Reportedly, Arsenal and Liverpool are set to make the deal of the summer with Raheem Sterling leaving Liverpool to join Arsenal as they seem a better proposition for the young Liverpool forward who has been looking for trophies throughout his career. Arsenal would have to stump up quite a bit of cash to sign the winger, but they do have an ace up their sleeve and it seems that they are willing to let go of Theo Walcott to Liverpool in hopes of facilitating the deal.
Raheem SterlingThe 26-year-old Walcott hasn’t played as many games as he would have liked, but he has been hit by injuries and looks ahead to next season for more game time, he is a Liverpool supporter and could fit the squad. Considering their current states, we need to look just which player has been more important to their team and how well have they played, thanks to Squawka.com we compare the two wide men and look at their averages per game to come to a conclusion.
Pace vs. Pace but who will win?
Both the players are known for their pace but Theo Walcott’s injury concerns have seen him play just 8 games in the league while Sterling has played in 29 games this season. However, Walcott does have a better pass completion rate as he averages 83% pass completion rate compared to 80% for Sterling.
WalcottTheo also seems to read the opposition better as he averages 1.67 interceptions per game while Sterling averages only 0.55 interceptions per game for Liverpool, this is where the stats stop shining for Walcott as Sterling trounces him in many categories.
Sterling has around 4 times more forward passes per game compared to Walcott with 16.2 passes compared to 4.5 passes per game for Walcott. Sterling has been more creative this season for Liverpool as he averages 2.14 chances created per game while Theo averages only 0.25 chances created per game.
Since Theo has played fewer games it would come as no surprise to see that he is below Sterling in the key passes column as well, Walcott averages 0.25 key passes per game while Sterling averages 1.9 key passes per game. Sterling is a better runner with the ball as he averages 3.07 successful take ons per game but Theo averages only 0.37 successful take ons per game.
The stats don’t lie and they do prove that Walcott has had a poor season but that has been due to his injury, if the deal does go through, Arsenal would be the clear winners.