Manchester United – 85.2%
- Tottenham – 85.0%
- Arsenal – 83.6%
- Chelsea – 82.3%
- Southampton – 80.5%
- Liverpool – 80.1%
- Bournemouth – 79.5%
- Everton – 78.5%
- Brighton – 78.3%
- Swansea – 76.8%
- Stoke – 76.8%
- Crystal Palace – 76.2%
- West Ham – 75.7%
- Huddersfield – 74.8%
- Watford – 74.6%
- Burnley – 72.4%
- Newcastle – 71.4%
- West Brom – 71.9%
- Leicester – 71.0%
Normally you’d expect to see Arsenal at the top, but Guardiola’s sides tend to value possession even more than Wenger’s do, so they’re likely to stay top of the list. Plus with the number of games they’ve blown teams away in, it’s been easy for City to keep possession without the pressure of needing to take risks up the field, just waiting for mistakes.
With other two, United and Spurs, I wouldn’t be surprised if Arsenal started to gain on them before long. The Gunners have had a few under-performing individuals in terms of pass accuracy, and when those players get back on form the team average is likely to increase.
Granit Xhaka is one of these individuals. Last season he completed 90% of his passes in the league, even more than players like Özil, who completed 87%. However, this season he’s way down at 83%, and the decrease in accuracy has been noted by fans watching without even looking at the stats.
When the individuals pick up their game a bit, perhaps when the season gets a bit more into the swing of things, hopefully the team average will be back at its usual very high levels.