Some selected Paul Scholes stats from today:
1. 78 passes attempted, 76 completed
2. 97% passing accuracy
3. 2 key passes
4. 26 long balls, 24 accurate, meaning that the two passes he misplaced were both 'killer ball' type passes
5. 80 touches taken, meaning that all but two of his attempted passes were one-touch.
For those not of a statistical persuasion, I'll put it into context for each bit of data in turn.
1. Scholes manages 63 passes per game on average, so this could be seen as an improvement, or perhaps just a reflection of United's dominance in this game.
2. This, however, clearly is, with Scholes' average pass success around an already-excellent 92%.
3. An improvement on Scholes' average of 0.9.
4. TWENTY FOUR ACCURATE LONG BALLS?! This short ginger dude can play.
5. Utterly ridiculous. That's the kind of stuff even Xavi can only dream of. Completely and utterly masterful, there is no other word for it.
I go over stats a lot - it's something I like doing - and these are truly, ridiculously, otherworldly good.