Arsenal exorcised some ghosts as they defeated Manchester City during the last weekend. There were no more fears of Arsenal getting torn apart like had happened last season. Arsenal put up a resilient display and they snuffed out the Manchester City attack quite well, although they only had around 35% possession, the lowest since stats recording began for the Premier League.
One player shone in the defensive aspect for the Gunners more than others, it was Francis Coquelin, and the young Gunner was extremely impressive in his role as the defensive midfielder. Arsenal were missing the likes of Mikel Arteta and Mathieu Flamini and based on his recent performances, he probably could be making a claim for the starting spot for future games. We look at some stats from Squawka to gauge how the 3 perform defensively for the team.
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Comparing stats between Flamini, Arteta and Coquelin on an average per game, Coquelin leads the trio with the most tackles per match on an average. Coquelin has 2.29 tackles per game compared to 1.76 & 1.29 for Flamini and Arteta.
Tackling seems to be the biggest asset of Coquelin as not only does he win tackles or performs them but he doesn’t seem to lose them either. While Arteta and Flamini lose 2.14 and 2.12 tackles per game, Coquelin only loses out on 1.29 tackles per game.
Even when it comes to aerial duels, Coquelin leads the other midfielders. Coquelin soars with 2.71 aerial duels won per game while the other player’s average about half of what Coquelin does, Arteta averages 1.14 aerial duels won while Flamini averages 1.24 aerial duels won per game.
The only stat in which Coquelin loses out is in interceptions, Flamini averages 2.71 interceptions per game while Coquelin averages 2.43 while Arteta averages a paltry 0.71. Although Arteta cannot be held up on that stat since he is more of an attacking midfielder rather than a proper defensive one.
It seems that Arsene might have got another young player who seems to be making the right moves. He might not be the Patrick Vieira that Arsenal have wanted over the years but Coquelin surely is the midfielder who can do the job for Arsenal at least till they sign someone else. Coquelin does have the start that would ensure that he grows into a brilliant defensive midfielder for Arsenal in the future; he just needs a few more games for the Gunners.
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