Arsenal and Manchester City fans have been embroiled in a heated debate over who is exactly the better player among Phil Foden and Bukayo Saka in recent years.
Both English wingers had an impressive 2023/24 season, with the former helping his side clinch the Premier League title and the Arsenal man producing stunning goal numbers.
Foden scored 27 goals and provided 12 assists in the previous campaign, while Saka also had 34 goal contributions (20 goals, 14 assists).
The Manchester City player ended up winning the Premier League Player of the Season and PFA Player of the Season, but Saka considerably outperformed him in Euro 2024 by scoring a brilliant goal against Switzerland.
Amid the never-ending debate on who is actually the better player, a new issue has crept up that has gotten fans raging.
Ahead of the launch of FC 25 on September, the ‘player cards’ where the ratings and necessary attribute information of major football stars have all been launched.
Foden is rated just slightly higher than Saka in FC 25, having a starting rating card of 88 as compared to the Arsenal star’s 87.
Foden has better dribbling, shooting and passing attributes than his England national teammate, but one particular attribute that appears to have irked a lot of fans is the ‘speed’ one.
That is because the Manchester City star is given an 86 pace rating, which just about tips over Saka’s 85 pace.
This has angered a lot of Arsenal fans because the general consensus is that Saka often opts to make more sprints than Foden in matches, showing a better acceleration and sprint speed than the Manchester City man – who often relies on quick link-up play than speedy runs.
This has caused a lot of fans to start finding the necessary information that proves whether Foden is actually faster than Saka on the pitch.
One particular measuring graph that is making the rounds on social media shows that the Manchester City star has managed a max speed of 37.12 km/h, proving that he has a lot of pace to burn and is deceptively quick on the ball.
On the other hand, Saka’s max speed is deemed to be around 36.16 km/h, which sees him fall just short of what his England teammate has managed.
But the fact of the matter is that this comparison has been made using metrics that were initially recorded in the 2019/20 season, when both the players were still up-and-coming youngsters.
But a more recently-measured statistics seem to be telling a different story. In Euro 2024, Saka’s top speed was measured to be around 33.5 km/h.
Foden, who had a forgettable tournament, couldn’t match the Arsenal man in that aspect. In fact, the last major top speed metric of the Manchester City man was recorded in 2023, when it showed him reaching a top speed of 33.2 km/h in the UEFA Champions League last year.
What measuring tool EA (Electronic Arts) uses for determining the rating or attributes of the players in their games has never really been revealed.
It’s clear that they might’ve come up with some formula to prove that Foden is just slightly quicker than Saka, even though it’s the latter who comes off as a more menacing threat in terms of using sheer speed to torment defenders on the pitch.