WHZ Stats: Moyes has turned West Ham’s attack into most efficient in PL
West Ham have seen their bid to finish in the top-four show signs of derailing in recent weeks with David Moyes’ men winning just one of their last four Premier League matches.
On Sunday, we saw the Hammers squander an early three-goal lead to draw with Arsenal at the London Stadium while narrow defeats to Manchester City and Manchester United preceded that with a win over Leeds United sandwiched in between the two losses.
Even if we do fail to qualify for the Champions League this season – or fail to qualify for Europe at all – then there are still a lot of positives to take from what has been a successful campaign under Moyes’ leadership.
West Ham’s 3-3 draw with Arsenal on Sunday was their 29th game of the current season. Last season, their 29th match was also against the Gunners but resulted in a 1-0 defeat as the Premier League entered a COVID-enforced suspension in play.
At that point, West Ham were 16th in the Premier League with 27 points – the same total as Bournemouth who were sat in the relegation zone.
It’s crazy to think how much has changed in the last year and compare the Hammers of this stage of last season to the one that sits in fifth after 29 matches this term.
According to stats by Wyscout, the biggest change that has happened in East London is the way that the Irons are able to create quality chances and convert them.
In the graph below, you can see how West Ham compare with the rest of the Premier League for the difference between their xG (expected goals) and their actual goals.
While West Ham’s xG is 48.66 this season and their actual league goal tally is 45, which suggests that they should be scoring more than they have done, they’re by no means one of the worst in the top-flight.
But when you do further digging into xG and start considering the xG per shot of each team in the Premier League, which shows the likelihood each shot has of making the net ripple, West Ham stand out as the best in the league with a figure of 0.152.
That means, on average, each shot the Hammers have had at goal this season has a 15.2 per cent of resulting in a goal.
When xG per shot and actual goals scored are lined up against one another, you can really see how West Ham stack up against the rest of the Premier League with their attack being one of the most prolific and also one of the most efficient.
Michail Antonio is one of the main reasons why West Ham are so clinical when it comes to the quality of their chances in attack.
The 30-year-old has scored seven goals in 20 Premier League appearances this season by stats by Wyscout show the forward has an xG per 90 minute of 0.61, which is the second-best in the top-flight behind Leicester’s Jamie Vardy [0.62].
Below you can see a chart of the top 10 Premier League players for xG per 90 minutes and their actual goals per 90 minutes and while Antonio isn’t scoring as many as he should be, it still shows how good the quality of his chances are in comparison with top forward like Vardy, Patrick Bamford and Harry Kane.
Antonio isn’t the only reason why the quality of West Ham’s chances this season have been so high with other players like Tomas Soucek, Jesse Lingard and Jarrod Bown also playing a massive role.
But, overall, Moyes has installed a style of play that means the Hammers are efficient and in doing so, he’s made them arguably the most efficient team in the top-flight in just over a year.
In other West Ham news, Frank McAvennie claims it’s time for Fabian Balbuena to move on in the summer.