Arsenal Squad Statistics - 2005/6 Review

As Arsenal prepare to take on Barnet can kick of the pre-season for 2006/07 lets take a look at Arsenal's Squad Statistics to see if we can see how the squad performed this past season:

Goalkeeping:

In goal there really was no competition. Jens Lehmann started 48 games and Almunia had 7 games. Surely Arsenal will need to strengthen this position.

Defence:

Kolo Toure was the star man in defence this year. He only played one game less than our most played player, Gilberto. Bear in mind that Toure was away most of January and you begin to understand just how key he is now. He also contributed with 1 goal and 1 assist. Senderos got 2 goals as did Cygan (remember him!?). Campbell got 3 goals and 2 assists making him the most offensive of the centre backs, wouldn't of thought it at first look. This season was tough on our full-backs with Cole, Clichy and Lauren all being injured for long spells. Even so Lauren still played 30 games but only had one assist. Compare that to Eboue who in 23 games scored 1 goal and had 4 assists, it's not hard to see why he's seen as Arsenal's #1 right-back now. Cole had a duff season with only 13 starts and no goals or assists!

For next season Arsenal must hope that at least 1 of the first choice fullbacks can stay injury free.

Midfield:

Gilberto lead the team in games played with a total of 47 starts and 1 game as a substitute. Cesc Fabregas was the player with the most appearences throughout the season. He made 41 starts and come on as a substitute 9 times. 50 games in one season is an amazing feature for such a young player. Gilberto and Cesc were quite clearly the starting pair in centre midfield. They were the most constant feature during what was a rather up and down season.

Fabregas, Ljungberg and Pires were the most productive midfielders. Fabregas had 5 goals and 5 assists. Ljungberg had 4 goals and 5 assists while Pires had 11 goals and 4 assists. Ljungberg's performances this season represented a real down turn in his productivity. If he's going to be a regular starter he needs to be hitting double figures for goals. Pires' 11 goals certainly will need to be made up for this coming season by the newly signed Rosicky.

Attack:

Obviously Thierry Henry was the leading attacker with 33 goals and 6 assists. Although Reyes was unable to find the net very regularly this season with just 6 goals he led the team in assists with 14. Van Persie did well to get 11 goals in just 21 starts. Arsenal will need to get more of the forward players into the high teens low twenties for goals to remove some of the reliance on Thierry's goal scoring. I'd expect to see Van Persie scoring 20+ goals this coming season. Also Adebayor should be able to add a good number of goals. His 1 goal in 12 starts was offset by 4 decent assists for Henry.

Interestingly Reyes led the team in fouls suffered. He also led the team in yellow cards, no doubt testiment to his workrate and lack of finesse in the tackle. Gilberto led the team in fouls committed with 71 but only collected 5 yellow cards and 1 red (somewhat unfairly).