Written by Matt Stevenson
Here is the xG from an entertaining game. Within the opening 10 minutes, both Richarlison and Solanke had good chances (1 in 11 and 1 in 9 respectively) and Spurs had gone one-nil up. Neto’s pass into centre midfield was cut out, and Sarr bore down on goal after a few quick passes. Ouattara was now out of position and Senesi had two men. Sarr chose to shoot and scored in the bottom right corner (1 in 12). The rest of the half was even without many clear chances and at half time the xG was Spurs 0.35 and AFCB 0.51, but Spurs hadn’t had a chance since the 24th minute, with AFCB having 0.31 in this period and being largely on top and with Solanke having a deflected effort hit the bar (1 in 7). The second half began in a similar vein, with Solanke having a header saved, but Spurs had a large chance in the 51st minute with a counter attack finding Richarlison who scuffed a shot wide from near the penalty spot (46%). In the 59th minute, AFCB had a similar size chance (47%) with Tavernier feeding Solanke who put it wide off the near post. Not much happened for 10 minutes but Spurs then struck twice. In the 70th minute, Son beat a ragged offside trap to fire in off the post from a tight angle (1 in 12). Richarlison made in 3-0 in the 79th minute (1 in 2) having missed a chance (1 in 10) in the interim. 3-0 to Spurs was flattering given the xG at this point of 1.56 to Spurs and 1.36 to AFCB. In the 83rd minute we got some reward with a nice move – Philip to Tavernier to Scott to score his first Premier League goal (rated 1 in 10). Three minutes later, the best chance of the match fell to Gil (3 in 5) but the cross was slightly behind him and he hit the bar. AFCB created 4 more chances and had a goal disallowed for offside, but it ended 3-1. Final xG Spurs 2.15 AFCB 1.58, with Opta having a slightly larger margin of Spurs 2.36 and AFCB 1.64.
Man of the match against TottenhamTavernier
Scott
Sinisterra
Senesi
Cook
Solanke
Someone else
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The average positions show that AFCB players were largely in Spurs’ half, and (not shown) almost all of Spurs’ men averaged in their half. There does seem an interesting clump of players towards out left-hand side that was maintained even through substitutions, in the 61st minute with Semenyo (24) and Philip (29) for Sinisterra (17) and Kluivert (19) with the Dutchman already booked and giving away free kicks. This may be because we targeted Porro rather than Udogie. Ouattara (11) was injured and replaced at half-time by Aarons (37). Still at 1-0 down Christie (10) was replaced by Scott (14). Following Spurs’ quick 2nd and 3rd goal, Brooks (7) came on for Smith (15) with Aarons switching to right back and Tavernier (16) moving to left back.
AFCB had 41 touches in the opposition’s penalty area, beating the previous high of 39 versus Forest, with Sinisterra having 9 and Solanke 8.
Our players tried to take on a man 24 times being successful 8 times. Sinisterra was successful 5 out of 6 attempts.
We had 24 attempts (one big) noting that chances can be provided after saves, deflections or a defensive error and not created, which is a season high. We hit the target 4 times, which was our undoing. Spurs had 12 attempts, 3 big, and hit the target 6 times. Solanke had the most shots for AFCB with 9, a season-high.
AFCB won 19 of 27 tackles. Senesi won 5 from 6 and Sinisterra 3 from 3.
According to Opta, AFCB made no errors leading to a goal or chance. Neto’s throw-out that was intercepted for the first goal was therefore not classified as an error.
The Opta expected goals had Solanke (0.87) as the most likely to score for AFCB with Kluivert (0.25) next. For assists, Tavernier (0.43), Cook (0.29) and Senesi (0.27) were highest.
