Do Arsenal Need to Buy a CDM? Arteta Compared to Premier League Rivals

There have been a lot of reports linking Arsenal with defensive midfielders over the past 12 months, including players like Fellaini and Bender among others. I believe these players would generally be great signings, but I'm not sure if Wenger would spend money on that position when there are other areas to strengthen. In my opinion Mikel Arteta had a great 2012/2013 season.
I decided to compare him to the other defensive midfielders in the top 5 of the Premier League. I chose the players by checking who played the most in defensive midfield for each team respectively. Eg. Yaya Toure played at CDM 8 times, compared to Barry's 16, therefore Barry was chosen. I wanted to include Fellaini, but he did not play a single match as a defensive midfielder, he only played as a central midfielder and attacking midfielder, if you would like to see his statistics, you can look here. All statistics are from whoscored.com and are for the Premier League only.

Player Season Analysis: Per Mertesacker

When the big German came to Arsenal in 2011 I thought he would be like my younger brother: I would rather play squash with a pretty girl, but if she's not available my brother will do. He's slower than Tony Adams is now and already 28 years old, but Per Mertesacker had a good 2012/2013 season.

It didn't start particularly well, but his performances improved as the season went on and he formed an important partnership with Koscienly in the second half of the season. The centre-back scored 3 important league goals and received his third career red card. He played the third most games in the premier league behind Cazorla and Arteta. Statistics are taken from whoscored.com.
Here are his statistics in the premier league:

Starts

Sub

Goals

Assists

Shots

Target

Fouls

Fouled

YC

RC

33

1

3

0

17

6

12

19

3

1

What is The Ox's Best Position?

The hype around Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain has slowly decreased over the past season. Arsenal first bought him from Southampton 2 years ago and after a couple of exciting performances, fans were insisting that he got more game time. The arrival of Podolski and inconsistent performances from The Ox has meant that he has been on the bench more than he would like. He started 12 times in the league last season (13 as a substitute), only completing the 90 minutes once.

He is still young and I’m glad Chamberlain doesn’t have the same pressure that Wilshere had a couple of seasons ago, but if we want him to develop he needs to play more. He’s been playing well for England and according to his dad he is more relaxed, “I can see that he is more relaxed playing for his country than he is playing for Arsenal.” Hopefully he can start relaxing when playing for Arsenal. He’s only 19, and still has a lot of time to fill his potential.

Who Should Replace Arteta Against Newcastle

Mikel Arteta has been one of the most important players for Arsenal this season. He has operated as the deepest-lying midfielder, linking the play between defence and attack. He has played 33 out of Arsenal's 37 Premier League matches, playing 2956 minutes (second highest, after Santi Cazorla, out of all Arsenal players). He played 90 minutes in every game that he has started except against Spurs (he was technically substituted after 90 minutes against Wigan).

As everybody knows, the match against Newcastle on Sunday is enormously important. Wenger was frustrated that Arteta was injured and said in a pre-match interview, "For the weekend, we have the uncertainty over Mikel Arteta, who had to come off just before the end of the Wigan game with a calf strain. Honestly, his chances of being available are minimal. I have to be realistic and prepare for another solution."

Match in Brief: Arsenal vs Norwich City

It was a very important and hard-fought victory by The Arsenal on Saturday afternoon.


Michael Turner opened the scoring in the 57th minute with a header from a Robert Snodgrass' free-kick after a number of first-half Arsenal chances. Mikel Arteta converted a suspect penalty late on to give Arsenal hope, and Olivier Giroud and second-half substitute Lukas Podolski finished the turnaround.