Danny Welbeck is set to return to Arsenal’s squad after being out of action for two weeks following a knee injury. The Gunners go head to head with Manchester United at Old Trafford on Sunday in a race for automatic Champions League qualification.
Opta-powered fantasy football game www.oulala.com have analysed Welbeck’s stats from both last season at Manchester United and this season at Arsenal and, on the surface, it appears the striker’s return will benefit his old club more than it will his new.
The 24-year-old has played 25 Premier League games for Arsenal this season, the same amount of appearances in the league as he clocked up last season for Manchester United.
However, Welbeck has only managed four goals this term, a rate of a goal every 419 minutes. In comparison, his nine goals last season took him 162 minutes to net each one. A big drop from a forward that was already carrying a stigma of not scoring enough goals.
Furthermore, Welbeck’s nine goals in the Premier League for Manchester United last season came from just 46 shots, a more than respectable strike-rate of 20%. Since his move to Arsenal last summer that has fallen dramatically to a strike-rate of just 7% after his four goals have come from a total of 58 shots.
Welbeck’s shot accuracy has not been affected since his move last summer, 53% for both United and Arsenal. But the forward’s passing has taken a dip. Welbeck has gone from an excellent 87% pass completion last season at Manchester United to an unimpressive 72% during his time at Arsenal.
Despite scoring the winner in Arsenal’s 2-1 victory at Old Trafford in the FA Cup back in March, the stats suggest that Manchester United have nothing to fear from their ex-player as they look to leap-frog Arsenal in their bid to qualify for the Champions League automatically.
For Goodness sake, he only scored from a mistaken short backpass. Its not like he created anything out of the ordinary. Good riddance.
Am not a fan of Welbeck; of all attacking players in d team, he is d most wasteful;selfish nd unbalanced on d ball;wuld rather shoot off target dan give a final pass.d stats above are very correct I hve observed dat he flufs at least 3 clear chances in every match he has featured before his injury; he lacks d goal scoring technique of real strikers,he shuld spend d summer working on d basics if next season will be beta for him.