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Aston Villa boss Paul Lambert wants to keep Fabian Delph.

Aston Villa CEO Tom Fox wants to keep Fabian Delph.

Aston Villa fans want to keep Fabian Delph - the reality is, they might not be able to.

Rumours are rife that January will see the departure of Delph from Villa Park and the suggestion is that Tottenham Hotspur are very keen on his signature.

Yesterday's rumour mill saw Spurs midfielder Mousa Dembélé linked with a swap deal for Delph.

This led to a few cries of 'keep your cast-offs', 'We don't want him', etc etc.

What about though if we ponder the unthinkable for a minute, Villa may actually be better off.

A quick look at the stats shows that if this deal was a genuine possibility, Villa should snap their hands off.

Passes completed %

As the stats above show, Dembélée has a great passing average which outshines Delph's, which it should be noted, isn't too bad either.

When it comes to passes completed in the opposition half, Dembélé's 87.9% is significantly higher than Delph's 75.9%.

That figure can be reasoned with a difference in the defensive responsibilities that each player has had to take on.

Delph is the more combative of the two and has won 62.3% of all his duels compared to Dembélé's 51.4%.

Tackles won 72.7% Fabian Delph 88.2% Mousa Dembélé

Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, Delph's success in the tackle which can be seen below is significantly lower again than Dembélé.

Delph has better stats in terms of clearances, blocks and fouls won - again this highlights the defensive commitments.

Neither player have had any noticeable impact on the attacking stats for their team so far, Delph has created 4 chances and Dembélé, 3.

.

On paper Dembéle would make a hell of a replacement for Delph, in reality Delph remains the kind of player that every fan wants to see in the middle of the pitch.

Until that time when Delph holds up a shirt of another colour, the Villa fans don't want anyone to replace him, not even Dembélé.