If I asked you who completed the most final-third passes at Arsenal, you wouldn’t pick Francis Coquelin, but he’s leading the way, not only in London but across the whole of EUROPE!

Make sure you’ve read that correctly – Francis Coquelin has more COMPLETED final third passes this season than Lionel Messi. So is Coquelin better than Messi? The answer is at the bottom.

I tore into Le Coq this week after his performance against Middlesbrough. Always going sideways, we struggled to create anything of note up top.

This was, perhaps, the most surprising stat I’ve read all season.

Of course, I needed to check a few things on the back of this.

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Perhaps Messi had played only a fraction of minutes or something else was at play, (but that wouldn’t explain how he’s matching Neymar and out-passing Ivan Rakitic).

Here’s what I found after I recovered from the thought I was about to compare Coquelin with Messi and Neymar:

In the league, Coquelin has played:

  • 19 minutes more than Messi
  • 126 minutes FEWER than Neymar
  • 79 minutes FEWER than Rakitic

Coquelin’s pass completion rate is 89%

  • Messi 81%
  • Neymar 75%
  • Rakitic 89%

Coquelin’s average pass length is 15m

  • Messi 16.43m
  • Neymar 16m
  • Rakitic 16.71

Coquelin has played 218 forward passes

  • Messi 193
  • Neymar 164
  • Rakitic 245

All looking pretty good so far, right?

Well, that’s about to change.

It’s all very well Coquelin playing these passes in the final third and keeping the ball moving forward, but do they help make anything happen?

Urm…

Coquelin has 0 assists

  • Messi 2
  • Neymar 3
  • Rakitic 1

Coquelin has 3 key passes

  • Messi 11
  • Neymar 13
  • Rakitic 8

Coquelin has created 3 chances

  • Messi 13
  • Neymar 16
  • Rakitic 9

Coquelin has scored 0 goals

  • Messi 7
  • Neymar 4
  • Rakitic 2

…stats really can mean whatever you want.

Had we just left things with the initial, albeit astounding, stat about final-third passes, some people might be under the impression that Coquelin is some sort of midfield attacking wizard.

He isn’t.

Don’t be stupid.

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