Top side has 40 G/A from bench 

©TM/IMAGO

The importance of substitutes in football is arguably more important than any other time in history. With clubs facing increasingly packed schedules with more games, managers understand the importance of when to add freshness from the bench. Rules have changed in recent years which allows managers to use five substitutes, as opposed to three, in many elite competitions like the Champions League and Premier League.

With the aim of tapping into psychological factors, several managers now refer to substitutes as ‘finishers’ and the ability to alter the dynamic of the game by making changes is unquestionably a skill. Arsenal arguably have the strongest squad in the world currently and Mikel Arteta has utilised that to his benefit this campaign with the Gunners destined to win the Premier League and strong favourites to advance to the semi-final of the Champions League. Kai Havertz came off the bench to score a late winner in the first-leg of their quarter-final against Sporting CP and Arsenal are leading the way for most goals and assists from substitutes this season.

Most goal contributions from substitutes this season

We’ve utilised our unrivalled database at Transfermarkt to ascertain which clubs have tallied the most goal contributions from substitutes this season, from the top five leagues across all competitions. And Havertz’s goal against Sporting CP was remarkably the 40th goal contribution from an Arsenal substitute this campaign.

As the graphic above illustrates, Arsenal’s record is five higher than PSG with the Ligue 1 champions currently sitting on 35. Four clubs are equal on 34 goal contributions; Atalanta, Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Celta Vigo. Every top five league is represented in the list above with Borussia Dortmund, Inter Milan and Chelsea all featuring.