Home » English Premier League » (Stats) 11 Defensive Actions Per Game, 100% Take On’s – Why The Arsenal Man Is Better Than Chelsea Superstar This Season

(Stats) 11 Defensive Actions Per Game, 100% Take On’s – Why The Arsenal Man Is Better Than Chelsea Superstar This Season

Chelsea are having one hell of a season this year as they had so many ups and downs. From the manager to the players and the staff, all were criticized. They drew their opening match of the season against Swansea and their medical staff was heavily criticized for handling the players badly and eventually their club doctor Eva Carneiro left the club. Just after that, Chelsea lost to Manchester City by a huge margin of 3 goals to nil and since then the club gradually touched the rock bottom in the league and Jose Mourinho was sacked.

The club gave the job to the Dutch manager Guss Hiddink to stabilize the club and he has really done a fantastic job since then. Under Guus, Chelsea were unbeaten in the premier league this season prior to this weekend’s defeat at the hands of Swansea. The defence which was considered as one of the greatest in the Europe stumbled this time. John Terry, and Gary Cahill were the wall for Chelsea but the wall was bombarded by the many strikers this season.

John Terry had very fewer appearances for the club this season as their ex-manager Jose Mourinho wanted a quick defender and according to him, the 35-year-old wasn’t the quickest one to chase the strikers. So he usually picked Zouma in place of the skipper. But as Zouma was ruled out of the competition, Terry regained his position since then. But at this very moment, this ex-English captain has been hit by many injuries and was unable to play the recent games for the club and has announced that he may leave the club at the end of the season.

On the other hand, we have ‘Kos The Boss’ of Arsenal, Laurent Koscielny. He has become one of the best centre-backs in the world following few below par seasons at the Emirates initially. He is a leader, he is a good tackler and understands the game very well. Compared to Mertesacker, he faster in pace, stronger in strength and have a great passing ability. Arsenal’s back line looks lost if they are without this French International. He is a master interceptor and his alertness always gives his side a breather. Though he struggled a lot initially in the physical battles of the premier league, he had the desire and he became the number 1 defender for Wenger’s side. He was the master key for Arsenal’s back line this season and has managed to give some extraordinary performances this season.

Here, we will try to figure it out that who amongst both had a better 2016-17 season-

Laurent Koscielny vs John Terry

The Frenchman Laurent Koscielny has appeared in 26 games for Arsenal this season in the premier league whereas John Terry has managed 22 appearances for the club.  In their respective appearances, Koscielny has scored 3 goals and Terry has scored just one goal for the side.

Koscielny has created 8 numbers of chances and Terry has created just 2, but, both the players have no assists to their name this season. Talking in terms of the individual awards this season, Koscielny easily outnumbers the Blues Skipper Terry as the Frenchman has been named as the man of the match 4 times for his team and also has been named as the Topman in the team for 4 times. Whereas, looking down at Terry, he has no such awards to his name this season in the league.

Koscielny has a shooting accuracy of 50% which is quite a good number for a defender where, he has managed to shoot 7 shots on target and 7 shots off target. John Terry on the other hand has a very poor shooting accuracy of just 29% where he has managed to shoot just 2 shots on target and 5 shots off target.

John Terry though, marginally defeats the Frenchman as he has an average passing accuracy of 90% and has completed 759 passes till date. Koscielny on the other hand, have an average passing accuracy of 87% but has completed 1096 passes including general passes, headed passes, through passes and long ball.

The French has an average passing length of 20m where he has completed 42 long balls till date but on the other hand, Terry has an average passing length of 18m and have completed 40 long balls this season. When talking in term of their average of Duels won, Terry out numbers Koscielny easily as he has 60% success in his average duels won and also have succeeded in his 45 out of 66 headed duels. Furthermore, Koscielny has 55% success in his average duels won and have succeeded in his 68 headed duels out of 110. But the Frenchman has a 100% success rate in his man to man take on and Terry has just 33%.

John Terry averages at least 6 defensive actions per game including blocks, interceptions and clearances but Koscienly averages at least 11 defensive actions per game. Few years back, Terry was a masterpiece in his department but as the number of injuries escalated, his performance declined.

That was an easy win for the Frenchman this season.

Stats taken from Squawka, prior to Game Week 33.