Are Premier League referees biased against Arsenal? (Part 1)

In the wake of yet another contentious penalty decision given against Arsenal, I thought it would be interesting to dive into the numbers to see whether Premier League referees do actually discriminate against Arsenal at either end of the pitch.

This is by no means going to be a comprehensive analysis of each individual decision and whether they were right or wrong. Rather, I'll be attempting to look into the number of penalties awarded and conceded over time, and seeing how they compare to other clubs, and against what we'd expect for a team of Arsenal's style and stature. This is partly to open our eyes to the potential influence of footballing reasons, and partly because looking at the refereeing errors affecting one club in isolation doesn't tell us anything about bias - ALL clubs suffer from bad decisions to some degree and ALL fans complain about decisions that go against them; looking at one club alone couldn't possibly tell you anything about whether they receive different treatment to other clubs.

This first part will focus on penalties awarded. In order to be thorough, data from the 10 seasons between 2007/2008 and 2016/2017 will be used, from the 22 teams that have featured most frequently in that time.

All statistics are sourced from OPTA, via Statbunker and Whoscored.

The most basic stat to start off with is the actual number of penalties awarded per season. In the following table you can see that Leicester surprisingly top this list, thanks in part to their haul of 13 awarded penalties in their title-winning 15/16 season. The top of the table is otherwise dominated by the league's strongest teams, with the exception of Arsenal all the way down in 9th place, and Blackburn and Crystal Palace way up in 6th and 7th.



Now penalties in isolation don't tell you much. To get a better idea of whether a team is winning too few penalties, we need to look at their general attacking threat. Well non-penalty goals is a good gauge of how potent a team's attacking threat is (and is independent of potentially biased penalties).  Arsenal top this list over the last 10 years, which produces quite an odd contrast with their lowly penalty figures. Definitive proof of refereeing bias right?

But Arsenal are not the only team who are under-represented. Swansea and Southampton would also have legitimate claims to be the victims of refereeing bias if we were to use this simple logic. And the likes of Leicester, Crystal Palace and Blackburn would appear to be enjoying the favour of referees.

To get a better idea of the discrepancy between a team's rank in the penalties awarded category and the non-penalty goals category, we can express the former as a percentage of the latter. This gives us a very nice spectrum as shown in the following table, with the likes of Crystal Palace and Leicester sitting at the top, winning penalties at more than double the rate (relative to their attacking level) of Arsenal, who sit at the very bottom.



Now, far from reinforcing the idea that referees are biased in favour of or against certain teams, this table actually goes a long way to explaining the footballing reasons behind this disparity. The top of the table is dominated by teams that could broadly be described as playing direct football, be it Leicester's lightning quick counter-attacks, Palace's tricky winger-based system, or Stoke and Blackburn's physical, aerial game. At the other end of the spectrum you have Arsenal and Swansea, two teams renowned for playing short-passing, possession football. And then in the middle you have the traditional big teams - minus Arsenal of course. These teams tend to dominate possession perhaps by virtue of their quality rather than by design, and they are not necessarily wedded to a slow, intricate approach.

On the face of it this contrast would make sense - penalties are often won during transitions, when tricky, pacy attackers can take advantage of opposition disorganisation, isolating defenders and drawing them into desperate fouls in the box. Teams that move the ball quickly from back to front are likely to win more penalties at any given level.

So the next table looks at a team's "directness", measured as the percentage ratio of long passes to short passes. Directness also correlates incredibly well with average possession, as you'd expect.

From this table we can see that there's a pretty clear trend of penalty % increasing as directness % increases. It's not a perfect trend of course, as Wigan seem to win more penalties than you'd expect for a team of their style, and Bolton have won far less than you'd expect with their direct approach, to name just 2 outliers.



So what does this data tell us? That there's a pretty good correlation between a team's directness, and the likelihood of them winning penalties at their particular quality level. The following graph demonstrates this better:



But this doesn't explain everything. Why, for example, do Man City win so many penalties for such an indirect team, while Arsenal win so few? Why are Arsenal awarded penalties at the rate of a mid-table team while their rivals at the top all earn considerably more despite not being that much more direct than Arsenal?

You would of course expect good dribblers at top clubs to also win penalties in crowded boxes, so directness cannot FULLY account for the penalty rates. Hence why the top clubs such as Man Utd, Chelsea, Liverpool and Man City hover around midtable for the penalty award rate, despite being at the bottom of the table of directness. Arsenal don't seem to benefit from this effect.

To illustrate this point one final time, let's compare average points per season to the penalty % rate below. You can see that the top 7 cluster all win significantly more penalties relative to NPG than Arsenal.



What can we conclude from these numbers? Firstly, this DOES NOT prove that referees are biased against Arsenal. This analysis is nowhere near exhaustive enough to be able to confirm that point of view. As we've seen, just a quick dive into the possession/directness figures has already uncovered one significant factor that affects how often different clubs are awarded penalties. There's no reason to think that a more detailed analysis of other metrics wouldn't uncover any more insights.

With that being said, there is room within the data for potential refereeing bias. This doesn't necessarily have to be an intentional bias, or the result of a conspiracy among referees. It could be something as simple as a sub-conscious stereotype of Arsenal as a 'soft' team who go down too easily under challenges. Again, the data above doesn't prove this, but doesn't rule it out either.

Part 2 will focus on penalties conceded, which should give us another angle to approach the issue from, and more data to add to the playing style vs refereeing debate.

Best Historical Attacking Seasons

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Arsenal Attacking Statistics 2017/2018

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Arsenal Attacking Statistics 2012/2013

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Arsenal Attacking Statistics 2000/2001

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Standout attacking performances:

Patrick Vieira
2 goals, 1 assist
Arsenal 5-3 Charlton Athletic (Premier League)

Ray Parlour
3 goals
Arsenal 5-0 Newcastle United (Premier League)

Sylvain Wiltord
1 goal, 2 assists
Arsenal 5-0 Manchester City (Premier League)

Sylvain Wiltord
3 goals
Arsenal 3-0 West Ham United (Premier League)

Thierry Henry
2 goals, 1 assist
Arsenal 5-0 Manchester City (Premier League)

Thierry Henry
3 goals, 2 assists
Arsenal 6-1 Leicester City (Premier League)

Barcelona Attacking Statistics 2001/2002

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Arsenal Attacking Statistics 1999/2000

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Standout attacking performances:

Davor Suker
2 goals, 1 assist
Arsenal 4-1 Everton (Premier League)

Dennis Bergkamp
2 goals, 1 assist
Arsenal 5-1 Middlesbrough (Premier League)

Marc Overmars
3 goals
Arsenal 5-1 Middlesbrough (Premier League)

Marc Overmars
1 goal, 2 assists
Arsenal 3-1 Blackpool (FA Cup)

Nwankwo Kanu
3 goals
Chelsea 2-3 Arsenal (Premier League)

Ray Parlour
3 goals, 1 assist
Werder Bremen 2-4 Arsenal (UEFA Cup)

Thierry Henry
2 goals, 2 assists
Arsenal 4-1 Sunderland (Premier League)

Thierry Henry
2 goals, 1 assist
Watford 2-3 Arsenal (Premier League)

Thierry Henry
2 goals, 1 assist
Arsenal 5-1 Deportivo (UEFA Cup)

Arsenal Attacking Statistics 1998/1999

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Standout attacking performances:

Dennis Bergkamp
2 goals, 1 assist
Arsenal 3-0 Newcastle United (Premier League)

Dennis Bergkamp
1 goal, 2 assists
Arsenal 3-1 Leeds United (Premier League)

Dennis Bergkamp
4 assists
Arsenal 5-0 Leicester City (Premier League)

Luis Boa Morte
1 goal, 2 assists
Preston North End 2-4 Arsenal (FA Cup)

Marc Overmars
1 goal, 2 assists
Middlesbrough 1-6 Arsenal (Premier League)

Nicolas Anelka
3 goals
Arsenal 5-0 Leicester City (Premier League)

Nicolas Anelka
1 goal, 2 assists
Arsenal 3-0 Manchester United (Charity Shield)

Nwankwo Kanu
2 goals, 1 assist
Middlesbrough 1-6 Arsenal (Premier League)

Stephen Hughes
3 assists
Arsenal 3-0 Manchester United (Premier League)

Arsenal Attacking Statistics 2015/2016

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Standout attacking performances:

Alexis Sanchez
3 goals, 1 key pass
Leicester 2-5 Arsenal (Premier League)

Alexis Sanchez
2 goals, 1 key pass
Arsenal 3-0 Manchester United (Premier League)

Alexis Sanchez
3 key passes
Arsenal 4-0 Aston Villa (Premier League)

Alexis Sanchez
2 goals, 1 assist
Arsenal 3-0 Dinamo Zagreb (Champions League)

Mesut Ozil
1 assist, 3 key passes
Leicester 2-5 Arsenal (Premier League)

Olivier Giroud
3 goals
Arsenal 4-0 Aston Villa (Premier League)

Olivier Giroud
3 goals
Arsenal 3-0 Dinamo Zagreb (Champions League)

Theo Walcott
2 goals, 1 assist
Hull 0-4 Arsenal (FA Cup)

Arsenal Attacking Statistics 2016/2017

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Standout attacking performances:

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain
1 goal, 1 assist, 2 key passes
Arsenal 6-0 Ludogorets (Champions League)

Alexis Sanchez
3 goals, 1 assist
West Ham 1-5 Arsenal (Premier League)

Alexis Sanchez
1 assist, 2 key passes
Basel 1-4 Arsenal (Champions League)

Alexis Sanchez
1 goal, 1 assist, 2 key passes
Arsenal 5-0 Lincoln City (FA Cup)

Danny Welbeck
2 goals, 1 assist
Southampton 0-5 Arsenal (FA Cup)

Lucas Perez
2 goals, 1 assist
Nottingham Forest 0-4 Arsenal (EFL Cup)

Lucas Perez
3 goals
Basel 1-4 Arsenal (Champions League)

Lucas Perez
1 assist, 2 key passes
Southampton 0-5 Arsenal (FA Cup)

Mesut Ozil
3 goals, 1 assist
Arsenal 6-0 Ludogorets (Champions League)

Mesut Ozil
1 goal, 1 assist, 1 key pass
West Ham 1-5 Arsenal (Premier League)

Mesut Ozil
1 assist, 2 key passes
Basel 1-4 Arsenal (Champions League)

Olivier Giroud
1 goal, 2 assists
Bournemouth 3-3 Arsenal (Premier League)

Theo Walcott
3 goals
Southampton 0-5 Arsenal (FA Cup)

Real Madrid Attacking Statistics 2011/2012

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Standout attacking performances:

Cristiano Ronaldo
3 goals, 1 key pass
Real Zaragoza 0-6 Real Madrid (La Liga)

Cristiano Ronaldo
3 goals
Real Madrid 6-2 Rayo Vallecano (La Liga)

Gonzalo Higuain
3 goals
Espanyol 0-4 Real Madrid (La Liga)

Gonzalo Higuain
3 goals
Real Madrid 4-1 Real Betis (La Liga)

Marcelo
1 goal, 1 assist, 1 key pass
Real Zaragoza 0-6 Real Madrid (La Liga)

Mesut Ozil
2 assists, 1 key pass
Real Madrid 6-2 Rayo Vallecano (La Liga)

Barcelona Attacking Statistics 2011/2012

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Arsenal Attacking Statistics 2011/2012

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Who should start as centre forward in Van Persie's absence?

Source: Press Association Images

So once again Robin van Persie is out injured at a crucial period during Arsenal's season. His absence means that progression through to the Champions League quarter finals will be an uphill struggle, and in the FA Cup a daunting game at Old Trafford awaits the Gunners should they advance past Leyton Orient in their 5th round replay tonight. On the positive side he will only miss 2 Premier League games should his recovery go to plan, with Arsene Wenger estimating that the Dutchman will be out for at least 3 weeks.

Robin van Persie is of course a top class player, but his effect on Arsenal's system extends far beyond his own individual contributions. His appreciation for space, intelligence in his movement, and ability to retain and distribute the ball high up the pitch, all make him the ideal candidate to act as the "false 9" within Arsenal's attack. His presence brings the best out of the likes of Cesc Fabregas and Theo Walcott, players who thrive on the space that van Persie creates for them in behind defences.

Van Persie's injury last year saw Arsenal transform from free-scoring high-fliers to a team that ended up limping, trophyless, over the finishing line in May. It was clear that his injury disrupted the team's attacking flow, and although Wenger experimented with several different players in the centre forward roles (Bendtner, Eduardo, and more radically Arshavin), none of them were able to replicate the influence of the Dutchman.

With Wenger looking unlikely to stray from his 4-2-3-1 setup this season, it's important that whoever fills in for van Persie is as similar as possible in terms of style of play. Step forward Marouane Chamakh. The Morroccan was signed on a free from Bordeaux last summer, and although he's struggled for form since December (not surprising given his lack of starts since the return of van Persie), his performances in the first few months of the season were excellent. Although lacking the creative talent and individual goalscoring game of van Persie, Chamakh was an effective deputy because vitally, he was able to replicate the intelligent movement and the hold-up play of the Dutchman, which is so vital in dragging markers out of position and facilitating the other attacking players in breaking into space.

The following table shows the overall team's attacking performance as well as individual goals/assists stats of the players who have started as centre forward since Arsenal switched to a 4-3-3/4-2-3-1 at the start of last season*. Realistically Arshavin will not be playing in the middle again this season, but his stats are shown for reference.


(*Only Premier League and Champions League proper games have been included, as other competitions tend to include weakened teams. Further breakdown of home/away performances as well as game-by-game stats are available by clicking on the other tabs at the bottom.)

What's evident is that the team scores at an amazing rate with van Persie as starting centre forward (obviously), but despite appearing to be individually the weakest of the club's 3 centre forwards, Chamakh does a much better job than Bendtner in preserving the attacking flow and goal average. The Morroccan lacks movement into goalscoring positions, directness, and killer instinct, but he more than makes up for it with his teamplay and overall positive effect on the team's ability to ripple the back of the net.


Source: Getty Images

I have speculated previously on the reason behind Bendtner's apparent negative effect on team performance despite seeming to do well on an individual level. I believe that the role of the centre forward in Arsenal's 4-2-3-1 should first and foremost be to aid the flow of the attack and to create space for the 3/4 players behind him. The individual goalscoring/assists performance of the centre forward comes secondary to the team's overall attacking performance. In that respect, van Persie and Chamakh do a far better job than Bendtner, who seems to stifle the team's fluidity with his (relatively) poor touch and movement. This trend is evidenced by the superior team performances when the centre forward role was occupied last season by Andrei Arshavin. The Russian, a natural attacking midfielder, contributed next to nothing in terms of goals/assists but enabled the team to score at an average of 2 goals per game, highlighting the importance of having a player who can drift about, take passes in his stride and keep the ball moving within the final 3rd.

One of the arguments in favour of Bendtner is that he very often pops up with vital goals and assists (this was particularly true from February onwards last season). However, you could say that Bendtner's ability to provide important match-saving contributions is a self-fulfilling prophecy. By making the system less geared towards fluidity and interchanging of positions, and more geared towards serving an orthodox no.9 (relative to other Arsenal centre forwards), the team's goal output is decreased, but the likelihood of Bendtner being the one to score or assist increases. And therefore he appears to be bailing Arsenal out, when in fact his presence was probably the root cause of Arsenal struggling in the first place.

In fact, the only game where Arsenal have scored more than 3 team goals with Bendtner as starting centre forward, was the 5-0 win over Porto. Bendtner was surprisingly clinical that game, netting a hattrick from 2 predatory finishes and a penalty. A system with Nicklas Bendtner as the single centre forward would only work in the long term if he could improve his finishing. In a more orthodox attacking system, less chances are created, and it therefore becomes vital that the focal point inside the box (i.e. Bendtner) makes the most of the chances that come his way. Unfortunately this has rarely been the case in the past.

Conclusion:

Unless Wenger switches to a 4-4-2 or another formation that facilitates 2 centre forwards, Marouane Chamakh remains the ideal candidate to take over van Persie's false 9 role. The Morroccan was given his chance at the start of the year and proved that he was able to fill the void that would otherwise have cost Arsenal a chance at the title, as it did the previous season. Nicklas Bendtner remains a decent plan B, but Chamakh's qualities are more in tune in with Arsenal's plan A.

Arsenal Attacking Statistics 2009/2010

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Standout attacking performances:

Andrei Arshavin
3 assists
Arsenal 4-1 AZ Alkmaar (Champions League)

Andrei Arshavin
2 assists; 1 key pass
Arsenal 5-0 Porto (Champions League)

Cesc Fabregas
2 goals; 2 assists
Everton 1-6 Arsenal (Premier League)

Cesc Fabregas
1 goal; 4 assists
Arsenal 6-2 Blackburn (Premier League)

Cesc Fabregas
1 goal; 2 key passes
Wolves 1-4 Arsenal (Premier League)

Cesc Fabregas
1 goal; 1 assist; 1 key pass
Arsenal 4-2 Bolton (Premier League)

Cesc Fabregas
1 goal; 2 assists
Stoke 1-3 Arsenal (Premier League)

Nicklas Bendtner
3 goals
Arsenal 5-0 Porto (Champions League)

Robin van Persie
2 goals; 1 assist
Arsenal 3-0 Spurs (Premier League)

Mid-season analysis: What's wrong with Arsenal's central defence?

We're exactly half way through the Premier League season and after another 2 cheap points were dropped at Wigan recently, it's worth exploring what's going wrong at the heart of Arsenal's defence, especially when it's occupied by the French pair of Laurent Koscielny and Sebastian Squillaci. The goalkeeper and left back situations have been scrutinised in great detail by Arsenal fans but the purpose of this article will be to examine the centre backs alone through a combination of statistical and video analysis.

For the sake of a fair comparison, Champions League and League Cup games will be ignored due to the weakened nature of the teams fielded. Tackles and interceptions made by centre backs in the final 3rd of the pitch will be excluded from the stats as these generally only occur during corner kick situations and do not reflect defensive ability. The 3rd goal conceded against West Brom in the 2-3 home defeat will also be ignored as the team was playing a 3-man defence from the 66th minute onwards (tackles/interceptions/shots during that time will also be ignored).

Partnerships

Firstly, let's take a look at the defensive efficiency of the 5 different centre backs pairings that have been fielded during the Premier League campaign so far:

Table 1: Centre back statistics for all 19 Premier League games to date

The Djourou-Koscielny and Song-Vermaelen partnerships have had little game time so can be ignored from this comparison. With that in mind the key points are that:

-The Koscielny-Squillaci pairing is the leakiest and concedes goals at almost 4 times the rate of the most secure pairing, Djourou-Squillaci.

-Despite conceding the least goals, the Djourou-Squillaci partnership actually concedes the most total shots and the 2nd most shots on target.

-The Koscielny-Squillaci partnership concedes fewer total shots than any other partnership, but the most shots on target.

-The Koscielny-Vermaelen pairing concedes the fewest total shots and the fewest shots on target.

These stats are for all Premier League games and so do not take into account the differences between home games and away games (where defences generally come under extra attacking pressure). Therefore here is a further breakdown of these stats beginning with home games:



Table 2: Centre back statistics for all 9 Premier League home games to date



From this table the only 2 partnerships worth comparing are Djourou-Squillaci and Koscielny-Squillaci. Again, key points are that:

-The Djourou-Squillaci pairing is the most secure and concedes goals at almost 3 times a lower rate than Koscielny-Squillaci.

-The Djourou-Squillaci partnership concedes more total shots and more shots on target than Koscielny-Squillaci.

And finally the away performances:



Table 3: Centre back statistics for all 10 Premier League away games to date



Key points here are that:

-Djourou-Squillaci once again emerges as the most secure pairing, despite conceding the most total shots.

-Koscielny-Squillaci is the least secure and concedes the most shots on target (as opposed to the least in home performances).

-Koscielny-Vermaelen concedes the least total shots and the least shots on target.

With the exception of shots on target conceded by Koscielny-Squillaci, the pattern of home and away games is quite similar.

Individuals

So what is the reason behind these trends? To understand we need to take a closer look at the strengths and weaknesses of each individual centre back, so that we can recognise the dynamics of each separate pairing. Here are individual stats for interceptions, aerial duels and tackling:



Table 4: Individual defensive stats for the 4 centre backs



The points we can draw from this are that:

-Koscielny is the most pro-active defender, attempting the most tackles and aerial duels, and the 2nd most interceptions. His tackling is by far the tidiest.

-Squillaci prefers to keep his position rather than close down, attempting fewer interceptions, aerial duels and tackles.

-Vermaelen and Djourou are somewhere in between these 2 varying styles, Vermaelen tending more towards Koscielny's game while Djourou is more akin to Squillaci.

-Despite attempting the most aerial duels, Koscielny is joint weakest in this area along with Squillaci (who attempts by far the fewest).

-Vermaelen is the strongest in the air, with Djourou not far behind.

Conclusion:

With this knowledge, we can roughly rank the centre backs in 2 important areas of the game:

Closing down:

Koscielny = Vermaelen > Djourou = Squillaci

Aerial ability:

Vermaelen > Djourou > Koscielny = Squillaci

This helps us to better understand the dynamics of each centre back pairing:

-Koscielny-Vermaelen concedes the fewest shots on target because it closes down the best and thwarts attacks before they develop (with a larger sample size it could possibly rank the lowest in terms of total shots too).

-The Djourou-Squillaci partnership concedes the most total shots because it doesn't close down (it is joint worst for shots on target too).

-The Koscielny-Squillaci pairing is the leakiest because it is weak in the air and therefore vulnerable from aerial balls and set pieces.

-The Djourou-Squillaci pairing is the strongest because it is deep-lying and doesn't risk being caught high up the pitch. Instead it looks to soak up opposition pressure, taking advantage of Djourou's aerial ability.

The major anomaly within these stats is that the Koscielny-Squillaci partnership concedes few total shots (due mainly to Koscielny's closing down?) but concedes the most shots on target and indeed the most goals (by a large distance). If the partnership restricts opposition shots so much, why then do a high proportion of these end up on target and in the net?

Comparing the Squillaci-Djourou and Squillaci-Koscielny partnerships, it's difficult to comprehend that the vast difference in defensive efficiency is down to a simple difference in defensive strategy. The fact that replacing Johan Djourou with Laurent Koscielny results in an almost 4-fold increase in goals being conceded, should be cause for concern, and points the finger of blame at the young Frenchman.

So what exactly is Koscielny doing wrong? It could be that he struggles on the left side of defence when partnered with Squillaci, as opposed to the more natural right-sided role he assumes when partnered with Vermaelen. Another factor may be that without the comfort of a Premier League-experienced partner, Koscielny lacks the right support and leadership to effectively function within this defence.

Another more simple explanation would be that Laurent Koscielny is simply error-prone, and that despite all his good work in getting tight to opponents and winning the ball back early, he lets it all go to waste with one or two moments of madness each match, whether it's a positional or technical error.

As usual, this pattern is best demonstrated with actual graphic evidence from the matches. The following video breaks down the 21 goals conceded in the Premier League campaign so far (excluding the 3rd against West Brom), and we can observe that indeed the main problems of the Squillaci-Koscielny partnership are its aerial weakness and Koscielny's tendency to make costly mistakes:

Solution:

So what can be done to remedy the current situation? The obvious decision would be to drop Koscielny in the short term and persist with the Squillaci-Djourou partnership, certainly in away games anyway. At home Koscielny's style of play would be beneficial towards Arsenal's pressing game and he can compete with Squillaci to partner the excellent Djourou (and when fit, Vermaelen).

In the long term, with more Premier League and general defensive experience, Koscielny should mature into a fine modern centre back, combining his excellent technical qualities and intelligence with improved concentration and reliability. It will be of great interest to see which two of Djourou, Koscielny and Vermaelen will establish themselves as the club's first choice centre backs given their similar ages and differing qualities.

What's the best way to score against Manchester United?

Data from all 57 goals conceded by Manchester United in the Premier League and Champions League games since the start of the 2009/2010 season. A break-down of goals conceded at Old Trafford alone is included in a separate tab:

Ronaldo vs Messi Attacking Statistics 2009/2010

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Real Madrid Attacking Statistics 2009/2010

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Standout attacking performances:

Cristiano Ronaldo
2 goals, 1 key pass
Real Madrid 5-0 Xerez (La Liga)

Cristiano Ronaldo
2 goals, 1 key pass
Xerez 0-3 Real Madrid (La Liga)

Cristiano Ronaldo
1 goal, 2 assists, 1 key pass
Real Madrid 6-2 Villarreal (La Liga)

Cristiano Ronaldo
3 goals
Real Mallorca 1-4 Real Madrid (La Liga)

Cristiano Ronaldo
2 goals, 1 key pass
Zurich 2-5 Real Madrid (Champions League)

Gonzalo Higuain
2 goals, 1 assist
Tenerife 1-5 Real Madrid (La Liga)

Gonzalo Higuain
3 goals
Real Valladolid 1-5 Real Madrid (La Liga)

Kaka
2 goals, 1 key pass
Real Madrid 6-2 Villarreal (La Liga)

Rafael Van der Vaart
2 goals, 1 assist
Real Madrid 6-0 Zaragoza (La Liga)

Ronaldo vs Messi Attacking Statistics 2010/2011

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