If you hadn’t seen this game and just saw the statistics below, you might think that Fulham had a good chance in this game and were unlucky not to get something. They weren’t and they weren’t.

The possession finished 55/45 in Fulham’s favour, but midway through the first half it was 43/57. I know this because I was poking fun of the official Fulham Twitter account when they were claiming it was “pretty even stuff”. No, it wasn’t.

However, we definitely let Fulham get into the game during the second half, but they never really looked like they’d get on the score sheet. I’d like to think that this was a case of taking our foot off the pedal and not running out of steam again. Unchanged line up and no subs. I’m just saying.

I’ve introduced two new metrics into the usual Statshack table. The first is Completed Pass Share (CPS), which is the team’s share of the total completed passes during the game. In this case it was 53/47. It works a bit like possession and just helps paint a picture of the nature of the game.

The second new stat is Pass Completion % which speaks for itself. Both teams scored fairly high here with Fulham managing 81% and Villa 84% complete.  Speaking of pass completion; of our outfield players, Emile Heskey’s pass completion of 71% was the poorest.  Again, just saying.

The average position map is fairly interesting for this game.  Richard Dunne’s position tells its own story.

Overall, this has to be regarded as an intelligent display.  The team did enough, but no more, and really coasted to the three points.  They’ll have no such luxury against the next two opponents, so let’s hope they’ve saved plenty in reserve.

For now though, we have to be happy that we’re back scoring goals and winning games.  #05 in the ‘This Season vs Last Season‘ series will be published Monday morning and I’ve started looking towards what we need to see happen between now and the end of the season.  The next two games will be a key part of the journey to the finish line.  If you like the tables and charts stuff, look out for that on Monday.

0	Fulham	Jan 30th 2010	Aston Villa	2
	55	Possession %	45
	19	Shots	13
	4	On Target	6
	9	Corners	3
	5	Offsides	1
		Scorers	40′, 44′ Agbonlahor
		Booked	Heskey, L Young
		Sent Off
	275	Good Passes	248
	53	CPS %	47
	64	Bad Passes	71
	81	Completion %	84
	15	Interceptions	16
	36	Tackles Won	37
	23	Tackles Lost	21
	2	Blocks	9
	16	Free Kicks	16
Starting XI: 1. Friedel 24. Cuellar 2. Young 29. Collins 5. Dunne 19. Petrov 8. Milner 7. Young 6. Downing 18. Heskey 11. Agbonlahor Subs: 22. Guzan 14. Delfouneso 4. Sidwell 21. Shorey 15. Davies 23. Beye 16. Delph
Average Position Map