The Premier League has a host of great players in the league and more often than not, a gem is unearthed in a particular position. Last season saw the rise of one such youngster in Francis Coquelin, who took the defensive midfielder’s role at Arsenal by storm. After a few games, it felt like he was a natural in the role and even kept out other quality players like Mikel Arteta and Mathieu Flamini.
Coquelin was impressive surely, but the real star in that role last season was Nemanja Matic, who with Cesc Fabregas as his partner in crime, cleaned up many teams and charged Chelsea to the Premier League crown. Yaya Toure isn’t a defensive midfielder but he does play in the central role and was the star a couple of seasons ago when he helped City win the league title.
With four games of the season gone, we can check as to how each of the players are doing thanks to Squawka.com. We only consider the averages per game, just to ensure it is a level playing field for all the players.
Three players at the top of their game but who has had the best start?
Passing is one of the most important facets for a midfielder and this is where Toure leads the pack with his completion rate of 92% in the four games, Coquelin comes in second with 91% while Matic completes 88% of his passes. The number of passes made per game is another stat which Toure leads with an average of 70 passes made per game compared to 60 and 53 for Coquelin and Matic respectively.
The length of the passes made by the trio are more or less similar with Matic having the longest passing range of 17.25 metres while Coquelin comes second 16.25 metres and 16 metres for Yaya Toure in the Sky Blue of City.
A midfielder also has to tackle really well and that is something which Coquelin has mastered, he tops the list with 3.75 tackles won per game while surprisingly Matic comes in with a low 1.75 tackles won per game and Toure comes in with 1.25 tackles.
Matic does recover in winning more aerial duels per match than the other two players combined. The Serbian wins 2.5 aerial duels per game while Toure and Coquelin get in 0.75 and 1.25 aerial duel wins per game.
The fact is that Toure is now seen more as an attacking midfielder and is more of a threat going forward while the other two players are known for their defensive ability. Coquelin, Matic and Toure all need to have a great season if their respective clubs are to attain silverware this season and out of the three it is Coquelin and Toure who seem to be doing their job, at the moment at least.