Arsenal have a midfielder who is actually outperforming Pedri and Vitinha in almost every metric

Arsenal have incredible midfield depth and quality now.

Bruno Guimaraes, Martin Zubimendi and Mikel Merino all came off the bench against Sunderland and helped secure (or in Bruno’s case, win) the three points. They started on the bench. That’s the sort of quality we’re talking about here. Those three would start for almost every other team in the country.

Myles Lewis-Skelly has started each of Arsenal’s four Premier League games, and his form has been rewarded with an England call-up.

Of course, at the heart of it all is Declan Rice. The Arsenal man, bizarrely, still has his doubters, perhaps none more notable than Graeme Souness, who doesn’t believe he has the quality to be a top midfield player. The former Liverpool midfielder doesn’t think Rice would get into Barcelona, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich or Manchester City.

But Rice actually leads the Champions League for forward passes, and the sheer volume of ground he covers, as well as his defensive qualities and set-piece deliveries, all point to a player operating at the elite level. And now the data has gone further.

A chart comparing underlying stats of Rice against Pedri and Vitinha — widely regarded as two of the very best central midfielders in world football — shows the Arsenal man outperforming both players in almost every meaningful metric so far this season.

Rice trails only Pedri in possession won, and only marginally. In every other category, he leads both players. His duels percentage (83.6 vs Pedri’s 36.0 and Vitinha’s 16.9) is in a different universe, showing just how unique a profile Rice is.

Pedri and Vitinha are two elite midfielders. But Rice is right up there alongside them. He might not be as technically flashy as the pair, but the other things he consistently does more than make up for that.