Bender or Schneiderlin – Who would be the best target for Arsenal? Head to head analysis

Arsenal have been suffering from a lack of stability for many years now. While Arsenal have only momentarily managed to assure such insurance in their midfield, the back-four is most of the time exposed to the opposition's threat mainly when the latter are on the break. In addition, Mikel Arteta and Mathieu Flamini, who are the two main players supposed to prevent Arsenal from being under pressure, are aging and no longer have fresh legs to put in 90 minute consistent performances.

At first, Flamini was brought in for his experience and his ability to strengthen Arsenal's midfield, but it wasn't really to be a regular starter. In the end, Flamini played a fair amount of games and played a relatively big part in Arsenal's season. On the other hand, Mikel Arteta, Arsenal's vice-captain, has been under the critics for not being able to protect the defence and avoid harmful exposition. Basically, Arteta has been turned into a "defensive midfielder" for Arsène Wenger did not have another option.

My point here is not to criticize either Flamini or Arteta. They have done their job in the best manner possible. But sometimes it isn't sufficient. Arsenal definitely need fresh blood and this summer, the acquisition of a player to fulfil Arsenal's needs are is essential. The press have been linking Arsenal with two main players: Lars Bender who plays for Leverkusen and Morgan Schneiderlin that most of you know.

Therefore, I decided to look into the matter and try to figure out who would be the best option between those two players. To begin with, let's compare them via statistics.

	Bender	Schneiderlin
Successful passes/game	30	51.06
Total forward passes/game	25.61	36.81
Avg. pass length	17.68m	17.09m
Pass completion	77%	89%
Total passes/game	38.93	57.31
Tackles won	86	86
Successful take-ons	75%	58.33%
Aerial duels won	49.02%	61.84%
Total duels won	50.97%	50.27%
Fouls committed	49	47
Interceptions	48	66
Clearances	53	50
Defensive errors	1	0
Yellow cards	3	8
Goals	3	2
Assists	1	1
Key passes	18	29
Shot accuracy	59%	33%

Now that you have all the statistical elements, I can further elaborate on their profiles.