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On the Sky Sports page announcing the Opta Premiership player of the month stats for August, they say it's nto surprising that Arsenal dominate, "considering their blistering start to the new campaign". But it's worth reminding people that we're not the only team with
maximum points out of the 4 games so far.
Perhaps the fact that Arsenal players come in first, second, and third is just a reflection of a premium put on goals in the way Opta work their numbers out. It'd be interesting, if one were to pay any attention to these things at all, to see a more detailed breakdown and to see how the Arsenal-Chelsea head-to-heads compare on the defensive side of things.
The Arsenal trio are all attacking players. Jose Reyes and Thierry Henry in first and (close) second will be no surprise to anyone. But for Pires to get in there despite being on the bench at the start of the first 2 matches is perhaps a more impressive feat. Opta's scoring system gives Jose and Tel 2226 and 2165 points respectively, with Bobby a way back on 1864. "Best of the rest" goes to Frank L---ard in 4th, even further back on 1587.
Reyes' points included those for 4 goals and 1 assist, and 10 "attempted tackles" which seems not-that-high for 4 matches but is apparently the 3rd highest of any striker in August. Henry had 4 goals and an extraordinary 6 assists - so he had a crucial part in 10 of our 16 goals so far. Some will claim that this shows that we're still a one man team. Let them.
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