The heat of the final of Carabao Cup is going to rise day by day in England. The fans are getting more and more involved and the players are trying to give their 100 percent in the training sessions to win the first silverware of the season.
For Arsenal, this one is the most realistic chance of winning a trophy this season. Arsene Wenger’s men had outclassed Chelsea in the semifinal of this Cup and would be determined to push for another win on Sunday to clinch the Cup from the Premier League Leaders Manchester City. Arsene Wenger’s Cup record is exceptionally good as a manager. After being out of the contention FA Cup he will surely try to go for the Carabao Cup this season.
On the other hand, Manchester City are dominating the English Premier League with a huge margin. They are playing in another level this season and Pep Guardiola would eye to win the first silverware of the season on Sunday. Though, the Gunners will surely put up a strong challenge towards them and football fans could expect a great match coming in their way.
Arsenalcore will today analyse another of the ‘Key Battles’ that supporters will have to look out for this Sunday.
Granit Xhaka and Fernandinho both are the defensive midfielders for their respective sides. They are always the ‘Unsung Heroes’ but not in the limelight like other players. The contribution of these two players can prove to be pivotal in the big Final Match of Carabao Cup on Sunday.
Granit Xhaka :
Granit Xhaka has featured in 27 matches for Arsenal in Premier League this season and also scored 1 Goal for the club too. He has provided 4 assists in this season so far with a passing accuracy as high as 84 percent. His interceptions per game is 1.1 and tackles per game is 1.7 which is quite impressive. His dribbling success is 74 percent which is really admirable as a defensive midfielder. He has also won 47 percent of duels in the matches he played so far.
Granit Xhaka’s physical presence in the field gives Arsenal the advantage of outnumbering the opponents in the midfield area.
His shots per game is 1.4 which is a decent one. His clearances per game is 1.4 too, but his errors sometimes leads to clear chance for oppositions. If he doesn’t lose possession cheaply in the midfield, he can be considered as one of the best defensive midfielders in the Premier League
Fernandinho :
This defensive midfielder is an asset in the Golden Team of Manchester City in this season. He has also featured in 27 matches in the Premier League for Manchester City. He has scored 3 important Goals this season for the City side and provided 3 assists so far. His passing accuracy is as high as 90 percent. His interceptions per game is 1.5 and tackles per game is 1.9 which is really admirable. His dribbling success is 94 percent which can be considered one of the best in the Premier League. He has also won 54 percent of duels in the matches he played so far and this is clearly suggesting that he will fight for every ball in the midfield.
Conclusion :
From the above stats it is clear that Fernandinho is having a slight edge over Xhaka so far in this season. But in this big match like this one good tackle or one defensive error could change the course of the match and these two players are really capable of making the difference between two evenly matched sides.
