Rodri and Granit Xhaka have broken the passing records in Premier League and Bundesliga this season, respectively. The two were kept for their teams as Manchester City and Bayer Leverkusen lifted the league titles.
As per the records at Opta, who started collecting data in 2003, no players completed more passes than Rodri and Xhaka. While the Spaniard set a new record in the Premier League with 3359 passes, the Swiss star broke the Bundesliga record with 3003 passes.
Rodri’s Manchester City beat Arsenal to the Premier League title on the final day of the season. The Citizens were trailing the Gunners and Liverpool for most of the season, but managed to get into form at the right time and went on a 35-match unbeaten streak in all competitions to seal the title for the 4th time in a row.
Speaking to Sky Sports after sealing the Premier League title, Rodri claimed that he difference between his side and Arsenal was mentality. He believes that the Gunners were happy with the draw at Etihad and that cost them the title as they fell short by 2 points.
The Spaniard added that Mikel Arteta’s side should have gone for the win instead of sitting back and defending. He said:
“To be honest, I think it’s in here [points to head]. It’s the mentality. Arsenal, also they deserve [to win the league], they did an unbelievable season, but I think the difference was in here [pointing to his head again]. When they came here, they faced us at the Etihad, I saw them and said: ‘Ah, these guys, they don’t want to beat us, they just want a draw. And that mentality, I don’t think we would do it the same way. And we caught them. At the end, if you give us one point, we will win the last seven, eight games even though it’s so tough. So I think it comes down to mentality.”
Granit Xhaka played a key role for Leverkusen this season, after leaving Arsenal last summer. The Swiss star was a machine in the middle of the pitch and that helped Xavi Alonso’s tactics as they went unbeaten the whole season. The Bundesliga side were the first to go unbeaten in a season and Leverkusen star said after winning the title:
“To win something after the first year here is always extra special. But we are still in other competitions, we are still in the DFB Pokal final and the Europa League semi-finals. We know that to win the Europa League you need to be ambitious. We won the league last Sunday but we still have the hunger to achieve something else. I had very good times in Arsenal for seven years, we were very close to winning the Premier League last year and it was not good enough but I knew the philosophy behind this football club and that’s why I moved here.”
Xhaka and Rodri are expected to stay with their respective clubs next season. Both players have not been linked with a move away, nor have they shown any interest in leaving.
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