One of the things that I enjoy about pulling the Statshacks together is that the statistics often don’t reflect my perception of the game, which really challenges what I think I know, and this one is no exception. Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t think that the scoreline flatters us much, but if you were to make a judgment based solely on the numbers below you might not agree.

You can see for yourself that the passing and possession were fairly even, but actually just shaded by Burnley. This is what makes me smile when I see certain McExperts pointing to these statistics to highlight our shortcomings when results don’t go our way. We all know the type. Had we not been so ruthlessly efficient in front of goal today, or if I’m being totally honest; we hadn’t got the odd deflection here and there, and let’s say this game finished 1-1, you know full well that someone would point to our numbers here and complain that we haven’t dominated a team like Burnley and it’s not good enough. Yada yada yada.

As it is, we thumped Burnley 5-2, so we’ll thankfully be spared such amazing insight. I’ll leave you to look over the numbers and come to you own conclusion. I’m tempted to point out just how deep Emile Heskey is in the average position map, but he put in a shift in the second half and got on the score sheet himself, so it would be ungracious to turn the spotlight on him too brightly. Instead, I merely tug my forelock in his general direction and say ‘well player, sir’.

5	Aston Villa	Feb 21st 2010	Burnley	2
	47%	Possession %	53%
	19	Shots	13
	9	On Target	4
	9	Corners	5
	4	Offsides	2
32′ Young, 56′ 58′ Downing, 61′ Heskey, 68′ Agbonlahor		Scorers	10′ Fletcher, 90′ Paterson
		Booked	Carlisle, Fletcher, Nimani
		Sent Off
	242	Good Passes	265
	48%	CPS %	52%
	68	Bad Passes	66
	78%	Completion %	80%
	19	Interceptions	13
	32	Tackles Won	42
	25	Tackles Lost	21
	6	Blocks	1
	17	Free Kicks	11
Starting XI: 1. Friedel 24. Cuellar 25. Warnock 29. Collins 5. Dunne 19. Petrov 8. Milner 7. Young 6. Downing 18. Heskey 11. Agbonlahor Subs: 22. Guzan 14. Delfouneso 4. Sidwell 10. Carew 2. Young 23. Beye 16. Delph
Average Position Map

[Original data and graphics courtesy of ESPN and The Guardian]