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Arsenal’s Danny Welbeck the Second Best Striker Signing Last Summer?

By Josh Sippie

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Last summer saw a lot of the top tier teams in England nab a new striker or two. Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United all combined to sign six strikers (not counting Alexis Sanchez, though perhaps we should). It is a rather odd occurrence when so many Champions League contenders all shuffle the guard a bit up front.

Just to recap, Chelsea signed Diego Costa and Loic Remy, Liverpool signed Rickie Lambert and Mario Balotelli, United snatched up Radamel Falcao and Arsenal of course, infamously or famously, took Danny Welbeck.

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With the season now complete, we can look back and see which signings did something, and which signings did nothing. Surprisingly, those are pretty much the only two options, as there was very little in between.

Obviously the striker signing of the year (when not including Alexis as a ‘striker’) goes to Diego Costa. He was a monster and Chelsea could not have done what they did without him.

After Costa though, the next best striker signing has to be Danny Welbeck. Despite Arsenal fans being frustrated by his lack of goals, Danny Welbeck’s contributions to the team go above and beyond what any other striker on this list accomplished.

But just because they are strikers, lets consider their goal return.

Danny Welbeck scored just eight goals in 34 appearances. Believe it or not, that trumps all the other strikers on this list other than Loic Remy. Rickie Lambert only scored three goals in 36 appearances, the enigmatic Italian Mario Balotelli only found the net four times in 28 appearances, and United’s ol’ boy Radamel Falcao only managed to cash in four times in 29 appearances.

Looks like, with the striker stock that did move, Arsenal did not do too badly. Now lets consider what they did aside from goals.

Danny Welbeck was better than everyone at everything. Well, just about.

In terms of passing completion, Radamel Falcao completed 86% compared to Welbeck and Remy’s 82%. Everyone else paled.

And that is where Danny Welbeck being outdone stops. Welbeck created 1.56 chances per 90. The next nearest was Falcao at 1.24. Lambert put up a 1.16 and the other two were less than half of Danny Welbeck’s number. In terms of stopping the opposition, Nobody had a better take-on percentage than our English boy’s 56.52%. Falcao again inched close at 54% but the next closest was Balotelli at 44%.

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How about aerial prowess? Winner: Danny Welbeck’s 45% aerial duels won. Behind him was Rickie Lambert at 43% and then Remy at 35%.

And then there is the defensive side of the ball, where Danny Welbeck rocked the socks off of his opposing counterparts. He averaged 1.56 interceptions, three times the next closest (Falcao at .48). He also won the most tackles per 90 at 1.18. The nearest was Balotelli at 1.05 and then Falcao at .62 (all stats provided by Squawka)

It took me awhile to warm up to Danny Welbeck but I am finally starting to see how valuable he was to this team and maybe these statistics can shed a little more light on it. Arsenal had the option to go after Falcao or Balotelli but they opted for Danny Welbeck.

I think it already paid off. And it will only get better.

Next: Pedro Still an Option?

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