Arsenal should have won the Premier League last year, according to new findings from researchers at bookimakers SportNation.bet .
Arsenal finished the Premier League in 5th place, having to settle for a second year without Champions League football after missing out on fourth place to North London rivals Tottenham, who they take on in the North London Derby this weekend.
However, according to a statistic, Arsenal finishing in the position that they did was an anomaly, with the Gunners recording the highest shots to goals ratio in the league, a statistic achieved by the Premier League Champions in six out of the last nine seasons.
The other two times that the team with the highest percentage didn't go onto win the league were in 2011/2012, where Sergio Aguero's last minute winner earned Man City their first title and in 2013/14, where Steven Gerrard's infamous slip against Chelsea put Liverpool out of lifting their first ever Premier League trophy.
In them years the team who recorded the highest shots to goals ratio finished in second place, three places above Arsenal's finish last season.
According to stats from SportNation.bet, Arsenal finished with a shots to goals ratio of 15.63% scoring 73 of their 467 shots beating both Liverpool (15.48%) and Man City (13.91%).
The stats suggest that it was the defence that was the problem for Unai Emery's men. 51 goals were conceded by the Gunners throughout the campaign, which equals the record for goals against Arsenal in the Premier League.
Looking at the past 10 years, Leicester were the team to win the league with the least amount of shots - 522, still boasting an impressive shots to goals ratio of 13.03%.
Arsenal had 467 shots last year, 55 shots off Leicester’s title-winning season.
New £80m signing Nicolas Pepe has been brought in over the summer, but what difference will he make to Arsenal, and will he take them to the next level?
Pepe managed 118 overall shots and 61 shots on target last season in France.
The Ivorian may also be effective for Unai Emery’s team with the introduction of VAR to the Premier League being the Ligue 1's most fouled player. He won six penalties for his team last season - the same number Arsenal won all year.
With the addition of both Nicolas Pepe and David Luiz in an attempt to shore up the defence, both Emery and Arsenal fans will be hoping that the stats translate into silverware sooner rather than later.
