Cech masks 3-4-3 improvement?| top at 24,040 | £16.26m for Les Invalides |  Ozil top

Amidst the vacuous uncertainty and fogginess of the transfer window and questions why Man City aren’t taken to task for tapping up, facts and figures released this week provide a good counterpoint.

STATS have done their best in analysing actual goal chances and saves against expected ones from last season. The Daily Telegraph runs an article saying Petr Cech’s late season excellence saved Arsenal from an even worse points total. In terms of actual saves made minus expected saves, Arsenal had the highest figure in the league with +11, which essentially means that without above-average goalkeeping displays they would have conceded 11 more goals.

STATS analysis shows that Arsenal gave up the same number of chances after switching to 3-4-3 for the last eight games of the season – and it was only Cech’s improved form in this period which lead to the improvement. Of course this could be down to a clearer view of the shots having potentially one less body to block his view.

In a study into Premier League injuries by insurance broker and risk consultant JLT Specialty, Arsenal were third worst on the list, suffering 51 injuries (the same as Man Utd) at a total cost of £16.26m. At least there is a yardstick by which to judge new fitness coach Darren Burgess’s salary.

Knee injuries accounted for £50m  of the £177m total, with an average length of absence of 70 days. Back injuries resulted in an average lay-off of 44 days. There were 713 injuries in total across the 524 matches.

Arsenal will come top of the most-travelled Premier League club in the close season, covering 24,040 miles, beating Man U by 5000 miles. Not a crown for carbon conscious Gooners to rejoice about, but for an organisation sponsored by the Emirates….

Meanwhile a survey in the Scottish Dail Mail shows Mezut Ozil king of the Premier League players’ social media league having the most followers on both Facebook (31.7 million) and Twitter (16.2 million). It reports that he beat Arsenal across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram by 2.6m ( perhaps worth a chunk of his reported £280,000 contract offer). Arsenal are the third in the tripartite club social media league behind Man U and Chelsea.