If Barcelona wanted any more reasons why they should pay around £40m to sign Arsenal captain Cesc Fabregas, perhaps they should take a look at these stats.
Barcelona’s current creative midfielders, Xavi and Iniesta, are widely regarded as two of the best midfielders on the planet, and with good reason. They are both truly world class. But lets not forget, so is Cesc Fabregas. In fact, if you look at the stats, Fabregas is in FACT the most creative of the three:
Chances created for team mates in last 5 league seasons:
- Fabregas = 466
- Xavi = 455
- Iniesta = 214
Goals scored in last 5 league seasons:
- Fabregas = 30
- Xavi = 22
- Iniesta = 22
These stats were shown on Sky Sports News last night, but they originated from Opta.
So there you have it. Arsenal’s Cesc Fabregas creates more chances and scores more goals than both Xavi and Iniesta. Now i know many of Cesc’s goals may have come from the penalty spot, and Barcelona have players like Messi and Villa to share the creative workload, whereas Fabregas is the heartbeat of Arsenal and most of our good work goes through him, but that’s just the point. Fabregas IS the focus of all Arsenal’s creative work and we are within our rights to demand at least £40m for his services.
Personally, i think £40m is cheap in today’s market for a player of Fabregas’ age, experience and quality. So my advice to the noisy boys from Catalonia is to have a look at the stats above and see what £40m will buy them, then either put-up or shut-up.
