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What I want to show you now is each teams blocked shots info at Plus 1 game state.
Why Plus 1?
Well, this is the game state where an awful lot of teams go into a shell, try and protect the lead and, in most cases, employ a pretty defensive tactical set-up. This defensive set-up should capture teams' effectiveness at blocking shots. Now, I am not going to use raw block numbers, instead I will use the percentage of shots for /against that were blocked.
Percentage Of Opponents Shots Blocked at Plus 1 Game State
| % of Opposition Shots Blocked | |
|---|---|
| Man United | 44.90 |
| Norwich | 39.80 |
| Man City | 33.66 |
| Sunderland | 31.67 |
| Everton | 31.01 |
| Tottenham | 30.38 |
| Stoke | 30.11 |
| West Brom | 30.10 |
| Liverpool | 28.95 |
| Wigan | 28.95 |
| Swansea | 26.42 |
| Aston Villa | 26.19 |
| Chelsea | 24.84 |
| Southampton | 23.81 |
| Newcastle | 23.21 |
| Arsenal | 22.64 |
| Reading | 20.00 |
| Fulham | 19.86 |
| West Ham | 19.42 |
| QPR | 17.54 |
Man United lead the league in a counting stat category! In all seriousness this is a really interesting number. United blocked ~45% of opponents shots when they were leading by a single goal. We also know that United spent a crazy amount of game time at +1 <link>.
Man United spent 1033 minutes at +1 and Norwich, the second best team in the chart above, spent just 476 minutes at plus 1. In short, United's sample is large enough over the course of a single season for it to be trusted to an extent.
Man United, when shelling and in shut down mode are a shot blocking machine. And no other team really gets close to them. City have a decent sized time sample at +1 and they are around ~25% worse at blocking opposition shots than United are.
The rest of the table is a little tricky. Some good teams - Chelsea, Arsenal - reside in the bottom half, but to me the top half doesn't seem too out.
Percentage Of Own Shots Blocked at Plus 1 Game State
| % Of Own Shots Blocked | |
|---|---|
| Man United | 16.88 |
| Fulham | 17.50 |
| Newcastle | 19.32 |
| Swansea | 19.57 |
| Southampton | 19.57 |
| Norwich | 19.64 |
| Stoke | 21.31 |
| Sunderland | 22.22 |
| QPR | 24.00 |
| West Brom | 24.05 |
| Tottenham | 24.79 |
| Aston Villa | 25.00 |
| Reading | 25.64 |
| Chelsea | 28.29 |
| Man City | 28.66 |
| Liverpool | 29.41 |
| Arsenal | 30.66 |
| West Ham | 32.05 |
| Everton | 52.23 |
| Wigan | 62.75 |
Whoa! Man United top the list, with just 16.8% of their shots for blocked by the opposition at +1.
Taking both of these tables at +1 GS we know the following about Man United:
- United block a crazy high percentage of opposition shots.
- The opposition blocks a ridiculously low percentage of United's shots when United are at +1