The scourge of Nottingham Forest - The numbers behind Antony's remarkable rise at Betis

Europa League hero 

Nottingham Forest manager Ange Postecoglou would be forgiven for cursing the name of Betis winger Antony all the way home from Seville on Wednesday night, when the former Manchester United player almost single-handedly thwarted the Premier League side’s attempts to pick up their first away win in European competition since 1980 in their 2-2 draw in the Europa League.

Despite the Reds dominating the match, Antony’s lovely dribble into the box and assist for Cedric Bakambu opened the scoring for the home side 15 minutes into the game. Then, after a double from Forest striker Igor Jesus turning the game back into the English club’s favour, Antony once stepped up five minutes from time to level the scoring with a well-placed shot. However, while Premier League fans may have taken some surprise at Antony’s performance, it is something that Betis fans have come to expect from their star winger.

Indeed, since joining Betis on loan in the January transfer window then completing a permanent move to the club in the summer window for a fee of €22 million, Antony has been nothing short of remarkable for the Seville club. Over the course of all competitions, Antony has made 29 appearances for the LaLiga side and racked up an impressive record of 10 goals and six assists, alongside countless dribbles, crosses and key passes. Which is not only a solid return within the context of Betis players, but also ranks incredibly well among Europe’s top five leagues. As we can see in the table above, while Antony may not be able to rival the likes of Ousmane Dembélé or Raphinha just yet, he does rank 21st among all midfielders and wingers in Europe’s top five leagues for goal contributions since his first game for Betis.

This, to no great surprise, is a far cry from the player’s performances at Old Trafford. In 96 appearances for the English side, Antony managed just 12 goals and five assists, which when we then compare to his time at Betis shows a stark contrast in fortunes. As we can see in the comparison graphic above, Antony managed just 0.28 goals and assists per 90 in all competitions for Man Utd, but that figure has since more than doubled since he made the move to Spain, where he is currently averaging 0.60 goals and assists per 90 for Betis.

As if to pour more scorn on the club’s tricky start to the new season under Rúben Amorim, when we then compare Antony’s record since joining Betis to Man Utd’s current and new stars, we can see that only Bruno Fernandes has managed more goal contributions since January of this year. And while Man Utd fans can certainly welcome the attacking intent of new signings Bryan Mbuemo, Benjamin Sesko and Matheus Cunha, it remains to be seen whether any of them will be able to catch Betis’ star winger before the end of the year.