The stats behind Arsenal’s dominance of Chelsea

Arsenal beat Chelsea 2-1 at the Emirates, but the underlying numbers show a far more dominant display than the scoreline suggests.

Photo by Justin Setterfield/Getty Images

Arsenal produced a far more dominant performance against Chelsea than the 2-1 scoreline suggested, overturning an early deficit at the Emirates Stadium while controlling the areas of the game that mattered most.

The visitors went ahead after only two minutes when Morgan Rogers found the net from range after Jorrel Hato had won the ball as Arsenal defended poorly, but the Gunners recovered steadily rather than allowing the early goal to alter the shape of the match.

Kai Havertz equalised in the 25th minute against his former club before Martin Odegaard completed the turnaround five minutes into the second half.

His winning goal came from a fast break and was recorded at 0.59 xG and 0.14 xGOT.

Before that, Arsenal had a goal ruled out for offside.

For supporters, the narrow margin made the closing stages feel tighter than the game itself had been. The underlying numbers show Arsenal were comfortably superior in decisive areas.

Arsenal finished with 55 per cent possession and completed 385 of 457 passes at 84 per cent accuracy.

Chelsea completed 309 of 379 at 82 per cent.

The difference was even clearer in the opposition half, where Arsenal completed 265 passes compared with Chelsea's 191.

The quality of the chances was more striking still.

Arsenal produced 2.11 expected goals to Chelsea's 0.35 and created all four of the match's big chances.

Arsenal also registered 45 touches in the Chelsea penalty area, while Chelsea managed just 25 in Arsenal's.

13 of Arsenal's 16 shots came from inside the box, compared with five for Chelsea.

Arsenal had nine efforts on target and forced eight saves from the visiting goalkeeper, while David Raya made four, albeit one of them was world class from Estevao , on as a late second half sub.

The xG breakdown underlined the same pattern.

Arsenal generated 1.45 xG from open play and another 0.66 from set pieces.

Chelsea produced 0.28 from open play and 0.07 from set pieces.

Arsenal's xG on target stood at 2.39, compared with 0.36 for Chelsea.

The visitors did compete well in direct contests. Chelsea edged the overall duel count 43-42 and won 16 aerial duels to Arsenal's 13.

Arsenal, though, were stronger on the ground, winning 29 duels to Chelsea's 27.

Those numbers mattered less than what each side did with possession.

Chelsea's defensive workload reflected Arsenal's sustained pressure. They made six blocks to Arsenal's two and committed 16 fouls, collecting four yellow cards.

Arsenal committed 13 fouls and were booked twice, one of which went to Christos Tzolis for waving an imaginary card.

Chelsea can also consider themselves incredibly fortunate that Cole Palmer , who was booked for a clear pull back to stop a break was not booked minutes earlier for deliberately studding Myles Lewis-Skelly 's Achilles.

Arsenal also covered more ground, 120.2km to Chelsea's 114.1km, while the visitors made 107 sprints to Arsenal's 104, but covered less ground with them (2.7km v 2.6).

The scoreline says Arsenal won by a single goal. The statistics tell a clearer story.

Chelsea scored almost immediately, but Arsenal created every big chance, generated more than six times their xG, spent far more time in dangerous areas and repeatedly forced the visitors back towards their own goal.

It felt close because Arsenal did not make their superiority count more emphatically.

In terms of control and chance creation, it was anything but.