As has been the case in the last couple of transfer windows, ahead of the summer transfer window, Paris Saint-Germain midfielder Adrien Rabiot has been linked with a move to Arsenal again.
The France international has fallen out of favour with manager Thomas Tuchel in the French capital and hasn’t played since December, having been suspended by the club due to disciplinary issues. And understandably, wants out of the Parc des Princes as soon as possible.
The 23-year-old is familiar with Gunners boss Unai Emery after playing under him in Paris during the Spaniard’s reign there and for this reason and others, is understood to be considering a move to north London when his PSG contract runs out at the end of the season.
But with Rabiot being linked with Arsenal once more by many football media outlets, how does he compare with one of the many central-midfield options already at the club? Today, we’re going to choose just one of them, his fellow Frenchman Matteo Guendouzi, and carry out a statistical comparison between the two players. Join us.
Statistical comparison
In order to carry out our statistical comparison in this analysis, we are going to use the below whoscored.com image. The graphic contains the overall league statistics of the French stars from this season thus far, Rabiot in Ligue 1 and Guendouzi in the Premier League.
As you can see from our first two stats, appearances and minutes played, the 19-year-old has played a fair deal more in the league this campaign than the man four years his senior, for the aforementioned reasons. However, the PSG midfielder does have more goals and assists than the former Paris academy star, playing in the same position of central-defensive-midfield.
Whilst neither have collected a red card in 2018/2019, Rabiot also has received fewer yellow cards with three to his compatriot’s five. As well as having a better pass success percentage (93.1 to 87.6), more aerial duels won per match (1.6 to 0.5), more Man of the Match awards (one to zero) and a better average WhoScored match rating (7.31 to 6.62).
There is some joy for Guendouzi in terms of one stat, shots per game, surprising when you can clearly see that Rabiot is the more attacking player and a better attacker, or at least has been this campaign.
Summary
In conclusion, there is little doubt that our analysis has revealed today that at the moment, despite the former playing in a league of lower standard to the one the latter plies his trade in, there is simply no contest between Rabiot and Guendouzi.
One reason for this could be the fact that the Gunner is still in his teens and yet to fully developed, whilst the four-time Ligue 1 winner is reaching the prime years of his career. It could well mean that by signing Rabiot, Emery would be getting a version of Guendouzi in four or five years’ time, an example for the youngster to follow, a move that can only be a good thing for his development.
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