For quite few years now it has been the Arsenal midfield that has been the best part of our squad, even though there has been criticism of Arsene Wenger for relying too much on the same sort of small and technically gifted players like Tomas Rosicky, Jack Wilshere and Santi Cazorla and not enough steel and aggression.
In Francis Coquelin the Gunners have finally found the player that we have been asking for ever since the golden days with Patrick Vieira and Gilberto Silva and now that the young Frenchman is back from his injury lay off we should hopefully be very strong in that midfield area again, despite Cazorla and Wilshere still being out of action.
So how does our midfield compare to that of the other three clubs in the top four? Looking at a handy statistical report by Sky Sports it looks encouraging for Arsenal fans. Obviously Mesut Ozil is way ahead of the likes of Toure, Silva, Mahrez, Alli and Erikssen when it comes to assists and chances. He also has the best shooting accuracy despite only having four EPL goals.
He and Ramsey are also the top two for completed passes and Coquelin has the best passing accuracy but the Gunners are not well represented in the stats for scoring goals and for defending. However, before his injury Coquelin had the best DM stats in the division and when it comes to goals I don’t see why Mahrez, who plays mainly as a wide forward, is included while Alexis Sanchez is not.
So when you add the considerable talents of Alexis and Coquelin there is a very strong argument that Arsenal do have the best midfield by some distance. But will it be good enough to see us beat Leicester on Sunday and then pip them, Spurs and Man City to the Premier League title?