Arsenal duo Martinelli and Odegaard among Premier League’s four best finishers
Regardless of the events that unfold in the remaining weeks of the 2022/23 Premier League season, Arsenal has had an outstanding performance.
They have secured a position in the top two and are currently only one point behind Manchester City, who lead the league table, although City still has one game in hand over Arsenal.
The Gunners have accumulated 81 points in 35 league matches so far, which is a significant improvement of 12 points compared to their last season’s performance, and they have three more games to further increase their points total.
Indeed, Arsenal has a chance to match their all-time best points record for a Premier League season if they win all their remaining games. Their current tally of 81 points is only 9 points shy of the 90 points they famously achieved during the Invincibles season of 2003/04. One of the major factors behind their improved performance is their strong attacking ability.
Out of all the teams in Europe’s top-five leagues, only Manchester City has scored more goals in the league this season than Arsenal. This is a remarkable achievement considering that Arsenal has the second youngest squad in the English top-flight.
Additionally, Arsenal’s top scorers, Gabriel Martinelli and Martin Odegaard, are among the top four best finishers in the league according to the underlying data.
Both Martinelli and Odegaard have scored 15 goals in the league this season, exceeding their xG (expected goals) by 5.7 and 5.2 respectively, according to fbref.
Only two other Premier League players, Erling Haaland of Manchester City and Harry Kane of Tottenham Hotspur, have exceeded their xG by a greater margin.
Essentially, this indicates that their exceptional finishing skills have enabled them to score more goals than what would be anticipated based on the location of their shots on the field. However, Martin Odegaard’s impressive goal-scoring statistics are not unexpected by Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta.
“That’s something our attacking midfielders have to have the ability to do, and that’s why we play in a certain way to exploit those spaces,” he told football.london when asked about the Nowegian’s ability to finish from cutbacks ahead of the 2-0 win at Newcastle on Sunday.
“Martin has the capacity to do that, he’s finding himself in those positions and then he is being very effective in the final action. It’s something very important for us.”
Arsenal duo Martinelli and Odegaard among Premier League’s four best finishers
