Saints Blogs

xG 2.60: The stats show that Southampton absolutely blew it on the weekend – Opinion

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It’s not often you can Southampton went to an established top-six side in the Premier League and should have come away the victors, and yet, you can that was the case for this weekend.

The Saints travelled to the English capital on Saturday to take on an Arsenal side that have been in dire form in recent weeks, and after Southampton took the lead just seven minutes through Danny Ings, it looked like Ralph Hasenhuttl’s side were on course to create a major upset.

Yet as we know, Southampton weren’t able to hold onto their lead even when James Ward-Prowse’s rebounded penalty cancelled out Alexandre Lacazette’s 17th-minute equaliser, with the Frenchman, again, striking in the 95th minute to salvage a point for the Gunners.

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It was a game where Southampton dominated Arsenal for large portions of the game, and the stats following the full-time whistle painted an obvious picture for the Saints that they should have put the game to bed.

As stats from Understat show, Southampton were by far and away the more dominant side in north London on Saturday afternoon, with the Saints creating 61% of the chances at the Emirates Stadium and having an xG of 2.60, whilst Arsenal could only muster 17% of the chances and ended the match with an xG of just 1.61.

Indeed, Southampton well and truly blew it against the Gunners and should have been more thoughtful and accurate with the chances given to them, some of them literally handed to the Saints on a plate such as when Sokratis gave the ball to Cedric Soares six-yards out of Bernd Leno’s goal but the Portuguese right-back playing the wrong pass to Michael Obafemi.

The performance will serve as a massive confidence boost for the Saints heading into an important run of games for the club, but looking back on Saturday, Hasenhuttl will be kicking himself as to how his side couldn’t finish off the Gunners despite everything going their way.

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