This past weekend of Premier League action has served up derby delight and despair for the likes of Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur, while the sound of alarm bells grow louder at Liverpool.
Here are 20 observations on each Premier League team picked from PFF's soccer data set.
Arsenal
Martin Ödegaard’s goal against Tottenham at the weekend was his sixth unsaveable goal of the season, the most among any Arsenal player. Only two of his eight Premier League goals this season have given the goalkeeper a chance to keep them out.
Aston Villa
Emiliano Buendia has completed 11 defensive line-breaking passes so far this season. This is more than double any of his teammates, his closest rivals for the top spot in this category at Villa being John McGinn, Jacob Ramsey and Phillipe Coutinho (4).
Brentford
Ben Mee has been a solid signing for Brentford this season. Across all challenge categories for Brentford players, he’s first in win percentages for challenges (60%) and 50/50s (81.3%), and 3rd in win percentage for aerial duels (56.2%)
Brighton
24.4% of Moises Caicedo’s passes against Liverpool were attempted line-breaks. The Ecuadorian international completed 17 of 20 of these, the most of any player in the game.
Bournemouth
Bournemouth have struggled for goals this season with 18 in 19 matches. This is exacerbated by the fact that they have created the least chances in the Premier League this season with 123, only 6.5 per game.
Chelsea
Conor Gallagher and Mason Mount both created three chances each in Chelsea’s 1-0 win over Crystal Palace. This was the first time multiple Chelsea players created three or more chances in the same game since their October draw with Brentford (Mateo Kovacic and Christian Pulisic).
Crystal Palace
Crystal Palace are the only team to have two players in the top 10 in the Premier League for successful dribbles (min. 20 attempts) Teammates Eberechi Eze and Michael Olise sit 6th (65%) and 10th (60%) respectively.
Everton
Despite falling to defeat against Southampton, Amadou Onana was the player in the Everton side that stood out. He scored their only goal and won 12 of the 15 challenges he made during the game.
Fulham
Antonee Robinson has been a strength for Fulham down the left side in the Premier League. The American has completed 54% of the dribbles he has taken on and successfully defended 61% of the dribbles he’s faced (1st across Fulham defenders).
Leeds United
Brendan Aaronson had his eighth game of the season with 50+ total pressures against Aston Villa on Friday. He is also the player with the most total pressures in a single game this year with his 117 against Manchester City during Leeds’ first game back after the World Cup break.
Leicester City
Fresh concerns are now coming to the boil at Leicester with Midlands rivals Forest moving ahead of them in the table.
The Foxes showed no signs of getting in the box often as none of their four defensive line-breaking passes were completed to a teammate, as manager Brendan Rodgers admitted his team were ‘absolutely' in a relegation battle.
Liverpool
Liverpool’s midfield is a clear area of concern at the half-way stage of the season. Their trusted trio of Jordan Henderson, Fabinho and Thiago struggled to assert themselves against Brighton, with one metric of many demonstrating such being their 32 received line-breaking passes dwarfed by Brighton’s total of 88.
Manchester City
The 28 create contest passes recorded by City at Old Trafford was their highest all season, with their average-per-game standing at 15.5.
This led to a season-low chances created tally of 5, way below their average of 14.6, and Erling Haaland’s 3.7 touches-per-90 in the penalty area being his second lowest.
Manchester United
Marcus Rashford is in the midst of a renaissance under Erik ten Hag, scoring in all four games since the Premier League resumed after the conclusion of the World Cup.
That four-game streak alone has seen Rashford eclipse his tally for last season, aided by Bruno Fernandes’ team-leading 12 chances created following on from his strong individual performances for Portugal in Qatar.
Newcastle United
Sunday’s win over Fulham saw goalkeeper Nick Pope collect his 11th clean sheet of the season and has now not conceded a league goal in his last 501 minutes of action.
In that time, Pope has faced 44 shots but only nine were on target which ranks 1st in the league ahead of Ederson (16) and David de Gea (18)
Nottingham Forest
Morgan Gibbs-White’s £42.5m transfer fee in the summer raised eyebrows but he is coming into his own as Forest move away from the deeper reaches of the relegation zone.
Along with two true assists against Leicester, Gibbs-White led Forest with four chances created.
Southampton
After earning a place in our Premier League Team of the Week, James Ward-Prowse’s touches-per-90 in the penalty box soared to 5.6 (0.69 season avg.) against Everton following Nathan Jones’ decision to play him in an advanced midfield role.
Tottenham
Over their last five matches prior to facing Arsenal, Spurs had averaged 20.0 dribbles-per-game but recorded only six in the derby – the lowest of any team. Dejan Kulusevki's average of 4.1 dribbles-per-90 ranks better than any Spurs player, but on his return from injury saw his number drop to 2.0.
West Ham
With a streak of seven games without a win, the struggle continued for West Ham after the defeat against Wolves. 11 dribble attempts represented their lowest total in five games as David Moyes kept Said Benrahma out of his starting XI.
The Algerian’s 5.6 dribbles-per-90 leads the team with the next best being Michail Antonio’s 1.8, among players to have made 17 attempts or more.
Wolves
Max Kilman was solid at the back for Wolves as they moved out of the relegation zone. Kilman received no positioning downgrades and finished the week as one of only eight central defenders to finish with a positive net-grade across all facets out of 60 qualifiers.
Here's our Premier League Team of the week based on PFF grades and metrics
Arsenal and Brighton lead the way ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/sefMSmRRlA
— PFF FC (@PFF_FC) January 16, 2023
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