The Premier League season got under way again when Arsenal visited Crystal Palace in the Friday night match at Selhurst Park; it finished with Man City taking all three points away at West Ham on Sunday evening. But what were the main stories looking back at Statsbomb pressing data on Fbref? And can we use any other sources or metrics to assess a team’s performance?
First of all, here’s all the data on a PDF, with three different sources:
(Click on link below for a downloadable version)
Who pressed the most?
Let’s start with the highest volume of presses, and this is quite surprising considering Crystal Palace had nearly 60% possession against Arsenal in the home defeat on Friday evening. One would expect Leeds, and maybe Brentford to be up there; but the fact Arsenal are third suggests the match at Selhurst Park was an intense affair!
Leeds are also top for most successful presses with 64; with a 34% efficiency. Here’s the list of key definitions of what constitutes a ‘pressure’ and ‘successful pressure’.
It’s also interesting that West Ham attempted virtually no pressing at home to Man City, seemingly allowing them the ball for most of the match. Obviously this was an attempt to use the Hammers’ strength on the counterattack. But I’d suggest it also plays into Pep’s hands because it allows them to control the game on their terms and they tend to struggle the most when teams attack them.
Who pressed the highest?
Now this is really interesting because I can bring in the other.metric used to measure pressing which is PPDA (passes per defensive action). And the two sources for this are Wyscout and Understat, who have similar not exactly the same figures (this will be because they use different definitions for tackles, interceptions etc…).
Anyway, it suggests that Eddie Howe’s side not only pressed the highest, but were the most intense as well in their victory over newly-promoted Nottingham Forest.
And here’s Wyscout’s top five:
Are the Saudi-owned side trying to replicate the tried and tested methods of Liverpool’s Jurgen Klopp, because it is definitely the Magpies’ frontline who applied most of the pressure.
I will try to do this every week: here’s an eight minute compilation of Newcastle’s style of play without the ball, does the data pass the eye test?
Finally, it’s vital to remember the tiny, tiny sample but will be interesting to follow some of the above pointers as the season progresses.