WE LOOK at the StatsBomb data from Celtic’s 6-0 Premiership win over St Mirren to give you a match report experience like no other.
xG race chart
Celtic were 3-0 up before their cumulative xG had even reached one. St Mirren, on the other hand, never really got a sniff and their cumulative xG of 0.21 was reached before the hour mark. In terms of xG, Celtic would have won this match 98% of the time.
Shots
Celtic registered 37 shots (marking the third match with over 30 attempts already this season) and scored their six goals from 12 on target with an xG of 4.35. It is also worth noting that St Mirren had a goal wrongly disallowed for offside in the 27th minute.
Celtic's shot distribution was not quite as central as has been the case in recent weeks while, in terms of individuals, David Turnbull took the most shots with eight and managed to score a hat-trick despite his total xG coming in at 0.75.
Tied with the Scotland international on eight was Odsonne Edouard, whose xG was higher than his colleague’s at 1.29. Liel Abada also grabbed a double from five shots with an xG of 0.38, with his first goal coming in at just 0.03.
Passing
Perhaps naturally given Celtic's dominance and St Mirren's lack of attacking penetration and red card, Joe Hart was the only Celtic player to see relatively little involvement when it came to passing networks.
Every other member of the starting XI was heavily involved in play and mostly in St Mirren's half. Edouard led the line by staying high and central while Kyogo Furuhashi and Abada provided constant width alongside Greg Taylor and Anthony Ralston.
Abada led the way for key passes with six (0.93 xG) alongside Ralston (0.40 xG) while Stephen Welsh was top for touches (204) and combined particularly well with Turnbull, playing 24 passes to the midfielder alone.
Pressing
Taylor topped the Celtic charts with 13 pressures, closely followed by Kyogo, Abada and Edouard (all 12). St Mirren midfielder Ethan Erhahon had the most overall with 27. In terms of counter-pressing, Ryan Christie and Edouard registered the most with four, with Christie's total counter-pressure duration of 5.5 by far the most in the match.
Player focus: Liel Abada & Anthony Ralston
In addition to netting twice, Abada played the joint-most passes into the box (three, level with Taylor), put in five crosses (a match-high) and was top of the xGChain (2.97). Off the ball, the Israeli teenager was joint-second for pressures (12) while topping the list for total pressure duration (16.3).
Ralston, meanwhile, had four tackles (a match-high), six interceptions (a team-high), four clearances (a team-high) and six aerial duel wins (a team-high). The 22-year-old was also second behind Abada in the xGChain (2.86), second behind Welsh in xG Buildup (2.74) and topped the pile when it came to OP xG Buildup (2.66).
Wedded to all of this was his six key passes and one assist in what was another confident display from the right-back, perhaps even more so with new signing Josip Juranovic having been announced just a couple of hours before kick-off.
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