Has Tottenham’s Newbie Outplayed Chelsea’s £25m Brazilian This Season? A Comparison

Cheslea’s Brazilian playmaker Oscar who was roped in for a record £25m in the summer of 2012 was one of the standout performers last season and in the early part of this season while Tottanham’s summer signing Christian Eriksen has been one of the league’s better performers since the appointment of new manager Tim Sherwood. Here is a comparison of how the season has been for these two players.

While Oscar started the season very brightly, his form has been on a downward trend since the start of December and he has hardly managed to keep up the level of performances that saw him keeping Juan Mata out of the Chelsea side and forcing him out of the club in the process. Barring the one good outing against West Ham in the 0-0 draw in late January, Oscar has been distinctly average.

In fact, he has failed to find the back of the net since New Years’ day against Southampton when he scored after over a month. He averages a little over 66 minutes per appearance indicating that he rarely last the full ninety minutes. He has managed just 2 assists despite creating 36 chances in 26 league appearances which equates to creating a chance every 48 minutes.

His passing numbers are decent, having found the target 82% of the time with his intended balls. However, for a player of his caliber and skill, his take-on success rate is quite low – 45% success from 49 attempts. His shooting too has been wayward at times with only 44% of the 36 shots hitting the target. Defensively too, his contributions have been few and far between with only 27 clearances and 7 interceptions, i.e. approximately 1.3 defensive actions per game.

In comparison, Eriksen’s stats look much better even though he has scored 4 goals less than what Oscar has managed. Eriksen has managed a 1181 minutes of football in 16 appearances in an injury plagued season, but he has created 31 chances, including 3 assists, in that time, which equates to creating a chance every 38 minutes.

Despite getting fewer goals, Eriksen has been more accurate with his shooting, having hit the target with 74% of his 19 efforts. Eriksen’s passing numbers are also similar, having found the target 81% of the time with his intended balls as is his take-on success rate – 47% success from 36 attempts. However, Eriksen is more diligent that Oscar in terms of his defensive contributions and he averages 1.5 defensive actions per game having made 15 interceptions and 9 clearances.

While both players have not had outstanding seasons – Oscar due to a dip in form after a good opening part of the season and Eriksen due to constant injury problems – both of them have made significant contributions to their respective teams. While Eriksen has been more prolific in terms of creating chances, Oscar has managed to find the back of the net on more occasions, barring which their numbers are quite similar.

So, considering the differing roles that these two players play for their respective sides, it is very difficult to say that one has outperformed the other. Perhaps the next two months will determine which of the two has been more integral to their respective sides’ fortunes.

Stats taken from squawka

P.S: The article was written prior to Chelsea’s match against Tottenham last night.