West Ham United vs Stoke City

Saturday 31st August

15:00

Boleyn Ground

West Ham United vs Stoke City

Analysis

Two games into the Premier League season, and West Ham have only conceded one shot on target so far. Oddly, this might be the game in which that record comes most under threat.

Stoke City haven't traditionally been the most creative of sides on the Premier League, and, on the surface, the switch from Tony Pulis to Mark Hughes hasn't really made that much different to the clubs direct approach to the game.

However, Stoke have created 21 chances in their 2 league outings so far, meaning they are creating at a rate of 10.5 chances per game. Compare this to the meagre 280 (or 7.4 per game) last year, and you can see that there is already a more attacking impetus about Mark Hughes' Potters.

Possibly the biggest change though, is the style in which the side attack. I'm not talking about a switch from long ball to tika-taka, but the style of play has certainly changed. Like West Ham under Sam Allardyce, Tony Pulis favoured wing play and crosses to fashion chances. Last season, almost 45% of the sides chances created came from the flanks.

So far this season, however, there is an increased desire to attack through the middle. The image below shows where Stoke created their chances in their opening two games. Although this Stoke side is predominantly made up of the same players as last season (and the year before), it will definitely be a different experience to the Stoke of old.

http://www.squawka.com/teams/stoke-city/stats#total-chances-created#english-barclays-premier-league#season-2012/2013#2#all-matches#1-38#pitch-view

That said, West Ham have been good at restricting their opponents to efforts from range over the past couple of years, a fact that has contributed greatly to our excellent defensive record.

If West Ham can restrict Stoke to chances from range this Saturday, it seems unlikely that the Potters will be able to break through the West Ham resistance.

The image below shows where Stoke scored their goals from last season. One Cameron Jerome strike aside, the Potters only managed to score goals from inside the 18 yard box last season.

http://www.squawka.com/teams/stoke-city/stats#total-goals-scored#english-barclays-premier-league#season-2012/2013#2#all-matches#1-38#pitch-view

Sam Allardyce said this week that if Jussi Jaaskelainen kept a clean sheet, he thought we'd win. Well, for West Ham to win this game, we'll need to get past one of the best centre back pairings in the league.

In our 1-0 victory at the Britannia last season, we were fortunate not to come up against Robert Huth and Ryan Shawcross. This weekend, we are unlikely to be as lucky.

Last year, Ryan Shawcross won 59% of his duels, although this figure is severely impacted by the fact that he commits far more fouls than he suffers. The image below shows Shawcross' duel success,

http://www.squawka.com/players/ryan-shawcross#avg.-duels-won#stoke-city-(current)#english-barclays-premier-league#8#season-2012/2013#2#all-matches#1-38#type

Huth though, managed to post an ever better 62% success, as highlighted below.

http://www.squawka.com/players/robert-huth#avg.-duels-won#stoke-city-(current)#english-barclays-premier-league#8#season-2012/2013#2#all-matches#1-38#type

If we are to win this game, we will need a very strong performance from Modibo Maiga. He's been pretty mixed so far, winning duels in the air, but failing to threaten the scoresheet.

My prediction, is that we'll sneak a win through a midfield goal, but this is easily the toughest game we've had so far. 

 Head to Head 

41% Head to Head Win % 35%

36 Won 31

21 Drawn 21

31 Lost 36

128 Goals Scored 102

102 Goals Conceded 128

 Recent Form 

D L W W D W Last 6 D L D L W W

8 Goals Scored 8

5 Goals Conceded 7

  

W W D W W W Home/Away Form L L W D D L

13 Goals Scored 5

5 Goals Conceded 6

  

Form Player (All Comps)

Kevin Nolan - Charlie Adam

66.14 Last 6 -

5 Goals Scored 2

0 Assists 2

  

63.8 Season (League) -

35 Appearances 27

10 Goals 3

2 Assists 2

28 Chances Created 32

1018 Passes 759

801 Passes Completed 546

78.7% % Completed 71.9%

 Last Meeting 

04 May 2013

0-1 Jack Collison 45'

4-2-3-1 Starting Formation 4-4-2

 Starting XI 

Jussi Jääskeläinen - Asmir Begovic

Guy Demel - Ryan Shotton

James Collins - Marc Wilson

Winston Reid - Ryan Shawcross

Joey O'Brien - Andy Wilkinson

Gary O'Neil - Jonathan Walters

Mohamed Diamé - Glenn Whelan

Joe Cole - Steven N'Zonzi

Matthew Taylor - Michael Kightly

Matt Jarvis - Cameron Jerome

Andy Carroll - Peter Crouch

 Absentees 

 Injured/Doubtful 

West Ham United: Joey O'Brien, Alou Diarra, Andy Carroll

Stoke City: Jamie Ness, Peter Crouch

 Suspensions 

West Ham United: n/a

Stoke City: n/a

  Opposition Last Time Out

vs Crystal Palace

 Goals Scored: 2

 Goals Conceded: 1

 Starting Formation: 4-1-4-1

  Asmir Begovic

  Geoff Cameron  Ryan Shawcross  Robert Huth  Erik Pieters

  Marc Wilson

  Jonathan Walters  Steven N'Zonzi  Charlie Adam  Matthew Etherington

  Peter Crouch

subs: Thomas Sorenson, Marc Muniesa, Andy Wilkinson, Glenn Whelan, Jermaine Pennant, Cameron Jerome, Kenwyne Jones

 Best Player: Ryan Shawcross

 CI Rating: 70.99

 Worst Player: Asmir Begovic

 CI Rating: 56.74

  

 Top 5's (min 5 apps) 

 Goals Scored 

Kevin Nolan 10 - 8 Jonathan Walters

Andy Carroll 7 - 7 Peter Crouch

Mark Noble 4 - 3 Charlie Adam

Ricardo Vâz Te 3 - 3 Kenwyne Jones

Mohamed Diamé 3 - 3 Cameron Jerome

 Assists 

Ricardo Vâz Te 4 - 4 Peter Crouch

Joey O'Brien 4 - 4 Glenn Whelan

Andy Carroll 4 - 3 Cameron Jerome

Mark Noble 3 - 2 Charlie Adam

Gary O'Neil 3 - 2 Kenwyne Jones

 Passing Accuracy 

Mohamed Diamé 84.1% - 93.3% Michael Owen

Mark Noble 82.6% - 83.8% Dean Whitehead

Joe Cole 80.5% - 82.1% Steven N'Zoni

George McCartney 79.8% - 81.9% Glenn Whelan

Joey O'Brien 79.2% - 81.4% Matthew Etherington

 Chances Created per game 

Mark Noble 1.5 - 1.2 Charlie Adam

Gary O'Neil 1.5 - 1.2 Glenn Whelan

Joe Cole 1.5 - 1 Matthew Etherington

Andy Carroll 1.4 - 1 Peter Crouch

Matt Jarvis 1.4 - 0.9 Jonathan Walters

 Successful Dribbles per game 

Mohamed Diamé 2 - 0.6 Geoff Cameron

Guy Demel 0.8 - 0.6 Matthew Etherington

Ricardo Vâz Te 0.7 - 0.5 Ryan Shotton

Matthew Jarvis 0.5 - 0.5 Jonathan Walters

Joey O'Brien 0.4 - 0.5 Michael Kightly

 Tackles per game 

Mark Noble 3.6 - 3.1 Marc Wilson

Mohamed Diamé 3.5 - 2.6 Ryan Shotton

James Collins 1.9 - 2.1 Andy Wilkinson

Winston Reid 1.8 - 2 Steven N'Zonzi

George McCartney 1.8 - 1.9 Robert Huth

 Aerial Duels Won per game 

Andy Carroll 9.3 - 8.3 Peter Crouch

Carlton Cole 3.9 - 4.5 Kenwyne Jones

James Collins 2.9 - 3.3 Jonathan Walters

James Tomkins 2.7 - 3.1 Steven N'Zonzi

Winston Reid 2.4 - 2.9 Robert Huth

 Manager 

Sam Allardyce - Mark Hughes

43.2% Current Club Win % 66.6%

42 Won 2

26 Drawn 0

29 Lost 1

  

40.2% Managerial Career Win % 39.5%

336 Won 152

225 Drawn 99

274 Lost 133

2 League Titles 0

0 Cup Wins 1

Newcastle United 0 - 0 West Ham United

24/08/2013

15:00

St James' Park

Newcastle United vs West Ham United

 Goalscorers: 

 Analysis 

Two games played, two games unbeaten, no goals conceded, and only one save for Jussi Jääskeläinen to make. Yes, the season has pretty much gone to plan today.

A nil nil draw on Tyneside is always a good result, and, truth be told, West Ham never really looked in any bother. As Sam Allardyce said afterwards, we defended superbly throughout, and could, maybe should?, have taken all three points.

The defensive performance seems the best place to start.

James Collins and Winston Reid showed once again why James Tomkins is currently warming the bench. Nothing got by the pair, who were superb throughout.

But what impressed me about the defensive display, is the manner in which we pressed the ball. On occasion last season, our tactic away from home was more to sit and wait for the opposition to come on to us. This wasn't an attacking display from West Ham by any stretch of the imagination, but the desire to press and hassle the Newcastle backline was more than we have been used to.

The image below shows tackles made by West Ham. Firstly, 24 attempted tackles is a pretty high return (we only made 11 last week), and a success rate of 20 out of 24 is fantastic. What you can see though, is that there were few tackles in and around our box. For the most part, Newcastle were kept at an arms length, resorting to Hatem Ben Arfa attempting wayward long range effort after wayward long range effort.

http://epl.squawka.com/newcastle-united-vs-west-ham-united/24-08-2013/english-barclays-premier-league/matches

Part of the positive defensive display came from the continued selection of Joey O'Brien at left back. Seen as something of a shock last week, more of us expected the Irishman to keep new signing Razvan Rat out of the side this weekend.

Once again, he was a rock at left back, and really impressed defensively. That said, I think a big downside to playing Joey at left back is that he doesn't seem comfortable enough to get up the flank and support the winger.

This leaves us a little lopsided offensively, and could be one of the reasons that Matt Jarvis continues to divide opinion.

O'Brien lack of attacking intent can be seen by passing decisions. O'Brien most commonly played the simple ball into Mark Noble. The image below shows O'Brien's attempted passes. As you can see, the regular option is often the square ball into the midfield.

Compare this to Guy Demel on the other flank. One of the highlights last season was Demel's positive relationship with Ricardo Vaz Te down the right flank. I was a little concerned that this might be lost this season with Vaz Te seemingly of less importance to the first team this term.

But last week he continually linked up with Joe Cole down the right, and this week his attacking intent was there for all to see. Demel was in constant tandem with Stewart Downing. In fact, in the first half, our top two pass combinations were Demel to Downing (8) and Downing to Demel (8).

Again, here is an image of the Ivorian's attempted passes against Newcastle. Although Demel also goes inside on occasion, he is far more likely to play the ball up the line, linking in with his winger. He is also more likely to be seen on the overlap and whipping the ball into the box.

The final point I'd like to bring up, is how nice it was to see Ravel Morrison make his long awaited Premier League debut. Plenty of of hold high hopes for the young midfielder, and after his spectacular preseason form, it's fantastic to see him being rewarded with first team minutes.

Although Morrison only spent 15 minutes on the pitch, he really impressed. He created a chance for Joe Cole, and his deflected shot led to Modibo Maiga's offside strike. But what really impressed about Ravel's cameo appearance, was that he wasn't afraid to get stuck straight into the defensive side of the game too.

He made three clearances, and one interception in his short appearance, meaning he averaged a defensive action less than every four minutes. Maybe that's what they should be talking about on Match of the Day instead of his fashion choices?

The image below shows Morrison's action zones. Okay, so it was a brief appearance, and maybe I am getting a bit ahead of myself, but it's exciting to see that he popped up all over the pitch getting involved in the game. Should Mohamed Diamé's contract situation fail to be resolved over the course of the next 18 months or so, maybe we have a replacement waiting in the wings? I guess we'll find out more as the season goes on!

So, a solid away display. It's very pleasing to have a side that won't crumble under pressure these days. As a defender myself, I've always enjoyed seeing a solid back four, and Demel, Collins, Reid & O'Brien are certainly that.

I'd like to see us attack a bit more away from home, but if we carry on this form, we'll probably win the league!

 Teams

4-4-2 Formation 4-2-3-1

(59.44) Tim Krul - Jussi Jääskeläinen (58.99)

(63.02) Mathieu Debuchy - Guy Demel (60.81)

(64.93) Fabricio Coloccini - James Collins (62.79)

(64.58) Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa - Winston Reid (62.50)

(65.42) Davide Santon - Joey O'Brien (60.30)

(59.50) Hatem Ben Arfa - Mark Noble (67.58)

(59.25) Moussa Sissoko - Mohamed Diamé (61.58)

(67.02) Vurnon Anita - Stewart Downing (60.32)

(61.40) Sylvain Marveaux - Kevin Nolan (59.67)

(57.63) Shola Ameobi - Matt Jarvis (61.14)

(57.65) Papiss Cissé - Modibo Maïga (59.89)

(-) Yoann Gouffran - Joe Cole (61.50)

(62.21) Sammy Ameobi - Ravel Morrison (-)

Best Performance

(67.02) Vurnon Anita - Mark Noble (67.58)

Worst Performance

(57.63) Shola Ameobi - Jussi Jääskeläinen (58.99)

General Play

55% Possession 45%

415 Passes Attempted 320

Vurnon Anita 66 Most Attempted 60 Mark Noble

78% Passing Accuracy 70%

68% In Opp. Half 53%

Fabricio Coloccini 92% Best Accuracy 83% Joe Cole

52 Long Balls 44

Vurnon Anita 7 Most Long Balls (excl. GK) 10 James Collins

Most Frequent Pass Combination

Anita to Ben Arfa 12 - 13 Demel to Downing

 27 Aerial Duels Won 21 

 56% Success 44% 

Mathieu Debucy 7 Most Won 10 Modibo Maïga

Vurnon Anita 75 Most Touches 70 Mark Noble

 Offensive Play 

16 Attempts on Goal 6

0 On Target 1

14 Off Target 3

2 Blocked 2

9 From Outside the Box 1

Hatem Ben Arfa 5 Most Shots 1 Ravel Morrison

15 Key Passes 4

Sylvain Marveaux 7 Most Key Passes 1 Ravel Morrison

30 Crosses 23

Mathieu Debuchy 7 Most Attempted 10 Matt Jarvis

6 Successful Crosses 4

20% Success 17%

Sylvain Marveaux 4 Most Successful 2 Guy Demel

 Defensive Play 

17 Tackles Attempted 24

14 Successful Tackles 20

82% Success 83%

Shola Ameobi 3 Most Tackle 5 Guy Demel

31 Clearances 41

Davide Santon 9 Most Clearances 11 Winston Reid

9 Interceptions 5

Mathieu Debuchy 5 Most Interceptions 2 James Collins

2 Shot Blocks 2

Vurnon Anita 2 Most Shot Blocks 2 James Collins

0 6yrd Blocks 1

 0 Most 6yrd Blocks 1 Winston Reid

 Discipline 

 12 Fouls 15 

6 Most Fouls 5

0 Yellow Cards 1

Newcastle United:     

West Ham United:  Joey O'Brien   

0 Red Cards 0

Newcastle United:     

West Ham United:     

 Head to Heads 

Tim Krul vs Jussi Jääskeläinen

0 Goals Conceded 0

1 Saves 0

2 Crosses Claimed 2

32 Total Passes 14

17 Accurate Passes 5

53% Success 36%

25 Long Balls 14

78% % 100%

2 Throw Outs 6

3 Kick from Hand 1

0 Errors Leading to Shot 0

0 Errors Leading to Goal 0

Shola Ameobi 7 Most Passed To 10 Modibo Maïga

Fabricio Coloccini vs James Collins

5 Aerial Duels 10

3 Duels Won 3

60% Success 30%

  

2 Tackles Attempted 3

2 Tackles Completed 3

100% Success 100%

  

4 Clearances 11

1 Interceptions 2

0 Blocks 2

- 6yrd Blocks -

  

0 Errors Leading to Shot 0

0 Errors Leading to Goal 0

  

38 Passes Attempted 31

35 Successful 14

92% Success 45%

  

Vurnon Anita 6 Most Passed To 7 Mark Noble

Vurnon Anita vs Mark Noble

66 Passes Attempted 60

57 Successful 49

86% Success 82%

  

3 Key Passes 0

0 Assists 0

  

0 Attempts on Goal 0

0 On Target 0

0 Goals 0

  

2 Tackles Attempted 4

2 Tackles Completed 4

100% Success 100%

  

1 Clearances 2

1 Interceptions 0

2 Blocks 0

- 6yrd Blocks -

  

0 Errors Leading to Shot 0

0 Errors Leading to Goal 0

  

Hatem Ben Arfa 12 Most Passed To 10 Mohamed Diamé

Papiss Cissé vs Modibo Maïga

0 Attempts on Goal 1

0 On Target 0

0 Goals 0

  

1 Key Passes 0

0 Assists 0

  

18 Passes Attempted 23

14 Successful 15

78% Success 65%

  

4 Aerial Duels 18

2 Duels Won 10

50% Success 56%

  

Shola Ameobi 4 Most Passed To 4 Kevin Nolan

Newcastle United vs West Ham United

Saturday 24th August

15:00

St James' Park

Newcastle United vs West Ham United

Analysis

After a fantastic opening weekend for West Ham, the team must now make the long journey up North to St James' Park (and the fans must make the even longer journey up the stairs).

It's fair to say the there is currently a better mood around West Ham as a club, than there is Newcastle United. The Toon Army began their season with a 4-0 thrashing at the hands of Manchester City, a red card to one of their key defenders, and a "derisory" offer for one of their star midfielders.

Based on the week they've had, there will be plenty of Hammers out their who are expecting us to go up there and turn them over.

But it might not be that simple. Newcastle United are many things, but predictable is not one of them. They possess some wildly talented attacking players, and defenders capable of keeping out the best offensive sides in the division. And of course, they, like so many sides, are a completely different animal at home.

So, who should we look out for?

Well, for me, the real danger man is Hatem Ben Arfa. The Frenchman is among the most direct and attacking wingers in the Premier League, constantly running at the opposition and aiming to cause mayhem. In the Premier League last season, Ben Arfa took on a player on 138 separate occasions, beating him on 79 of those. That comes in at 4.2 successful take ons per game, and 7.3 attempted per game.

To put those figures into perspective, West Ham's entire team completed on average 5.0 take ons per game last season.

Even in the rather insipid team display at the Etihad on Monday night, the winger attempted 8 take ons (5 of which were successful). He was only on the pitch for 55 minutes. This means he beat a Manchester City player once every 11 minutes, taking one on once every 7 minutes.

The image below shows Ben Arfa's take ons on Monday night.

http://epl.squawka.com/manchester-city-vs-newcastle-united/19-08-2013/english-barclays-premier-league/matches

Provided the defenders can deal with Ben Arfa's direct attacking game, his inclusion in the Newcastle side does offer some attacking encouragement.

Despite playing as Newcastle's right winger, the Frenchman can often be found drifting into the middle of the park looking for shooting opportunities.

If West Ham can get the balance between defence and attack correct, we could be in for a fruitful Saturday afternoon in Northumberland. The option of either Matt Jarvis or Stewart Downing on the left flank to offer a quick breakaway could be West Ham's key out ball against Newcastle.

The image below shows Ben Arfa's action zones against City. As you can see, he actually spend considerably more time playing through the central attacking third than he did on the flanks - often leaving the right full back, Mathieu Debuchy, completely exposed.

The final area I'm going to cover, is Newcastle's captain.

Last year, Alan Pardew said that Fabricio Coloccini was playing like Bobby Moore. It does make me wonder though, if Coloccini is like Bobby Moore, what does that make Winston Reid?

Coloccini completed 76% of his 45 tackles last season, and won 50% of his 64 aerial duels. Reid, on the other hand, completed 77% of his 70 tackles, and won 62% of his 139 aerial duels.

In seriousness though, Coloccini is a good Premier League defender, and West Ham will do well to get past him. That said, there are ways to do it.

Firstly, as already mentioned, the Argentine was successful with 50% of his aerial duels last season. Judging by comments from Sam Allardyce and David Gold today, it sounds as though there is an outside chance that a certain Andy Carroll could be back for this game. Should that be the case, the Geordie could have a field day in the air against his former team mate.

Even if Carroll isn't back, Modibo Maiga showed last weekend that he's perfectly able to do battle in the air with defenders.

The other way in which Coloccini sometimes let's himself down, is that - despite a very good tackle success rate - he is actually beaten by players quite regularly. Last season, he was dribbled by on 15 occasions, or 0.7 times per game. This is marginally better than James Collins (0.8 per game), but worse than both Winston Reid (0.6) and James Tomkins (0.3).

Although Maiga hasn't had the best start to life with West Ham, he was successful with 4 of his 10 attempts to beat players last season, and managed two out of two against Cardiff last week. It could be, that the best way to attack Newcastle and Coloccini is to get Maiga on the ball and try to take it past the centre half.

For me, Saturday is where we will really start to see how West Ham have progressed as a side this season. Opening the campaign with a solid home victory was great, but it was almost expected given our excellent home form last season.

Where we really need to improve is out on the road. If we want to progress as a football club, we need to start winning more games on our travels - or at the very least we need to start showing a bit more intent away from home.

If we turn up at St James' Park and have a real go at Newcastle United, I'll be a happy Hammer. And if we can bring home a point or three, I'd be even happier.

 Head to Head 

40% Head to Head Win % 31%

49 Won 38

36 Drawn 36

38 Lost 49

189 Goals Scored 170

170 Goals Conceded 189

 Recent Form 

L L W D L D Last 6 W W L D L W

3 Goals Scored 9

13 Goals Conceded 6

  

L L L D W W Home/Away Form L L D D L W

3 Goals Scored 3

11 Goals Conceded 7

  

 Form Player

Hatem Ben Arfa - Kevin Nolan

- Last 6 66.38

1 Goals Scored 5

0 Assists 0

  

Season (League)

19 Appearances 35

4 Goals 10

2 Assists 2

1 Chances Created 28

533 Passes 1018

434 Passes Completed 801

81.4% % Completed 78.7%

 Last Meeting 

04 May 2013

4-2-3-1 Starting Formation 4-2-3-1

 Starting XI 

Rob Elliot - Jussi Jääskeläinen

Danny Simpson - Guy Demel

Steven Taylor - James Collins

Fabricio Coloccini - Winston Reid

Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa - Joey O'Brien

Jonas Gutierrez - Gary O'Neil

Cheik Tioté - Mohamed Diamé

Hatem Ben Arfa - Ricardo Vâz Te

Yohan Cabaye - Kevin Nolan

Yoan Gouffran - Matt Jarvis

Papiss Cissé - Andy Carroll

 Absentees 

 Injured/Doubtful 

Newcastle United: Jak Alnwick, Massaido Haidara, Davide Santon, Ryan Taylor, Jonas Gutierrez, Loic Remy

West Ham United: George McCartney, Andy Carroll

 Suspensions 

Newcastle United: Steven Taylor

West Ham United: n/a

  Opposition Last Time Out

vs Manchester City

 Goals Scored: 0

 Goals Conceded: 4

 Starting Formation: 4-2-3-1

  Tim Krul

  Mathieu Debuchy  Steven Taylor  Fabricio Coloccini  Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa

  Jonas Gutierrez  Cheik Tioté

  Hatem Ben Arfa  Moussa Sissoko  Yoan Gouffran

  Papiss Cissé

subs: Rob Elliot, Paul Dummett, Vurnon Anita, Gabriel Obertan, Sylvain Marveaux, Sammy Ameobi, Shola Ameobi

 Best Player: Cheik Tioté (69.07)

 Worst Player: Mathieu Debuchy (57.27)

   
 Top 5's (min 5 apps) 
 Goals Scored 
Demba Ba 13 - 10 Kevin Nolan
Papiss Cissé 8 - 7 Andy Carroll
Yohan Cabaye 6 - 4 Mark Noble
Hatem Ben Arfa 4 - 3 Ricardo Vâz Te
Moussa Sissoko 3 - 3 Mohamed Diamé

 Assists 
Sylvain Marveaux 4 - 4 Ricardo Vâz Te
Gabriel Obertan 2 - 4 Joey O'Brien
Hatem Ben Arfa 2 - 4 Andy Carroll
Moussa Sissoko 2 - 3 Mark Noble
Yohan Cabaye 2 - 3 Gary O'Neil

 Passing Accuracy 
Shane Ferguson 90.4% - 84.1% Mohamed Diamé
Steven Taylor 90.1% - 82.6% Mark Noble
James Perch 88.9% - 80.5% Joe Cole
Fabricio Coloccini 88.6% - 79.8% George McCartney
Sylvain Marveaux 87.3% - 79.2% Joey O'Brien

 Chances Created per game 
Yohan Cabaye 2 - 1.5 Mark Noble
Moussa Sissoko 1.6 - 1.5 Gary O'Neil
Sylvain Marveaux 1.5 - 1.5 Joe Cole
Vurnon Anita 1.4 - 1.4 Andy Carroll
Hatem Ben Arfa 1.3 - 1.4 Matt Jarvis

 Successful Dribbles per game 
Hatem Ben Arfa 4.2 - 2 Mohamed Diamé
Moussa Sissoko 2.4 - 0.8 Guy Demel
Davide Santon 1.5 - 0.7 Ricardo Vâz Te
Chiek Tioté 1.2 - 0.5 Matthew Jarvis
Sammy Ameobi 1.1 - 0.4 Joey O'Brien

 Tackles per game 
Yohan Cabaye 3.1 - 3.6 Mark Noble
Jonas Gutierrez 2.5 - 3.5 Mohamed Diamé
Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa 2.5 - 1.9 Winston Reid
Cheik Tioté 2.4 - 1.8 James Collins
Davide Santon 2.2 - 1.8 George McCartney

 Aerial Duels Won per game 
Mike Williamson 6.5 - 9.3 Andy Carroll
Mathieu Debuchy 3.6 - 3.9 Carlton Cole
Demba Ba 2.9 - 2.9 James Collins
Steven Taylor 2.9 - 2.7 James Tomkins
Moussa Sissoko 2.3 - 2.4 Winston Reid

 Manager 
Alan Pardew - Sam Allardyce
36.3% Current Club Win % 43.1%
44 Won 41
32 Drawn 25
45 Lost 29
  
42.3% Managerial Career Win % 40.2%
275 Won 335
165 Drawn 224
210 Lost 274

0 League Titles 2

1 Cup Wins 0