Bruno Guimaraes vs Sandro Tonali stat comparison settles Paul Scholes’ debate once and for all

Paul Scholes has reignited a debate that Arsenal fans will have strong opinions on.

The former Manchester United midfielder has claimed that Sandro Tonali is a better player and signing than Bruno Guimaraes.

While Scholes does concede that Guimaraes makes Arsenal a better team, he has doubts about his physicality and running.

Of course, earlier this summer Tonali joined Tottenham, after Arsenal passed up on Newcastle’s £100million valuation.

Instead, the Premier League champions signed Guimaraes for £75million, and the debate around who got the better midfielder has been rife since.

So what do the stats say?

What the stats say about Bruno Guimaraes vs Sandro Tonali

Start with the most obvious metric. Guimaraes scored nine Premier League goals last season — no central midfielder in the division scored more. Tonali, however, didn’t score any.

That goal threat follows up in the underlying numbers too. In terms of expected goals, per data provided by Opta Analyst, Guimaraes averaged 0.20 xG per 90 compared to Tonali’s 0.06.

Creatively, Guimaraes again comes out ahead. The Brazilian had five assists to Tonali’s two in the league last season. He also created 1.7 chances per 90 minutes compared to Tonali’s 1.1.

For carries, Guimaraes completed more than Tonali (15.9 vs 13.8 per 90) and led on progressive carries too (7.9 to 6.1).

That’s fine, surely Tonali’s a better defender then, no? Well, not really, looking at the numbers.

Guimaraes completed more tackles per 90 last season (2.3) than Tonali (1.2) and won more ground duels (5.7 to 3.3) too.

In fact, no Premier League player has won more duels than Bruno Guimaraes since he made the switch to England in January 2022. And the only central midfielder to cover more distance than him (1,641km) is none other than Declan Rice (1,703km). That’s going to be quite the partnership.

Where Tonali does edge Guimaraes, though, is on interceptions (1.1 to 0.6) and blocks.

But by almost every other meaningful metric — goals, creativity, carries, duels, Guimaraes is the better player.

Scholes, of course, is entitled to his opinion. But the data says Arsenal got by far the better deal.