Stat Attack – AFC Bournemouth v Brentford

Written by Matt Stevenson

Here is the xG from the Brentford game. Despite Brentford having earlier pressure the first-half chance fell to AFCB with Solanke missing the target from within the six-yard box (rated 1 in 8). Just after the half-hour Brentford had two chances that levelled the xG, with Toney (1 in 13) and Mbeumo (1 in 7) both having shots blocked. Before this, however, Solanke had a goal ruled out, for a handball by Semenyo earlier in the move. Solanke still had a lot to do, but the ball had definitely struck Semenyo’s arm. I’m not sure the rules are consistently applied regarding fouls in the build-up and whether defences are set but you can see why it was disallowed. In the 37th minute, there was another contentious decision that didn’t go AFCB’s way. The ref blew for a foul by Solanke just before the ball went into the net, meaning that the decision couldn’t be reviewed by VAR. Flekken would have made more of an attempt to save it, although looked wrong-footed, but we won’t know as the ref had blown. Neither disallowed goal appears on the xG. At half time the xG was AFCB 0.36, Brentford 0.29 in a game that appears tame apart from the disallowed goals. The second half was similar although Brentford had 3 quick chances in 3 minutes the best two from Lewis-Potter (1 in 9) and Pinnock (1 in 7). Bournemouth then responded with two efforts (both 1 in 16) and both from Solanke. Shortly after Brentford were awarded a penalty, although when reviewed by VAR it was clear that Toney had dived rather than shooting from a good position. Then the game almost hibernated, apart for approximately 15 minutes before Brentford opened the scoring in route one fashion. Flekken kicked it long to Wissa, who played an excellent first-time pass to Mbeumo who smashed it past Travers (1 in 3). Three minutes later AFCB were level, Senesi crossing it in and Solanke finding the top corner with an excellent header (1 in 11). But the scoring wasn’t over, Mbeumo broke and then slowed it down to find Wissa who had made a clever run and then hit a fierce shot into the near top corner (1 in 9) which was the last chance of the game. The final xG was AFCB 0.67, Brentford 1.08; the xGs produced by Understat had a wider margin of victory being AFCB 1.07, Brentford 1.93. Although xG doesn’t tell the full story.

Man of the match against Brentford Christie Vote Senesi Vote Solanke Vote Cook Vote Smith Vote Travers Vote Someone else Vote

The average positions of our outfield starting players can almost be grouped in 6 and 4. Both Cook (4) and Christie (10) were as similar and advanced as the centre-backs, Senesi (25) and Zabarnyi (27) with the full-backs slightly deeper. Ouattara (11) appears central as he and Semenyo (24) swapped wings at halftime, with Solanke (9) and Kluivert (19) both high, but with Kluivert drifting to the left. The first set of changes was in the 67th minute with Tavernier (16) and Unal (26) replacing Ouattara and Kluivert, with Tavernier playing high on the left and Unal more centrally. In the 80th minute, Smith (15) and Christie were replaced by Scott (14) and Adams (18) with presumably Cook switching to right back as AFCB chased a win, although got caught twice on the counter.