Third Time Lucky?
How Arsenal lost the 2024/2025 Premier League to
Liverpool
Hugo Gray s4143175
Backstory
Having finished second in the league for the previous two seasons,
Arsenal were seeking to win their first English league title since 2004
Manchester City had denied them this victory in 2023 and 2024 and
Arsenal felt that this was the year
Injuries to key players at Manchester City derailed their season early
on, however Liverpool were on a roll
How did Arsenal, once again, fail to win the league?
What Arsenal did right
Arsenal had the best defensive record in the league, only conceding 34
goals all season
This is a great foundation to build a league winning team
With William Saliba and Gabriel Magalhães at the heart of their defense,
Arsenal’s chances of winning the title would rely on this solidarity
However there were issues…
Arsenal also had the most red cards in the league, despite having the
5th fewest yellow cards
On 6 occasions they were forced to play with 10 men instead of 11
According to FBRef, of those 6 games, they won 1, drew 3 and lost 2,
earning 6 points out of a possible 18
Liverpool’s 3 red cards led to 3 draws dropping only 6 points instead of
the 12 that Arsenal suffered
Arsenal’s starting 11 played less full games on average
compared to Liverpool
A major reason, Arsenal failed to finally capture their title was
injuries
Arsenal’s first 11: David Raya, Jurriën Timber,William Saliba, Gabriel
Magalhães, Riccardo Calafiori ,Thomas Partey,Declan Rice, Martin
Ødegaard, Bukayo Saka,Kai Havertz, Gabriel Martinelli
Liverpool’s first 11: Alisson, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Virgil van Dijk,
Ibrahima Konaté,Andrew Robertson, Ryan Gravenberch, Alexis Mac Allister,
Dominik Szoboszlai, Cody Gakpo, Luis Díaz, Mohamed Salah
From both first 11s, Liverpool players were on the pitch much more often
than Arsenal players
Showing the difference
Saka vs Salah
Comparing two players who play in the same position on the right wing
Salah has been able to score and assist many more goals than Saka,
despite many of the underlying numbers being similar
Saka created more shots per 90 minutes and took more shots per 90
minutes, however Salah had a higher shot on target percentage, much
higher expected assits and goals, while playing more minutes
From this we can see that Salah created better scoring opportunities for
himself and his teammates
New players will help take the load off
Entering the new season, Arsenal invested heavily to aquire players
Eberechi Eze and Noni Madueke, talented players
While the some of the numbers aren’t as good as Saka’s, they will be
able to let him rest and stay healthy for the season, hopefully matching
Salah’s output for Liverpool and helping Arsenal win the league
