Opta Analyst
@OptaAnalyst
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Data-driven storytelling for sport. 📈 🏈 🏀 ⚾️ 🏒 ⛳️ are @OptaAnalystUS Sign up for our Stat, Viz, Quiz football newsletter:
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𝐎𝐩𝐭𝐚 𝐅𝐨𝐨𝐭𝐛𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐚 𝐇𝐮𝐛𝐬: 2024-25 🆕
Make sure you bookmark these for 2024-25!
Our new Opta football data hubs are now live on , featuring articles, team & player stats, predictions, match centres and much more for the season ahead. 📈
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With 17.7% of the ball, Japan have won a World Cup game with the lowest possession figure in recorded WC history.
#FIFAWorldCup
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Only one team (Man City's 21 vs Leeds in December) have had more shots inside the box in a Premier League match this season than Arsenal did vs. Manchester United on Sunday (20).
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Goals scored at The Valley
@Vikkstar123
: 2 (in 3 games)
Cristiano Ronaldo: 0 (in 3 games)
#sidemenCharityMatch
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Of the 1,360 Premier League games that have seen a team lead 2-0 at half-time, 1,256 have been won by that side (92.4%). Just 34 have lost and 70 have drawn.
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Premier League 2022-23 🏴
Most open play attacking sequence involvements
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Cristiano Ronaldo's major tournament free-kick success?
1/60 (1.7%)
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What position was he playing, again? What an engine.
No player made more touches than Oleksandr Zinchenko (85) in today's match.
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Wins by African nations at
#FIFAWorldCup
tournaments (updated):
1978: 1 🇹🇳
1982: 2 🇩🇿🇩🇿
1986: 1 🇲🇦
1990: 3 🇨🇲🇨🇲🇨🇲
1994: 2 🇳🇬🇳🇬
1998: 3 🇳🇬🇳🇬🇲🇦
2002: 4 🇸🇳🇸🇳🇨🇲🇿🇦
2006: 3 🇬🇭🇬🇭🇨🇮
2010: 4 🇬🇭🇬🇭🇿🇦🇨🇮
2014: 3 🇨🇮🇳🇬🇩🇿
2018: 3 🇸🇳🇳🇬🇹🇳
2022: 7 🇸🇳🇸🇳🇲🇦🇲🇦🇹🇳🇬🇭🇨🇲
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Tell me Bukayo Saka's actually playing on the right without telling me Bukayo Saka's actually playing on the right...
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Kylian Mbappé's record since his debut in each competition:
World Cup: 14 goals involvements in 14 games (12 goals, 2 assists) - the most.
Champions League: 63 in 61 games (40 goals, 23 assists) - the second most.
Ligue 1: 222 in 217 games (164 goals, 58 assists) - the most.
🤔 “The problem I have with calling Kylian Mbappe the best in the world?”
👀 “He’s never played in a top league, and he hasn’t done it in the Champions League…”
Rory Jennings explains his issue with labelling Kylian Mbappe the best in the world
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Lionel Messi vs. Cristiano Ronaldo in 2022-23.
An age-old rivalry between two greats. It's a one-sided battle this season, however.
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𝐇𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐖𝐞 𝐆𝐨: The Fab 5 📝
Nobody has their finger on the pulse in the football transfer world quite like
@FabrizioRomano
, so we asked him to give us five Premier League transfers to keep an eye on this January.
Who did he pick? Click below to find out... ⬇️
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A 35-year-old man leads the tournament in xG and open-play chances created.
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Ugurcan Çakir prevented 11.9 goals from shots faced on target in the Turkish Super Lig 2020-21 - the best of any goalkeeper in the league.
We're seeing his quality so far tonight for Turkey.
#euro2020
#TUR
#ITA
@EnSuperLig
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The four Premier League central defenders to carry the ball out from defence (progressive carries) the most often in 2022-23 so far:
Rúben Dias: 88 Prog. Carries
William Saliba: 72 Prog. Carries
Gabriel Magalhães: 70 Prog. Carries
Max Kilman: 65 Prog. Carries
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A Guide to PL Time-Wasting ⌚️
Time-wasting or game management? However you define it, we can see who does it most.
⏱ Newcastle take 37 secs per goalkick, more than 3 secs longer than any other team
⏱ Bazunu burned 13 mins while taking goalkicks v Arsenal
More insights ⬇️
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Zinchenko has put on a passing clinic tonight.
Slide rule 📏
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Kobbie Mainoo is the first teenager to score in an FA Cup final since....
Alejandro Garnacho 10 minutes ago 😂
#EmiratesFACup
Alejandro Garnacho is the first teenager to score in an FA Cup final since Cristiano Ronaldo for Manchester United against Millwall in 2004
#EmiratesFACup
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Mohamed Salah now has 300 goal involvements (212 goals, 88 assists) in all competitions for Liverpool after 350 games. 🇪🇬👑
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Across the 12 years that Barclays sponsored the Premier League, these were the leading chance creators per 90 (1,000+ mins):
Dimitri Payet - 4.2
Mesut Özil - 3.7
Kevin De Bruyne, Sylvain Marveaux - 3.5
David Silva - 3.3
Florent Malouda - 3.2
Ryan Giggs - 3.1
Christian Eriksen -
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Kai Havertz's goal tonight (Arsenal's fourth) was the 150,000th goal scored in English top-flight league history.
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🤌🤌🤌
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Arsenal are six points ahead of Man City having played a game more, plus they still have to face Man City at the Etihad Stadium.
All current PL table predictions:
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100 Manchester United goals for Marcus Rashford⭐️
Here's the location of each one 🔽
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Manchester United only had 12 themselves.
The difference of 51 touches in the opposition box between Arsenal (63) and Man Utd (12) has only been higher in one Premier League game this season:
53 difference in Man City (56) 4-0 Southampton (3) back in October.
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It was actually 51:23.
33 Premier League games in 2022-23 have seen the ball in play for less time than Arsenal vs. Newcastle last night.
It was 'in play' for 52% of total match time - the 34th lowest of all PL games in 2022-23.
The ball was in play for a total of 43:17 seconds out of a 90 minute match…
That’s actually mental 🤯
WC extra time needs to come to the premier league ✅
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𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐦𝐩𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐠𝐮𝐞 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟒-𝟐𝟓: Fixture Difficulty 🗓
Following the Champions League draw, we’ve used the Opta Power Rankings to work out the difficulty of each team’s fixtures in the 2024-25 group stage.
Read more here:
✍️
@alitweedale
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18 seconds
8 passes
8 different players involved
1 lovely goal 👏
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Leicester 2-3 Tottenham
Spurs with the HIGHEST xG in a PL game this season and it looked to be all for nothing.... until Steven Bergwijn did a madness.
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The current top 10 Asian clubs in the Opta Power Rankings:
1: Al Ittihad (
@ittihad
) 🇸🇦
2: Al Hilal (
@Alhilal_FC
) 🇸🇦
3: Al Nassr (
@AlNassrFC
) 🇸🇦
4: Al Shabab (
@AlShababSaudiFC
) 🇸🇦
5: Yokohama F. Marinos (
@prompt_fmarinos
) 🇯🇵
6: Ulsan 🇰🇷
7: Persepolis (
@PersepolisFC
) 🇮🇷
8:
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Spurs have had nine open play shots after Yves Bissouma has regained possession from an opponent - two more than any other Premier League player in 2022-23...
... he's played 581 minutes.
#THFC
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Liverpool in cup finals across 2021-22 (before penalty shootouts):
330 minutes
0 goals
61 shots
17 shots on target
5.7 expected goals
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Man Utd 2022-23
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Japan have won a World Cup game while having the second-lowest possession figure in history (26.2%)
The record?
South Korea's 26% possession against Germany in 2018 😲
#FIFAWorldCup
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Robert Lewandowski received just 16 passes in the first half against Mexico - half of those were from goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny.
A difficult 45 minutes for one of the world's best strikers...
#FIFAWorldCup
|
#MEXPOL
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Most competitive goal involvements (goals & assists) by players for Premier League clubs since Bruno Fernandes' debut at Man Utd on 1 Feb 2020:
Mohamed Salah: 157
Harry Kane: 131
Bruno Fernandes: 126
Kevin De Bryune: 115
Son Heung-Min: 109
Phil Foden: 92
Riyad Mahrez: 90
Marcus
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@FabrizioRomano
Only Marcelo Brozovic (44) initiated an open play sequence that ended in a team shot more often than Casemiro (43) across the top five European leagues in 2021-22.
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Since the start of last season, Bukayo Saka is one of just five players to score at least seven Premier League goals with both feet.
Bukayo Saka - 7 R, 18 L
Ollie Watkins - 15 R, 7 L
Son Heung-min - 14 R, 8 L
Erling Haaland - 7 R, 34 L
Mohamed Salah - 7 R, 25 L
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Marcelo Bielsa has turned Leeds United into a monster.
More data, here:
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Mohamed Salah's record-breaking 129 Premier League goals for Liverpool. ⬇️
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In 2022, Lionel Messi became the first Argentine captain to lift the FIFA World Cup trophy since Diego Maradona in 1986. 🇦🇷
Judging by his heatmap in the final vs. France, Messi paid homage to the Argentine legend on the pitch, too.
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Ipswich Town have scored more league goals than any other side in the top four tiers of English football since Kieran McKenna's first game (29 December 2021).
Ipswich - 210
Man City - 206
Mansfield - 193
Arsenal - 187
Liverpool - 184
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James Ward-Prowse had his first ever shot from a direct free kick in the Premier League on 2nd November 2013.
Since then, here's the most prolific players from free-kicks across the top five European leagues & their conversion rate.
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The highest performing English central defender in Europe this season based on the Opta Index scoring system?
Chris Smalling at Roma (76.3/100).
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Jude Bellingham's first World Cup half:
◾️ 40/40 passes completed
◾️ 10/10 passes completed in the final third
◾️ Second youngest English scorer at the World Cup
Baller.
#FIFAWorldCup
#ENGIRN
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Euro 2008 v Turkey (QF) ✅
Euro 2016 v Portugal (L16) ✅
WC 2018 v Denmark (L16) ✅
WC 2018 v Russia (QF) ✅
WC 2018 v England (SF) ✅
WC 2018 v France (F) ❌
Euro 2021 v Spain (L16) ✅
WC 2022 v Japan (L16) ✅
7 of Croatia's last 8 tournament KO games have gone to extra time...
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Fred regained possession with eight tackles for Man Utd against Leeds today. This is the most by a player in a single Premier League game for over two years.
Kyle Walker-Peters (also 8, for Southampton vs Fulham on Boxing Day 2020) was the last.
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How big is tonight's Tottenham vs Manchester City game in the Premier League?
Yeah... pretty big.
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Total days spent in the top six of the Championship this season by selected clubs:
Blackburn Rovers: 211
Watford: 137
Norwich City: 136
Millwall: 126
QPR: 72
Reading: 58
--------------------------------
Coventry City: 17
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Manchester City's Premier League games have seen the ball in play for an average of 60:44 this season (the most), while Aston Villa's games have seen the ball in play for an average of 51:52 - nearly nine minutes lower.
All games last 90 minutes...except they don't.
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To go with his goal, William Saliba completed every single one of his 75 passes today - the most of any player on the pitch.
Rolls-Royce.
#BOUARS
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𝐀𝐅𝐂𝐎𝐍 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟏: 𝐖𝐡𝐨 𝐖𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐖𝐢𝐧? 🏆
Our pre-tournament
#AFCON2021
predictions have Nigeria and Morocco as the most likely teams to win the Africa Cup of Nations, starting on Sunday.
Read how we've got these results & how we think the tournament will play out. ⬇️
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Callum Wilson leads all Premier League players this season for:
Goals per 90: 1.91
xG per 90: 1.58
Second in both those metrics?
Alexander Isak.
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Wins by African nations at
#FIFAWorldCup
tournaments:
1978: 1 🇹🇳
1982: 2 🇩🇿🇩🇿
1986: 1 🇲🇦
1990: 3 🇨🇲🇨🇲🇨🇲
1994: 2 🇳🇬🇳🇬
1998: 3 🇳🇬🇳🇬🇲🇦
2002: 4 🇸🇳🇸🇳🇨🇲🇿🇦
2006: 3 🇬🇭🇬🇭🇨🇮
2010: 4 🇬🇭🇬🇭🇿🇦🇨🇮
2014: 3 🇨🇮🇳🇬🇩🇿
2018: 3 🇸🇳🇳🇬🇹🇳
2022: 6 🇸🇳🇸🇳🇲🇦🇲🇦🇹🇳🇬🇭
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It's almost like this is where Lionel Messi is the most lethal on the pitch...
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Karim Benzema's new side (according to reports) are the best football club in Asia, based on the Opta Power Rankings. ⬇️
1: Al Ittihad (
@ittihad
) 🇸🇦
2: Al Hilal (
@Alhilal_FC
) 🇸🇦
3: Al Nassr (
@AlNassrFC
) 🇸🇦
4: Persepolis (
@PersepolisFC
) 🇮🇷
5: Ulsan 🇰🇷
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Premier League 2022-23 🏴
How reliant are sides on crosses as a way to get the ball into the box?
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Arsenal 3-2 Man Utd: A brilliant game of football. Based on quality of chances, Arsenal deserved that late winner and they hit 50 points at the halfway points of their Premier League season.
Mikel Arteta's young side go from strength to strength.
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Billy Gilmour misplaced just one of his passes in Brighton's 4-1 win at Wolves (69/70).
@OfficialBHAFC
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Oh Dortmund, what have you done?
4.16 expected goals is the highest xG a side have registered in a game without winning it in the Bundesliga this season.
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No side have won a top flight league title this century across England, Spain, Italy, Germany or France having given more minutes to U21 players in a season than
@FCBarcelona
did in 2022-23 (8,555).
More stats:
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67 World Cup chances created
48 World Cup open play chances created
🇦🇷 Lionel Messi 🤝 Diego Maradona 🇦🇷
#FIFAWorldCup
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Germany 1-2 Japan
Germany become the first team in recorded World Cup history to register 3+ expected goals and lose a game
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Clubs looking for promotion to the Premier League: I feel like we need to keep the ball on the ground, dominate possession and have a less direct style of play.
Cardiff City in 2017-18: To hell with that.
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Top Creators: Premier League 2022-23 🏴
The top 10 players in the rankings for the most chances & secondary chances created in the division.
👉 Secondary chances: the final pass to a player who creates the chance for the shot/goal.
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Poland 0-2 Argentina
How on earth was this game only 2-0?
Argentina's 3.5 xG is the highest they've ever registered in a World Cup game since records began
#FIFAWorldCup
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William Saliba (80) completed more passes than Sheffield United (74) in the first half of this game.
#SHUARS
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Wolves' tally of 23 shots tonight was the second most in a Premier League away game at Old Trafford in recorded history (since 2003-04).
Only Chelsea (25) in November 2005 have attempted more in a PL game away against Man Utd.
Chelsea also lost 1-0 that day.
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🗣 Make a Request!
We're feeling generous today, so here's an opportunity to request attacking sequence involvement data for any club that we have data on (that's a lot of leagues).
This is Arsenal's top 10 so far in the 2022-22 Premier League. ⬇️
Who else do you want to see?
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Some passing range on display from Trent Alexander-Arnold 🎯
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