Happy Stats: Looking At Our Favorite Numbers of the First Third of the Season

Is it too soon to call them the Near-Invincibles?

Arsenal's having a phenomenal season, as we're all aware -- but how phenomenal? For fun, let's look at some numbers from this first third of the season, in order to make us feel even better about what we've done so far.

First, some team numbers, culled from the official Premier League site:

Arsenal is, after 13 games, four points clear of Chelsea and six points clear of Manchester City, with a chance to gain three points on each of them later this month. They're nine points clear of Man United and ten points clear of Spurs.

Arsenal is currently second in goal differential with +17, in large part due to being tied with Southampton for least goals allowed through 13 games, with 10. They're also second in goals scored with 27 -- Manchester City has an absurd 37 goals scored, but 13 of those goals came in recent, ridiculous home matches against Norwich (7-0) and Spurs (6-0).

Arsenal started out the season 18th after the Opening Day debacle vs. Aston Villa, 9th after two weeks, 4th after three weeks, and have been top of the table for ten straight matches (and, given that they're four points clear, will be top of the table for at least an 11th straight week).

Arsenal has gotten results from 11 of 13 matches -- second (with Chelsea) only to Everton, who has six wins, six ties and a loss.

And now, some individual stats:

Two players (Aaron Ramsey and Olivier Giroud) are on pace for at least 20 EPL goals this year.

Mesut Özil leads the EPL in assists with six, and Arsenal is the only EPL team with three players at four or more (Giroud and Ramsey).

The Premier League site has something called the EA Sports Player Performer Index -- according to this, Wojciech Szczesny is the league's top rated goalie, Ramsey is the league's top rated midfielder, and Arsenal has seven players in the league's Top 50. (Man City has six; no one else has more than five).

The EPL's top three pass completion percentages belong to Arsenal players -- Mathieu Flamini has a 93.17% (with nearly 60 completed passes per 90 minutes), Laurent Koscielny has a 92.45% (with nearly 40 per 90), and Per Mertesacker has a 92.38% (with nearly 50 per 90). Also, Arsenal has three of the EPL's seven most accurate passers in the final third (Özil, Ramsey, and Jack Wilshere).

In short, this is the most complete team in the EPL, edging primary competitors Chelsea and Manchester City in some key areas. Matches against those teams -- against City in Manchester on the 14th, against Chelsea at the Emirates on the 23rd -- will be arguably the most important of the season to date.