Welcome to The Radar, a Sky Sports column in which Nick Wright uses a blend of data and opinion to shed light on need-to-know Premier League stories. This week: 🔺 Arsenal's defence still getting stronger?🔺 Rogers making instant Chelsea impact🔺 Hull's unsung hero in defence🔺A player to watch this weekend Sunday's game at the Emirates Stadium pits the Premier League's best defence this season against its best attack. While Arsenal are yet to concede a goal, picking up where they left off in May, Chelsea have top-scored with seven in two games.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player Arsenal are not the only side to have kept back-to-back clean sheets. Hull have defied expectations to do the same. But while Hull have needed their goalkeeper Konstantinos Tzolakis to be at his best, Arsenal's David Raya has mostly been a bystander.
A Jack Rudoni header remains his only shot on target faced. Raya played a huge part in last season's success, of course. But Arsenal retain an extraordinary capacity to supress chances.
Since the start of last term in the Premier League, they have allowed under 0.50 expected goals in 20 out of 40 games, a figure which includes their first two games of the new campaign. No other side even gets close to their total, with Liverpool next on the list on eight. Last season's runners-up Manchester City have only managed it twice.
Chelsea are only just ahead of them on four. Arsenal fans are justifiably lamenting the club's failure to strengthen their attack in the transfer window. But the numbers highlight the gulf between them and the rest out of possession.
It speaks to the standards they have set as a collective, too, that the absence of their best defender, William Saliba, not to mention another starter in Jurrien Timber, has barely even registered during the opening weeks of the new season. The club have of course invested heavily to provide cover. But Ezri Konsa's playing time so far amounts to only 11 minutes, with Cristhian Mosquera deputising ably alongside Gabriel at centre-back, and Ben White stepping in at right-back.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
