Opta’s New Data Hubs, Madueke Magic, and Bruno the Striker

Stat, Viz, Quiz is the Opta Analyst football newsletter. This week’s edition includes numbers on our new data hubs, Noni Madueke, and Bruno Fernandes.

It’s always nice to freshen things up.

The eagle-eyed of you who regularly visit the Opta Analyst website will have noticed our new and improved data hubs, and with the football season kicking off, they are starting to fill up with plenty of interesting data.

We’ve got all sorts of competitions covered, but this week’s SVQ will introduce you to our new Premier League hub, highlighting some of the early frontrunners in the 2024-25 season.

Speaking of which, Noni Madueke is not the most popular man in Wolverhampton to say the least. We look at his efforts at Molineux in a wild game between Wolves and Chelsea on Sunday.

All that as well as a quiz and an Ask Opta query about Bruno Fernandes’ early-season role.

If only it could be Tuesday every day… actually no, if it were then we’d have no weekend football to write about!

If you haven’t done so already, you can subscribe below and receive SVQ every week.

STAT – The Early Leaders

Two matchdays down, only 36 to go. So, let’s start drawing all kinds of conclusions.

Only four teams still have a perfect record in the Premier League after two games, and wouldn’t you know it? Three of them are last season’s top three of Manchester City, Arsenal and Liverpool.

The other is Brighton, who followed up a 3-0 win at Everton with a dramatic late 2-1 win against Manchester United.

As mentioned, we’ve got new competition stats hubs on our site, and we’ve looked at some of the key metric leaders after the first two games in England’s top flight.

Chelsea and Man City have scored the most goals, but the former have been particularly impressive in their conversion rate, scoring 25% of their non-penalty shots (6/24), more than any other team.

Arne Slot has made a promising start at Liverpool and the Reds have had the joint-most shots (37) in the league, alongside Nottingham Forest. Liverpool lead the way for expected goals (xG) though, with 5.31, made all the more impressive considering they haven’t had a penalty yet. They’re ahead of Man City (4.11 xG), who did have a penalty in their 4-1 win over Ipswich Town.

Southampton have zero points, but they have enjoyed the most possession so far, averaging 71.2% of the ball in their two games, though it must be remembered that Newcastle were down to 10 men for most of their game on the opening matchday.

Eddie Howe’s Magpies have faced the most shots (35), but Ipswich have allowed the highest xG against (6.0), having conceded that exact number of goals in games against Liverpool and City.

As for players, Erling Haaland’s hat-trick on Saturday sees him lead the way for goals (4) as well as xG (2.06). In equally unsurprising news, Trent Alexander-Arnold is top of the pile for expected assists with 1.49, but Cole Palmer has the most actual assists after his three for Chelsea on Sunday, which we’ll come to shortly.

Crystal Palace’s Eberechi Eze and Bournemouth’s Antoine Semenyo have both attempted at least three more shots than anyone else in the Premier League (12 each) while the player with the most successful passes is Southampton’s Jan Bednarek.

Don’t take our word for it, though. Head to the data hubs now and have a look for yourself. There’s plenty more to discover.

VIZ – A Blue Day for Wolves

There has been a lot of discussion around Chelsea this summer, almost entirely regarding their transfer business.

They silenced plenty of the critics on Sunday, though, with a ruthless 6-2 win at Wolves.

Noni Madueke had already upset the locals on social media prior to the contest, before rubbing salt into the wounds with a 14-minute hat-trick in the second half to take the game away from the hosts.

Up until that point it had been a fairly even game, with Wolves equalising twice in the first half to take Chelsea in at 2-2 at the break. Madueke’s treble and a goal on his second debut for the club from João Félix completed a big win for Enzo Maresca’s men.

Madueke became the 23rd different player to score a Premier League hat-trick for Chelsea, meaning the Blues have had more unique hat-trick scorers than any other side in the competition (ahead of Arsenal with 22).

Meanwhile, Cole Palmer laid on the assist for all three of Madueke’s goals, making him just the fifth player to provide the entirety of a teammate’s treble in a Premier League game after Mike Newell for Alan Shearer (Blackburn vs Coventry), Stan Collymore for Robbie Fowler (Liverpool vs Arsenal), Thierry Henry for Freddie Ljungberg (Arsenal vs Sunderland) and Harry Kane for Son Heung-min (Tottenham vs Southampton).

The game’s xG was arguably the most interesting stat, though. As this week’s viz above shows, Wolves actually ended the game with a higher xG (1.96) than Chelsea (1.68), despite going on to lose 6-2.

Their overperformance of xG will be music to Maresca’s ears. Under Mauricio Pochettino last season, Chelsea largely struggled to score goals. A late-season improvement in form ultimately saw them outperform their xG by 1.7 (77 goals from 75.3 xG), but at the start of February, Pochettino’s men had been underperforming by 6.7 goals (36 goals from 42.7 xG).

With rumours that the club is looking to sign more attacking players before Friday’s transfer deadline (as shocking as that might sound) perhaps Chelsea will be a force to be reckoned with this season.

The opposition just better just hope that Madueke likes their city.

QUIZ – Premier League Matchday 2

Another round of games means another round of questions for you to tackle. Answers at the bottom of the page.

1. Since the start of 2017-18 – Brighton’s first Premier League campaign – who are the only team to have picked up more top-flight victories against Manchester United than the Seagulls’ seven?

2. Fulham’s Emile Smith Rowe scored his first Premier League in 32 games, 857 days since netting against which London side for Arsenal in April 2022?

3. All seven of Erling Haaland’s Premier League hat-tricks have been scored at the Etihad Stadium. Who is the only player to score more in the competition with 100% of them coming at a single venue?

4. Nicolas Jackson’s header after 98 seconds at Wolves was Chelsea’s earliest Premier League goal since who scored against Stoke City in September 2017 after just 82 seconds?

5. Brentford’s Nathan Collins made the joint-most blocks against Liverpool on record (since 2003-04) by a visiting player in the Premier League on Sunday. How many?

Ask Opta

This week’s question comes from Jami Miettinen, who asks: “How has Bruno [Fernandes] fared as a false nine?”

Do you have a stats-based football question you want to Ask Opta? If so, send it to editors@theanalyst.com and we’ll do our best to provide you with the answer in a future edition of SVQ.

Answer:

Yes, Bruno Fernandes has started both of Manchester United’s games this season as a striker. It has mostly been due to the injury suffered by Rasmus Højlund and new signing Joshua Zirkzee being eased into things, so United’s captain has been deployed up top.

Zirkzee was introduced in the 61st minute against Fulham to great effect as he scored the winner on his debut, though his half-time introduction against Brighton was less successful as his offside knee prevented Alejandro Garnacho from putting the visitors in front, before they ultimately lost to a stoppage-time header from João Pedro.

Fernandes has therefore had to play almost two thirds of his game time as a false nine, with mixed results.

The Portugal international had twice as many shots against Fulham as any of his teammates (six) while only Casemiro (81) had more touches for United than his 73. Unusually for Fernandes, he didn’t create any chances at Old Trafford.

Against Brighton, Fernandes had just one shot despite having more touches in the opposition penalty area than any other United player (five). He did create three chances though, the most for the visitors, before he was taken off with 11 minutes remaining at the Amex Stadium.

Will he start there next Sunday against Liverpool? Or will Erik ten Hag trust Zirkzee to make his first start?

What Are We up to at Opta Analyst?

Here’s some of the latest data-driven offerings you can find on our website:

💯 Bukayo Saka’s 100th Premier League Win Sees Him Among the Youngest to Hit the Landmark

🦵 Five Knee-Jerk Reactions to Premier League 2024-25 Matchday 2

↔️ Premier League Transfers: 10 Players Who Need a Move Before the Deadline

⚫️ Joelinton’s Journey from Newcastle Laughing Stock to ‘Giant of a Midfielder’

🦅 Checking in on US Internationals’ Milestones in Europe Ahead of Pochettino Appointment

🧤 Giorgi Mamardashvili: Liverpool Could Be Signing One of Europe’s Best Shot-Stoppers

🔴 Manuel Ugarte Won’t Be Man Utd’s Answer to Rodri but Will Address Specific Weaknesses 

Quiz Answers

1. Manchester City (8)

2. Chelsea

3. Thierry Henry (8 at Highbury)

4. Álvaro Morata

5. Six. The most blocks in any Premier League game on record is eight (Nedum Onuoha for QPR vs Man City in May 2012, and Ben Mee for Burnley vs Spurs in August 2017)

Before you go…

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