Italy international Riccardo Calafiori emerged from the bench for a cameo appearance in Arsenal’s 2-0 win over Aston Villa in the Premier League on Saturday, his first competitive game for his new club. Here are the numbers behind the former Bologna defender’s first run-out in North London.
How Calafiori got on in his first Premier League game for Arsenal
It was a brief appearance for Calafiori at the Emirates. He came on at the 79th minute, so was only on the field for around a quarter of an hour.
In that time, he had just nine touches of the ball, but interestingly, five of those touches were attempted passes. Of his five attempted passes, four successfully found their targets for a completion rate of 80%. He also completed the one long ball that he attempted.
Given that Calafiori came on two minutes after Thomas Partey scored Arsenal’s second, he was tasked with more of a defensive job, so there was less opportunity for some of his creative play or the mazing runs out of the back that we grew used to seeing with Bologna and with Italy.
During the closing stages against Villa, Calafiori attempted two duels, one in the air and one on the ground, but was beaten on both of those occasions. He did make one important interception during his cameo, though.
He also made one foul, which in the closing stages of a game, is not necessarily the worst thing in the world.
Calafiori was brought on in place of Jurrien Timber, who had started the game for Arsenal at left-back. The Italian assumed the same role when he came on, but often found himself tucked in quite centrally with the other centre-backs when play shifted down the other side of the pitch.