Gary Neville was full of praise for Arsenal’s right-back Héctor Bellerín on Monday Night Football and it’s understandable why after his recent performances against both Manchester City and Aston Villa.
Opta powered fantasy football game www.oulala.com have taken a closer look at the 19-year-old’s season so far and the stats impress. The Spaniard has started five of the seven league games that he has featured in, completing a total of 500 minutes.
Over his seven appearances, Bellerín’s pass completion of 78% falls just short of Arsenal’s overall 84%. His 65% success when tackling far exceeds fellow club right-backs Mathieu Debuchy 47.4% and Calum Chambers 48.5% this season.
His impressive defensive stats continue with 3.24 interceptions and 4.86 clearances per 90 minutes. Bellerín has outshone both Chelsea right-back Branislav Ivanovic and PFA Team of the Year 2013/14 right-back Séamus Coleman of Everton this season. Ivanovic has 1.09 interceptions and 4.3 clearances while Coleman has 1.15 and 3.66.
In Arsenal’s 2-0 away win over Manchester City the right-back had 44 touches with a pass accuracy of 72.2% after making 18 passes in total. During the game he completed 6 interceptions and 7 clearances.
Against Aston Villa in Arsenal’s 5-0 victory the 19-year-old has a pass accuracy of 71.7%, completed 46 passes and had 65 touches overall. He supplied 5 crosses and had one shot on target, scoring Arsenal’s fifth in injury time.
It’s still early but the stats suggest that Héctor Bellerín is definitely one to keep an eye on in the future.
He is better than Debuchy!!
and Debuchy ain’t bad. Quite a nice situation to be in. Question becomes, what to do with Jenkinson? We should maybe have sold him to the hammers to leverage a buy for Reid, but now that ship has sailed.
I think Wenger is thinking to pair Bellarin and Jenk in the future. Debuchy will be with us for 1-2 seasons at max i suspect and Jenk on loan for that period. Bellarin will continue to play and will be joined by Jenk. Not a bad plan if you ask me. Jenk on loan for a couple of seasons will become a beast.
And as far as Chambers is concerned, Wenger will ultimately convert him to CDM along with Coq. He can play CB/RB too when required.
Yes, Calum has sort of gone off the radar recently – after a fantastic start his form and confidence dipped. He was probably our most consistent players for the first 7 or 8 matches this year. I don’t think anyone on here needs to be too hard on him. In reality he should never have had that much responsibility so soon in his Arsenal career. I have no doubt that he will improve as defender in the next year or so – he actually looks decent on the ball, maybe too good for a CB!! Positioning and discipline need working on. He has the basic equipment to be a top CB imo.
I agree — the only and I mean only flaw in Wenger’s management against Villa is that he wasted an opportunity to give Calum some no-pressure minutes at CDM — why he brought in Flamini instead of Chambers eludes me. And when we don’t have to pull off so many people recovering from injuries it would be good to give the BFG some time off, bringing Calum in at 60 minutes. I think a large part of BFG’s bad form was overwork between playing every game the past season and most of the World Cup games. Certainly his aging, lack of pace and many back 4 line ups hurt too.
Anyway, Chambers has potential at both CB and CDM, and we should be working on developing both — then he can be an emergency player at whatever position doesn’t become his regular role.
I honestly dont know what i want in this bellerin/jenkinson-dilemma. On one hand, I want Jenko, cus he’s a huge gooner. On the other hand, Bellerin seems to be a way better talent, and in the end, talent is what brings you trophies, not love for the club. Maybe Jenkinson can be converted to a CB?
How long now before Barca start the ‘Barca DNA’ crap and try to turn his head?
3-1 to Arsenal in NLD!! Can’t wait for this match. COYG!
For the north london derby, im expecting Walcott to show us four fingers and a closed hand (while NOT being carried off the pitch!)
11 – 0 to the Arsenal. Walcott giving them two middle fingers 😀
I would use Bellerin ahead of Chambers
I need to see Debuchy’s statistics before I would Bellerin over him.
Bellerin, like Coquelin, shows our Academy works. Hopefully we will see more follow in their footsteps. I’m hopeful about Akpom, Zelalem, Crowley and Hayden
I love his energy, pace, intelligence and willingness to perform at the highest level. No hype, the boy is good.
He has played in high profile games in the EPL and the UCL and I never thought of him as been our worst player in all his games on the pitch. As a 19 year old rookie this should tell you something.
He knows when to bomb forward and when to sit back better than some seasoned RB’s av seen.
– His crossing and his movement forward is pretty good – kinda reminds you of how Bale started – His intelligence in reading the game and decision making has also improved – Kinda reminds you of Larm.
– His pace and energy (runs for 90 minutes) – Cafu
– His composure and steadfast on the ball – Javier Zanetti
AW has a gem on his hands again, Debuchy, Chambers, and Jenk better work harder to displace this kid.
Hey there – a Bale/Lahm/Cafu/Zanetti hybrid – we have quite some FB on our hands!! What I like most about him is his ability to learn and improve at a quite staggering rate – this shows great intelligence so probably need to add Maldini to that hybrid list. Only thing he lacks is physicality, like say Ivanovic, but unlike many on here I don’t get too hung up on this beast, physicality thing.
This Bale-comparison you made is making me wonder – this guy is clearly a talented guy. He started out as a winger, moved back to the right back, but i would love to see him become a Bale of our own (Even though that is Chamberlain, if he only would learn how to score and assist). Unless Bellerin becomes as injury prone as Wilshere, I think we’ve got ourselves the future right back for the spanish national team – and i would not be surprised if Barca tries to do a Fabregas on Bellerin when the time comes (when the need to replace Dani Alves is becoming more and more acute)
Bellerin to barcelona 30million pounds,coquelin to psg 50million pounds,akpom to real madrid 70million pounds
@danito128
Akpom will “never” be that good…
never say never…
@Darwin
I just did…
Bellerine is good in these last few matches. But we can not say he is better than Debutchy.
Debuthchy is Framce right back also ahead of Sagna. I know bellerine has the potential to become better than every one but just degrading Debutchy judging 7 games of bellerine is incorrect. We can definatelyy conlude at the end of the season.
Mate I think you missed the point. He is talking about English/British core. Debuchy is not British.
May be you replied to the wrong comment.
Quite honestly I don’t think Jenkinson is near Debuchy or Bellerin quality wise. Jenks tries hard but his decision making is poor and can be a bag of nerves. I won’t be surprised if we end up selling him. As for Chambers, he should only be played CB or perhaps converted into a DM. Should only be played RB when we are desperate or against weaker teams.
I don’t know why but I rate Jenkinson above Debuchy, but that’s another debate and my own opinion.
You are right about Jenkinson being a bag of nerves. He just seems to freak himself out now and then, it’s weird.
But Bellerin is looking so good and solid, he reminds me of Jordi Alba of Barcelona, very short, excited up and down the wing kind of attitude, 🙂
Give jenkinson a break, he’s still young and needs to get some routine in order to improve himself. That is what he’s getting out on loan – he’ll be a new player by the time he’s coming back.
FYI, Bellerin isn’t short – he’s a woopin 177cm, only 1 cm short of Monreal, Gibbs and Ramsey! add his hair and he’s a good 182! 🙂
I am waiting to see what Arsene will do with Jenkinson. At RB I think Debuchy and Bellerin have somehow cemented their place. I was thinking about this however in the last summer, ie. can Jenkinson be converted into a CB? He has height, can bulk if required, good pace. and now wait for the crazy sh*t idea, can he be made to play a role similar to what Morgan plays for Soton? I know its too farfetched but can other gooners give their opinions on this?
He will have to adjust his game massively altogether however.
Lol. I really like Jenkinson but one thing he is not good at is keeping possession with an opponent breathing down his neck. I don’t know why but he is a bag of nerves even defending with his back to his own goal, I don’t know why but watch him when being pushed back towards his own goal with the ball at his feet, OMG, the panic and lose of nerves are evident, he ends up freaking himself out and giving the ball away for no reason.
So to put the poor guy in midfield would be like putting a cat in a pack of dogs.
“Loss” of nerves.
Not the best analagy, that happened to my cat. My cat won.
Jenks could feasibly be converted to a CB but I think Chambers has a much better chance of making a CB slot his own. I love Jenks but think Calum is a better footballer.
Now sort out the LB Arsene.
Kudos to Arsene Wenger
Jenkinson has improved a lot at west ham,but he needs to improve on his decision making and his one on one marking,love the way bellerin times his silding i.e the one on scot sinclair inside the penalty box,the only way jenkinson wil be at arsenal nxt year is if he can turn to a centre bck
I just thought about something, how must SZNY be feeling right now, Ospina has taken his spot, he is pulling off great saves and keeping clean sheets at the moment.. But the thing that must be making SZNY feel even more down is the way the whole Emirates crowd has taken to Ospina, the guy has not played more than 5 matched if I am right but he has already gotten his own crowd chant (Oooooospina),
SZNY must be thinking to himself, I have been here for like 6 years and never gotten my own chant, my name has never been glorified like Ospina’s.
I hope this wakes him up and makes him less arrogant and too much social media and selfie obsessed. I like SZNY but recently it’s getting cringeworthy with his selfie and too much talking off the pitch. He needs to knackle down as he is a good goal keeper, better man up and stop believing his own hype just because his father tells him he is better than what he really is.
Yes, WS must be feeling sore atm. I haven’t quite worked it out this Ospina thing yet – his clean sheets have coincided with a huge improvement defensively in front of him. Luck, coincidence or design? I think he has had only 3 or 4 saves of any consequence to make. There is a theory that just his mere presence has lifted our defensive performance – quite damning on WS if true. I did read that Ospina was especially thankful to the help and encouragement he has received from Merts and Kos both on the training ground and socially – again, I am sure they would have been doing the same with WS but it does appear like some extra special love and attention has been lavished on our Ooooooooooos – Pinaaaaaa.
That is certainly how it looks at the moment. I don’t think Wenger ever had a ‘dream” of having a British core – that is just a media construct on the back of him saying he would be happy if he could pay something back to the English national team. 2 months ago you would have been laughed off the site and maybe certified if you had said Monreal is superior to Gibbs. Far too early regarding 19 year old Calum and he won’t be competing with Bellerin for a RB slot – he will competing with Mertesacker. And re Theo – your “50 goals in 10 years” assessment is too harsh. He is in his 10th season and has reached the grand age of 25 – he was a boy for the first half of his time here learning his trade. He didn’t play in the first season, injured pretty much all of last season and is only 5 games in to this one. I think it is clear that a fit and in form Theo can still make a massive contribution.
I’m unsure if we should sell Jenkison or not. He has improved and played well on loan, but with Debuchy, Chambers and Bellerin would it be worth selling him to fund future transfers?
I wonder How much we could get for him anyway?
I always wonder about ex-players looking good elsewhere and think we need to be careful before drawing any conclusions – I mean, another few decent games under their belts and Chamakh and Sanogo will be having statues erected outside Selhurst Park. If Shaw is worth £30M then I reckon £45M should seal a deal for Jenks. Seriously though, didn’t someone band around a £15M price tag that had been put on Jenks after Big Sam started sniffing around. Still seems a lot.