One of the great things about Stats Zone is that you can share your screens via Twitter, Facebook, email and so on. Another of the great things about Stats Zone is that if we see your screen and like it, we'll give you the credit on a blog like thisâ¦
The biggest talking point in a long weekend of action was Everton's 1-0 win over Manchester United. The manner of the Toffees' win had Stats Zone abuzz with analysis. The headlines were hogged by Marouane Fellaini, who scored the winner and dominated United's somewhat makeshift defence.
@TotalFootballFC (Stats Zone app creator Colm McMullan) noted Fellaini's "all-action performance", while âÂÂ@jamiedurent said the passes-received screen "highlights how big a focal point he is in Everton attacks, appearing all over pitch".
@iDaywa posted a screen showing Fellaini's aerial battles (nine won out of 14), calling him "a modern-day Duncan Ferguson" â high praise for an Everton player.
Contrastingly, @FFInfo went down the other end and highlighted the contribution over Everton's centre-backs: "Fellaini might have won the plaudits tonight but Jagielka and Distin were absolute rocks"
Patrick McCarron (âÂÂ@pmcarron) pointed the finger at United's wide attackers, noting that 23 of the 53 balls Fellaini received came from Everton's full-backs Leighton Baines and Tony Hibbert: "put them under a bit more pressure and they mightn't be as successful"
Several people screenshared the teams' contrasting attacking-third passing diagrams. Ryan Davies (@rmd282) noted that United's midfield were "very lateral" and that "only two" of United's 172 final-third passes made it into the box, while Giovanni Armanini (@armagio) lauded Everton's "good vertical passes".
The weekend's other matches also excoted plenty of comment. @danny_pugsley noted that Manchester City racked up 23 shots â but Southampton also managed 10. Moreover, while Kelvin Davis saved eight home attempts, Saints scored from their only two efforts on target â quality finishing, but not a good first day back for Joe Hart.
@roscoe_bowman used the Player Influence screen â which displays each man's average position and illustrates his involvement by making the dominant players' names bigger oâ to show how important Yaya Toure was for the champions. As Roscoe said, with somewhat high standards, "This is what every CM's influence should look like."
@fanelsolo used the Head To Head option to compare Toure's towering performance with that of Arsenal's Santi Cazorla â using the Attacking Dashboard to show each player's offensive actions.
Also comparing across games was our alphabetical near-neighbour @FourFourToo, who noted that Chelsea's Eden Hazard made more successful 'take-ons' (dribbles) than the entire Man City team.
Hazard was involved in both goals as a clinical Chelsea won 2-0 at Wigan. @SamCooper07 noted that Wigan struggled to hit the target despite having twice as many attempts at goal.
On the same tack, @CareFreeChronic had noted at half-time how unproductive Wigan's crossing was, with only 3 of 21 crosses completed â partly thanks to Chelsea's 13 headed clearances.
Most amusing comparison of the weekend came from Jack Dennison (@JPKD). Using Stats Zone's ability to compare data with previous seasons, he mapped new Liverpool signing Joe Allen's debut performance at West Brom against his previous Hawthorns visit with Swansea last season â and found the two almost identical. As he said: "Joe Allen hasn't changed muchâ¦" Well played, sir (Joe and Jack).
Meanwhile, Allen's old team Swansea were efficiently dismantling QPR 5-0. @Juanpionships proudly noted Michu's great debut for the Swans, with two goals and an assist and only four misplaced passes.
QPR were far from outclassed â they had 21 shots to Swansea's 14, attempting and completing more than twice as many passes in the final third. But all too often they looked solely to Adel Taarabt: @_ChrisPrior noted that 21% of their completed passes were to the Moroccan. He also said "QPR take over from Arsenal in one-man-team stakes": whatever could he mean?
Three miles south of Loftus Road, another team which had impressed in their first Premier League season were also adapting to a new manager⦠but Chris Hughton's Norwich fared much worse than Michael Laudrup's Swansea, losing 5-0 to Fulham. A worried Rob Wilson âÂÂ(@narwichboy) used the Attacking Third Passes screen to note the "lots of hopeful long balls" the Canaries were throwing forwards.
The more neutral Chris Prior could delight in "Fulham scoring different kinds of goals. Individual brilliance and teamwork; clearly having fun." Indeed, the Goal Build-Up screen for their fourth goal shows a very confident team building patiently from the back. Clint Who?
Former Norwich boss Paul Lambert moved on in the summer to Aston Villa, and at West Ham his new charges carried on as they left off under Alex McLeish: neither winning nor scoring. However, Villa fans were delighted to see the return of passing football, as Lambert's team completed an impressive 442 passes out of 550. @VlaarsGlare was quick to compare that with the limp loss to Norwich in McLeish's last game.
However, Villa will know they need more penetration in the final third. @KristianJack noted that Darren Bent received the ball just 13 times, and only once in the West Ham box.
Not that shots mean goals, as Bent's old boys Tottenham found out at Newcastle. As @statsnetwork noted, Jermain Defoe & Co. rained in 15 shots on Tim Krul's goal, but only four on target; three of the Magpies' seven were on target, and two went in.
@BouncingClown led the applause for Newcastle's James Perch. The versatile defender completed all 46 of his passes, and indeed was outpassed only by midfield busybody Cheik Tiote.
@Markbirdy noted an oddity in Spurs' play: Kyle Walker only made three passes to Aaron Lennon in the whole match â low for a full-back/winger combination. True, Spurs inverted their wingers on occasion, but Walker passed to opposite winger Gareth Bale as many times, while on the other side Benoit Assou-Ekotto found Bale 11 times â a combination beaten only by Livermore to Sandro and Santon to Tioté (both 12 times).
Finally, down in London, Spurs' neighbours Arsenal were also thwarted by Newcastle's neighbours Sunderland. @Head_stone noted that the Gunners completed almost three times as many passes as the Black Cats â 637 out of 702 compared to 222 of 294.
@Recce_ noted that Arsenal were thwarted by excellent defensive work from Sunderland, who won 17 out of 28 tackles and completed 22 of 34 clearances.
Stats Zone is a free-download app from FourFourTwo powered by stats from Opta, updated LIVE in-play, and pre-loaded with all data from the 2011/12 and 2010/11 Premier League and Champions League. Stats Zone is brought to youin association with FFT's bet partners Coral: click here for a free ã10 bet
Download SZ⢠Read more about it ⢠More SZ analysis
