West Ham United captain Mark Noble put in a goalscoring performance against Crystal Palace in the Premier League at the weekend, during the 1-1 draw at Selhurst Park.
Noble broke the deadlock for the Hammers in the 27th minute in south London, giving them a deserved lead from the penalty spot after home goalkeeper Vicente Guaita brought Michail Antonio down in the penalty area. But his overall performance was very impressive too and we’re going to analyse the statistics behind it, today.
The stats
In order to do this in our analysis, we bring you the below image, containing the 31-year-old’s key general stats on the day his side made it back-to-back daws in the league. Acquired from our good friends over at wyscout.com.
As you can see, the graphic also includes Noble’s average general stats from his esteemed 15-year career so far, but it’s just the figures from Saturday that we’re going to be primarily focussing on today. Although it does make for an interesting comparison.
Our first stat from the full 95 minutes the skipper played at Selhurst, on the right side of a central defensive midfield two also starring youngster Declan Rice, is total actions and his rate of success in them. Noble had a busy day, completing 69 total actions and being successful an eye-catching 74 per cent of the time.
As mentioned, the veteran managed a goal, his second from the penalty spot in the space of three matches against the Eagles and his first under Manuel Pellegrini in any competition. This saw him carry a high expected goals rating of 0.76 and came from his only effort of the entire London derby.
However, Noble couldn’t do something he has been able to do a fair few times in 2018/2019 thus far and add an assist. But he did make up for it with a delicious 91% short pass accuracy and 80% long pass accuracy from his 45 short passes and five longer, trickier passes.
While Noble didn’t find himself in a position to deliver a single cross against Palace, he showed off a relatively unknown skillful side to his gritty game. As evidenced by a quite remarkable four dribbles out of four, completed.
It’s the hard-core side to the boyhood Hammer’s play that he’s more known for, one of which duelling is a huge part. But, ironically, as a more silky part of his game reared its head, duelling is where he didn’t fare so well two days ago, only completing eight out of 28 combined duels and aerial duels.
As well as being a threat going forward, there’s little doubt that Noble also stuck to his defensive duties excellently in the stalemate. This is displayed by a superb three interceptions and just seven losses, only four of which threatened his own defence by occurring in his own half.
The man who’s spent his entire career in his native east London added to his statistical performance, a cool eight recoveries, with three-quarters of them coming in his own half, once again in a defensive sense. Meanwhile, Noble’s disciplinary record this campaign hasn’t been the best, though he was able to keep it clean in the local derby, not collecting a card of any kind from referee Craig Pawson.
Overall, there can be no doubting that these stats from Noble are wonderful and just the latest in what has been a great season for the 31-year-old so far. As we can see, his career average is eclipsed in many of the figures and to still be beating his career average at his age at the highest level, is simply outstanding from the West Ham through-and-through midfielder.
Summary
In conclusion, our statistical tactical analysis today has found that the stats behind Noble’s goalscoring performance against Crystal Palace are nothing short of fantastic. The only disappointment for him will be that his team wasn’t able to hold for a first three points in nearly a month.
Noble has been a rejuvenated figure since the arrival of Pellegrini when many expected him to start to be gradually fazed out of the starting team by the Chilean in his first season at London Stadium. Currently, there are no signs of the club captain’s powers wilting and members of his beloved Claret & Blue Army will desperately be hoping things stay that way for as long as possible.
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