Saturday Key Stats Acca

Yes, we all know that United has struggled recently. But let’s face it, they’re facing Bournemouth at home, and even on their worst day you’d expect United to breeze past the cherries.

On average, Man Utd manage 4.40 shots on target per game. And at home that average improves to 4.79.

They’ve managed four or more SOTs in 9 of their 15 league games this season. But once you exclude the likes of Arsenal, Newcastle, and Manchester City that record improves to 9 in 12.

Only three Premier League teams concede more SOTs than Bournemouth. They’re conceding 5.27 shots on target per game on average.

And opponents have managed 4 or more SOTs in 10 out of 15 of their games. But once again, when you dig into the details and see the teams that fail to meet that bar, that record improves.

There have been two or more goals in every single Bournemouth game bar an awful 0-0 draw to Chelsea back in September.

And it’s easy to see why. Only Burnley and Sheffield United concede more goals than the cherries. So far, they’ve let in 30 goals, which averages to 2.00 per game on average. Away from home they concede even more, 2.57 per 90.

Sure, United aren’t the biggest goalscoring side, but against Bournemouth you’d expect to get the job done. There’s a lot of pressure on Eric Ten Haag and you’d expect him to push for an emphatic victory here.

Games involving Manchester United see more corners than any other team in the league.

Their games see 13.06 of them on average.

And 100% of their fixtures have had 8 or more match corners. A record that no other team can claim.

That’s because although United win a lot of corners – 6.93 per game on average – they also concede a tonne as well – 6.13 per game.

You’ll be unsurprised to hear that Bournemouth also concede a lot of corners, 6.20 per game.

But you may be surprised to hear that they do win a fair few as well. On average they win 5.27 corners per game. That’s on par with teams in the top half of the table.

93% of Bournemouth games have seen 8 or more match corners. It’s hard to image that barrier not being met on Saturday afternoon.

Games at Bramall Lane have seen an average of 3.50 goals scored.

Sadly too many goals have gone in against the home side, their 21 conceded in 8 Home games is the worst in the division.

With the exception of the opening 0-1 loss at the hands of Crystal Palace, The Blades have seen 2+ goals scored in every other Premier League match (93%).

Brentford fans are also no stranger to goals on the road, Brentford games average 2.43 goals per game. 85% of Away games have seen at least two goals, the only exception being the 1-0 loss at St James’ Park in mid-September.

With each of Sheffield’s last 7 Home games seeing 2+ goals and each of Brentford’s last 5 Away games seeing the net bulge twice, there’s little doubt that we’re in for goals in this one.

Brentford win on average 5.14 corners per game on the road.

The Bees have taken 5 or more corners 4 times this season against the likes of Fulham, Nottingham Forest, Man Utd and most recently against Liverpool.

Sheffield Utd lead the league in opponents corners taken, 6.88 when they are the Home side.

Opponents have taken 5+ corners in 75% of Sheffield’s Home games. This includes the last two games against Liverpool and Bournemouth who took 11 and 7 respectively.

Brentford will look to put pressure on relegation destined Sheffield Utd, plenty of saves, blocks and last ditch clearances will see Brentford rack up the corners.

The visitors have been cautioned at least once in every Away game this season.

Brentford’s average of 2.20 yellow cards per game has them around midtable. However, away from home this rises to 3.00 which puts them 4th highest in the league.

Sheffield Utd’s opponents record 1.67 bookings per game, with opponents being booked at least once in each of their last 5 league games.

The new manager bounce is yet to fully hit Sheffield with the return of Chris Wilder. Despite this, they made a good account of themselves against Liverpool compared with recent weeks. They even drew The Reds into 3 bookings.

If Sheffield Utd can play with a similar fire at 3 o’clock, Brentford will find themselves in the referee’s book.

High flying Arsenal are a team on form. After 4 successive league wins, they find themselves top of the Premier League.

Arsenal have always had the ability to score goals in games. Last season they scored 1+ goals in 89% of PL games.

This season so far, they’ve scored 1+ goals in an impressive 93% of games. The narrow defeat to Newcastle was the only time that the Gooners have failed to score.

A high xG of 1.78 shows that they regularly carve out chances, and regularly put them away because they’re actually over-performing it.

Currently, Arsenal are scoring on avg 2.2 goals per game overall (1.61 goals per away game).

A long list of players who score goals . Saka (5 in 13), Nketiah (5 in 9), Havertz (3 in 9), Trossard (5 in 6) means there are threats all over the pitch

Aston Villa find themselves in 3rd place in the PL after some impressive performances this season under Unai Emery.

They play some attractive football yes, but they also know how to get stuck in, down right dirty and grind results out.

Villa are 8th for the most yellow cards in the league (37 in total). That works out at 2.26 cards p/90.

At home it, they pick up even more cards because that average increase to 2.71 cards for Villa p/90.

There have been 2+ cards for Villa at 86% of their home games.

No surprise when you have players in your team who like a card, such as Kamara (6 yellow cards), Luiz (4), Digne (4), Cash (4).

Plus you have the added element of Unai Emery who will be desperate for his team to get one over his previous team when they meet H2H.

Arsenal have a pretty impressive corners won record both home and away.

They’ve won 6+ corners in 100% of their away games this season.

I’ve gone a little more conservative as I expect this will be a tighter game than some others which is Arsenal to win 4+ corners.

Look at Arsenal’s corner count in their previous away games. They won: 8 against Luton, 8 against Brentford, 11 against Newcastle, 7 against Chelsea, 6 against Bournemouth, 11 against Everton and 8 against Palace.

No team has won more corners than Arsenal in any away game this season. 7 in 8. (only Bournemouth have managed to match them on 6 each).