Damn lies & statistics or £10M of quality Spanish truth?

Biding our time during the international break, hoping all our players come back with a clean bill of health, I find myself considering how fortunate we are that our own Spanish engine room can rest and recharge.

Watching England throwing Phil Jones into the midfield against his compatriots what must our deadline day signing think as he sits at home and watches on ITV?

I might feel a tad sorry for Arteta if I was not just so very pleased as a Gooner, that he is at the peak of his powers in an era of unprecedented depth in quality of Spanish midfielders. I am proud to say that I wrote an article suggesting that should be our first port of call to replace Fabregas, early in August and I am feeling quite smug right now. If I am honest though, I thought he would step into the position Cesc was vacating. However, with Wilshire’s long-term injury, Mikel has slotted in to the midfield alongside Song, leaving the advanced creative playmaker role to Ramsey.

So, has this worked for Arteta, Ramsey and crucially the team after 11 games in the Premier League?

I think it has begun to work quite well and here are the stats mentioned in the title which may surprise you, courtesy of Opta Sportsdata on Sky Sports, to support this contention. The top 5 passers in the Premier League so far this season come from three teams. You might think Man City, Man United, Chelsea of even Spurs, but the reality is that there is one Man City player and two from Swansea and Arsenal. Yaya Toure has made more passes than any other player with 767 completed. Great credit to newly promoted Swansea with two defenders Rangel and Williams, completing 762 and 713 passes are the second and fourth most prolific passes in the league currently. Fabulous to see the Swans playing football, dare I say it the Arsenal way from the back and good luck to them. The Welsh connection continues with Aaron Ramsey in third with 715 passes completed. This of course does not tell the full story, as we know that many of these have been 30 yard cross field efforts and incisive through balls. This makes the fact that 88% of Rambo’s passes have reached their intended target even more impressive.

Finally at number five, as I am sure you have guessed by now, is Mikel Arteta, having completed 705 passes in the first 11 games. However, what is perhaps more impressive is that he has the highest accuracy rate of any of the five with an amazing 90% of the Spaniards balls finding his intended target. Arteta’s range of passing is superb and he always appears to have time and is giving us a real temp and flow at present.

So I am feeling pretty good about our midfield at the moment, even more so given the luxury of a returning Wilshere in the New Year.

To conclude though let me give the passing achievements of Arteta and Ramsey some context which will surprise you as it certainly did me.

From last season the passing accuracy of Fabregas was 78% and Wilshere’s was 84%. If that does not bring home to you just how blessed we appear to be with passing accuracies of 88% and 90% for our own Welshman and Spaniard this season, I will finish with the following from the Wikipedia biography of the player recognised and the world’s greatest exponent Xavi – ‘The veteran midfielder finished with an 89% pass completion rate over the course of the tournament, completing 599 passes out of 669 passes attempted over all of Spain’s seven games.’ – Only 89%! Come on Xavi you will have to do a lot better than that!

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