The stats behind a record-breaking 2024

We won 34 of our 50 games during 2024, recording our best win percentage (68%) for a calendar year since 1932, and the second best in our history. 

Our overall playing record was: P50 W34 D9 L7 F114 A36 – meaning we won three more matches than we did in 2023, despite playing five fewer matches. We also scored more goals (114 to 110) and conceded significantly fewer – just 36 from the 50 games, 25 fewer than were scored past us in 2023.

In fact our scoring rate of 2.28 goals per game in the year was our highest average since 1963, when we racked up goals at a rate of 2.47 per game (more details below). 

We competed on four fronts in 2024, winning all three of our Carabao Cup games, half of our 10 Champions League fixtures, and 26 out of 36 Premier League games. 

We lost just seven times in all competitions, the fewest defeats we have registered in a year since 2004 (also seven). 

GOALS, GOALS, GOALS

As mentioned above, we scored 114 goals in all competitions in 2024 at our best scoring rate for more than 60 years. The goals came at a rate of 2.28 goals per game – that’s only been bettered by us nine times (three of those occasions were in the Nineteenth Century) most recently in 1963. Our best ever scoring rate across a calendar year was in 1932, when we netted 132 from 49 matches, at 2.69 per game. Looking purely at the league - our 89 goals is the most we've ever scored in a Premier League year.

Our most common scoreline was 2-0, which we recorded six times. There were 17 different scorelines and we scored at least five times in nine different games. It’s the first time we’ve ever managed that in a single year, and only three top-flight sides have ever recorded more (Manchester City in 2021, Burnley in 1960 and Blackburn Rovers in 1913 all hit five or more ten times). 

In the nine games we scored at least five, six came in away matches – the most ever by a top-flight side in a calendar year. Our two biggest wins (6-0) were both in away games, against West Ham United and Sheffield United. That win at Bramall Lane also set another record - we became the first team in English league history to win three consecutive away league games by at least five goals. 

There was a fairly even split among the 114 goals of those scored in the first half and the second - 59 came before the interval, 55 afterwards. The most prolific 15-minute spell in games was just before half-time: we netted 27 times between minutes 31 and 45.

KEEPING IT TIGHT

We conceded 36 goals in 2024, the fewest since 1990, when 35 were scored against us from 45 matches. But in terms of goals per game conceded (0.72), it was our fourth best year in our history, and the best since 2005 (0.71). 

We kept 24 clean sheets (48% of our matches), and didn’t concede more than twice in any game in any competition. The last team to score three against us were Luton Town, in a game we won 4-3 at Kenilworth Road in December 2023. We kept 18 Premier League clean sheets, the most in a year since 1999 (19). 

David Raya kept 23 clean sheets in his 46 appearances, Tommy Setford kept our other clean sheet in his only outing for the first team. 

THE PLAYERS

We used 36 players in 2024, including 10 debutants and eight teenagers. William Saliba, Kai Havertz and Leandro Trossard all missed just two of the 50 games, with Saliba spending the longest time on the pitch. He played 4,245 of the available 4,530 minutes (93.7%). The Frenchman also had the most touches (3,889), successful passes (3,206), victories (33) and won possession more times than any other player (215). 

Bukayo Saka led the team in terms of shots (134), shots on target (50), chances created (104), touches in the opposition box (343) and dribbles completed (65). 

Eight players played at least 45 games, while seven played just once. The most frequently selected starting XI in all competitions was chosen just four times – Raya, White, Saliba, Gabriel, Tomiyasu, Rice, Partey, Odegaard, Trossard, Saka, Havertz.

Our top scorer during the year was Havertz (21) and 18 different players got themselves on the scoresheet. In fact both Havertz and Saka netted 20+ goals, the first time we have had two players achieve that in a year since Thierry Henry (43) and Robert Pires (21) did so in 2004. 

Saka added 16 assists to his 20 goals, and his 36 goal involvements were the most by an Arsenal player in a year since Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang also mustered 36 (31 goals + 5 assists) in 2019. The last player to provide more assists for us than Saka in a calendar year was Mesut Ozil with 22 in 2015.

Through the YEAR

We won at least twice in every month, and remained unbeaten in five of the ten months in which we played. Due to the winter break, we didn’t play a Premier League match until three weeks into the year (we had faced Liverpool in the FA Cup on January 7) and the 5-0 home win over Crystal Palace really set the tone for the year. 

We won each of our first eight Premier League games of 2024, scoring 33 goals and conceding four, before a goalless draw away to Manchester City. 

We won 10 of our first 11 away games in the league, keeping nine clean sheets in the process. In fact we were not behind for a single second of those 11 away games, matching the Premier League record. 

The longest unbeaten run of the season in all competitions was 16 games (between April 20 and October 19) and the longest winning streak was eight (between April 20 and August 24).

We lost only twice at Emirates Stadium – the first game of the year against Liverpool in the FA Cup, then against Aston Villa in April. It’s the fewest home defeats we’ve suffered in a year since 2007, when we lost just once. We went into the new year on a 17-game unbeaten streak at home, the longest since Mikel Arteta (who was named Premier League Manager of the Month in February) took over in 2019.

Making a POint

We played 36 Premier League games in 2024, and ended on top of the yearly-league table, on goal difference from Liverpool, despite playing fewer games than the rest of the top ten. We took 85 points, with a goal difference of +64. We conceded 14 fewer goals than any other side, and were second top scorers with 89. 

That compares to 81 points in 2023, when we played six more matches. It’s the first time we’ve finished top of the yearly Premier League table since 2015, and the most points we’ve accrued in a year since 2004 (the year the Invincibles won the title). 

We averaged 2.36 per game with a win rate of 72% - both the highest in a single year in our top-flight history.

STATS AND FACTS

A few other notable bits from 2024…

• Ben White's goal against Sheffield United in March was the 10,000 we have scored in our history
• Leandro Trossard's goal against Burnley in February was the 1,000th the men's team have scored at Emirates Stadium
• In March we became the first team ever to score at least twice in eight consecutive halves of Premier League football
• December was the first time we had played at least seven games in a month without suffering defeat since January 2007
• We were unbeaten for the final 11 games of the year, we have only closed the year out with longer unbeaten runs twice before (17 in 1986 and 16 in 2003)
• Jack Porter became the youngest player ever to start a game for the men's first team when he made his debut aged 16 years and 72 days against Bolton in September
• The most common combination for goals and assists was Kai Havertz and Bukayo Saka, who combined for nine goals - the most effective partnership since Mesut Ozil and Olivier Giroud (11) in 2015.
• In November Saka became the first player for us to both score and assist in three consecutive matches since Cesc Fabregas in 2007
• Havertz scored in seven consecutive Emirates Stadium appearances between May and October, the longest scoring streak ever at the stadium
• Gabriel Jesus scored our only hat-trick of the year, against Crystal Palace in December
• All seven of Gabriel's goals were headers
• In September Ethan Nwaneri became the youngest player to score a brace for us since Arturo Lupoli in 2004
• We scored 18 goals from corners in 2024
• The earliest goal was scored by Martin Odegaard - 3' 58" into our 5-0 win over Burnley in February
• The latest goal was scored by Kai Havertz - 98' 35" into our 4-2 win over Leicester City in September
• Bukayo Saka scored our longest range goal, from 34 yards against PSG in October

With thanks to Opta