Manchester United brought Bruno Fernandes to Old Trafford in January to have the same impact which Mesut Özil is supposed to have at Arsenal. The pair are both billed as elite creators with a real eye for goal, but only one player is showing it.
Hint: it's not Özil.
Fernandes has enjoyed a fantastic start to life in the Premier League, racking up two goals and three assists in his first five appearances, which is exactly what United expected from him. They wanted him to make an instant impact, and he really has.
Unfortunately for Arsenal, those stats don't make for pretty reading for Özil. Despite making 18 appearances this season, the German has managed just one goal and two assists, so Fernandes is already ahead of him in both departments.
Fernandes has also managed ten more shots than Özil, although the German does at least boast the superior shooting accuracy - 60%, compared to Fernandes' 50%.
You can argue that Fernandes is more of a goal-oriented player, which is probably fair enough. After all, Özil is always billed as an 'elite creator', but even those stats aren't in his favour this season
Not only does Fernandes have the edge on assists, but he's also level on the number of big chances created, having managed one in his first five games. Yep, Özil has created just one big chance all year.
Even defensively, Fernandes is on track to eclipse Özil's tackling numbers, while he's already ahead when it comes to clearances and successful aerial duels.
It begs the question - what does Özil actually bring to Arsenal?
His pass completion is pretty good at 88.28%, but outside of that, Fernandes is on track to end the season with the better numbers, which speaks volumes about both Fernandes' impressive form and Özil's inconsistency.
After struggling to make an impact under Unai Emery, Özil has returned to the lineup under Mikel Arteta, but he is still not having the kind of impact which you'd expect from the club's top earner. Maybe Emery was right.
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Source :
90min
