REVEALED: Teams benefitting from the most errors in Europe’s top five leagues
Newcastle came within seven minutes of earning a point away to Tottenham on Saturday, only for a Martin Dubravka error to undo all of their hard work. Against elite opposition, there is an emerging trend, particularly in the Premier League, that only perfection is good enough to have a chance of getting a positive result.
It was also the case in Arsenal’s meeting with Manchester City on Sunday. Alex Iwobi’s bizarre attempt to dribble the ball out of Arsenal’s own penalty area in the first 45 seconds resulted in Sergio Aguero heading in City’s first goal. Many will argue, and perhaps correctly, that City would have beaten Arsenal anyway, but it only set the tone for another poor defensive display from the Gunners.
Such the pace set at the top of the league by Liverpool and City, that had Dubravka not allowed Son Heung-min’s long-range effort to slip underneath him then we likely would have ruled Tottenham out of the title race. As it is, they are now only five points adrift of Liverpool. With that, we have assessed which sides have benefitted from the most errors leading to goal in Europe’s top five leagues this season.
As touched on before, playing against the best teams in the world will more often than not require nothing less than a faultless performance. And even that may not be good enough. Elite players are so good, and the pressure they apply on their opponents is so great, that it can often suffocate teams into submission. Players aren’t robots and mistakes will happen. It is, therefore, perhaps unsurprising that Paris Saint-Germain have scored the most goals in Europe’s top five leagues as a direct result of an opposition error this season (10).
Even after suffering their first league defeat of the season last time out, PSG are still 10 points clear at the top of Ligue 1 and have two games in hand. The prospect of facing Neymar is daunting in itself, let alone when you couple him with Kylian Mbappe – the two most expensive players of all-time. PSG have the best conversion rate in Europe’s top five leagues this season (20.4%) and have failed to take advantage of just four of the 14 errors leading to a shot on goal their opponents have coughed up.
While PSG have illustrated you simply cannot afford to make mistakes against them this season, the same is not so true of some of their big continental rivals. Juventus, for example, have only scored one goal from eight errors leading to a shot conceded by their opponents in Serie A this season. Inter have failed to score a single goal from an instance of an error (10 attempts), while the same is also true of Atletico Madrid (five attempts).
Tottenham rank second behind PSG for the most goals scored from errors conceded by their opponents (nine goals), but they have also been extremely wasteful. Mauricio Pochettino’s side have actually benefitted from 27 errors leading to a shot on goal in the league this season, at least nine more than any other side in Europe’s top five leagues. Yet, they have only converted 33.3% of those.
Manchester City rank third in the list. Aguero’s opening goal against Arsenal was the eighth league goal they have scored this season after benefitting from an opposition error. This is to be expected, given the amount of possession they enjoy (63.9% per game), which is the highest in Europe’s top five leagues, coupled with the fact only one team spends a great proportion of their time in the final third than the defending Premier League champions (35%). However, like Tottenham, Guardiola’s side need to be more efficient with these chances, as they have failed to capitalise on nine errors already this term.
Strasbourg, Girona and Celta Vigo all rank highly, though that should be a concern for the latter pair. Celta and Girona are only one point above the bottom three in Spain and have scored more than 30% and 20%, respectively, of their goals as a result of errors their opponents have made. Relying on their opponents to avoid relegation is a dangerous game to play and suggests change is needed.
Change is also needed at Arsenal and Toulouse. They have both committed the most errors leading to an opposition goal in Europe’s top five leagues this season (8) and have been extremely wasteful when their opponents have made mistakes. Only Tottenham have benefitted from more errors leading to a shot on goal than Arsenal (18), which is unsurprising given the nature of their football in the final third, yet Unai Emery’s side have only scored from four of those shots. It’s even worse for Toulouse, who have netted just once from 12 efforts as a result of an opposition error.
