Match Stats

Match Stats: Swansea City vs Stoke City

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All the match stats from Swansea City’s final Premier League match as they suffer a 2-1 defeat against fellow relegated side Stoke at the Liberty Stadium.

The Swans rounded off an awful season with another disappointing home defeat, this time against a side already relegated.

Stoke made the most of their chances while the hosts were poor in front of goal, managing just 1 goal – ending a run of 4 goalless games – despite creating 11 shots on target, plus another 9 off target.

Looking at the more technical stats of the game, Angel Rangel – who had a rare start after his departure announcement this week, was top in the xGBuildup scores. xG or ‘Expected Goals’ is a metric that you might have heard mentioned this season as it’s been increasingly used by the likes of the BBC and Sky Sports during their highlights and live coverage. The Expected goals of both teams in a game is measured using a number of different variables, and every model will output a slightly different score based on the amount of data they use.

For example, a shot from 6 yards out in the middle of the goal, will have a much higher xG value than that of a long shot at goal taken by a defender. Every shot or goal-scoring opportunity has an xG value and they are then totalled up to provide a total xG for each team.

xG helps to simply understand the quality of chances created in a game, and then the comparison between ‘expected goals’ and actual goals scored tells you how well the team took their chances. A high xG score compared to a low actual amount of goals scored suggests a side who didn’t take their chances.

So in summary, Stoke City, despite creating 5 shots on target to our 11, still created the ever-so-slightly better and more clear-cut opportunities in front of goal, while Swansea’s similar xG score is helped by their greater shot volume.

xG – Swansea City 1.71 –  1.75 Stoke City

So what is xGBuildup? Well, players get scored for goalscoring moves before they happen, in the build-up to a goalscoring chance. xGBuildup doesn’t include shots or assists in the scoring, so it’s only their involvement in creating chances before the final assist and shot is made. In a nutshell, it’s crediting players for their involvement in the build-up to goalscoring chances, without assisting a shot or taking a shot.

Angel Rangel had by far the best xGBuildup score with 0.48, almost double that of second-placed Tom Carroll who had 0.26. This pretty much means that Angel Rangel was heavily involved in build-up play resulting in goalscoring chances.

There is also a metric called xGChain. This is the same as the above xGBuildup, but this includes shots and assists. Andre Ayew was top of this score with 0.77 – boosted by his assist for Andy King’s goal, ahead of Angel Rangel with 0.48 and Wayne Routledge in third with 0.45.

For simply xG, the expected goals for each player – rather than their contribution to chances like the above two metrics, Jordan Ayew tops the charts with 0.42, ahead of his brother Andre with 0.38 and Sam Clucas with 0.24 – despite only playing for the final 20 minutes.

It can be difficult to understand the details, but to put it simply, the higher the score the better and more involved the players were in creating goalscoring chances.

Blocked shots not included (10-1).

Swansea City
1 – 2
Stoke City

Liberty Stadium

Premier League

13/05/2018 3:00 pm

Attendance: 20673

Referee: Anthony Taylor

Swansea City Stoke City
King 14 Ndiaye 31, Crouch 41
Fabianski Butland
van der Hoorn
 
Bauer
 
Mawson Shawcross
Rangel Zouma
Olsson Pieters
Dyer 68 Allen 8
King 58 Sorenson 76
Carroll Ndiaye
Routledge 57 Shaqiri
A Ayew Crouch
 
J Ayew Diouf

Substitutes

Britton 58 Ireland 76
Abraham 57 Johnson
Narsingh Adam
Nordfeldt Cameron
Clucas 68 Fletcher 8
Naughton Haugaard
Fernandez Campbell

Game Statistics

16 Goal attempts 7
11 On Target 5
6 Corners 0
12 Fouls 9
1 Yellow Cards 2
0 Red Cards 0
58 % 42

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