What a season it has been for Arsenal. Starting with the acrimonious departure of skipper Robin van Persie to Manchester United and threatening to come off the rails altogether with cup defeats to lowly Bradford City and Blackburn Rovers, it was eventually salvaged, to a point, with a 17th straight top-four Premier League finish.
Pressure had been building on Arsene Wenger during a spring of discontent at the Emirates, but a superb run of 24 points from the last 30 available allowed the Gunners to successfully reel in and pip bitter rivals Tottenham Hotspur to Champions League qualification.
As regular readers will testify, we love statistics here at bwinbetting HQ – even though 98.2% of them are made up – so we decided to put together a collection of true and slightly-less-true facts and figures relating to Arsenal’s 2012/13 campaign.
If there are any glaring omissions you would like to see added, by all means let us know in the comments below. Here we go…
0 – Attempts to patent rubbish goal celebrations
0 – Negative spirals experienced at the Emirates
1 – Negative spirals experienced at White Hart Lane
1 – Gaps that should have been minded by Tottenham
1 – Games lost when Per Mertesacker and Laurent Koscielny started together in all competitions (the 3-1 home defeat by Bayern Munich)
2 – Left feet owned by Gervinho
2 – Goals conceded in the final 15 minutes of league games – the best record in the division
3 – Goals scored in two games against Bayern Munich, compared to zero combined for Barcelona and Juventus
3 – Goals conceded in two games against Bayern Munich, compared to 11 combined for Barcelona and Juventus
5 – Red cards received in the league – more than any other team
6 – Points Arsenal would have won the league by if the table was based on second-half results
7 – Points behind Tottenham on March 3rd
7.5 – Millions of pounds in net transfer spend for the season
8 – Pins currently stuck in an Abou Diaby voodoo doll at an undetermined location in N17
9 – Years aged by the average Arsenal fan on the final day of the season
11 – Assists provided by Santi Cazorla in the league
12 – Wins from final 16 Premier League games
14 – Goals conceded in away league matches – the best record in the division
14 – Clean sheets in the league
16.8 – Average aerial duels won per league game – more than Man Utd, Man City, Chelsea, Tottenham and Liverpool
17 – Arsenal league games featuring under 2.5 goals – only Stoke had fewer
18 – Years since Arsenal finished below Tottenham
18 – Goals scored in the final 15 minutes of league games
25 – Journalists who tipped Arsenal to finish outside the top four
53 – Percentage of games won in all competitions
58.2 – Percentage of possession in league games on average – the highest in the division
66 – Goals scored by Theo Walcott, Santi Cazorla, Olivier Giroud and Lukas Podolski in all competitions
70 – Goals witnessed in 19 league games at the Emirates (47 for, 23 against)
70 – Points won with Robin van Persie in 2011/12
73 – Points won without Robin van Persie in 2012/13
91.5 – Percentage of passes completed by Mikel Arteta in the league
163 – Minutes per league goal scored by Theo Walcott
260 – Pounds new customers will pocket if they successfully back Arsenal to win the Premier League next year with their free £20 bet at 12/1
288 – Mentions of the words ‘handbrake’ and ‘mental strength’ by Arsene Wenger
1,276 – ‘Arsenal in crisis’ articles written during the season
4,650 – Players Arsenal will be linked with in the next three months
10,953 – Sideways and backwards passes played in all competitions
36,000 – Tottenham fans at White Hart Lane who celebrated Newcastle’s ‘equaliser’ on the final day
60,000 – Emirates regulars who were wrong to write off Aaron Ramsey
350,000 – Reasons (per week) why Andrey Arshavin, Nicklas Bendtner, Sebastien Squillaci, Denilson, Park Chu-Young, Andre Santos and Marouane Chamakh must be shifted off the wage bill this summer
