Morning all.
The English and Spanish players returned to training yesterday, meaning that everyone is now back at London Colney as the preparations for the new season ramp up. There’s a game against Como on Wednesday, the Community Shield on Sunday, and then our Premier League opener the following Friday. The countdown has well and truly begun.
I wonder if we’ll see movement in the market this week from Arsenal with regard the right hand side of the defence. Thankfully it looks like Christian Romero is going to Atletico Madrid, which feels about the right kind of club for him. He’ll have a manager who feels much more aligned with his ‘talents’, being physical, stupid, and occasionally dangerous, than he would at Arsenal. Not to mention he’s an idiot who has no business at our club, and anyone who would have taken him needs their head examined.
As it stands though, we have two right-sided defenders available to us – Ben White and Cristhian Mosquera. I love the former, and I think he can still give us a lot at the highest level, but it isn’t unreasonable to point out his last two seasons (more or less) have been punctuated by injury. The young Spaniard is a real talent, no question, and I’m not afraid of giving him the minutes he needs to develop further, but with Jurrien Timber out and William Saliba sidelined for the foreseeable future, we’re very, very light in this area of the pitch and it’d be a huge risk to start the season without a signing.
For the Dutchman, if he returned in 2 or 3 weeks, that would take some of the pressure off, but you’re still looking at a player who hasn’t played competitive football (bar his Champions League final cameo) for nigh on six months. Clearly it will take some time to get fully match-fit again, and the nature of this injury means we very definitely need to ease him back into action, not throw him right back (no pun intended) into the deep end. Similarly, when Saliba is fit again – and it could be November or December all going well – he won’t be returning at 100%. He’s a player who generally needs a bit of time to find his rhythm, so we have to be mindful of that.
I was never particularly enthused by the idea of Ezri Konsa, but it was more about the price Aston Villa were looking for. In terms of profile, a player with lots of Premier League and Champions League experience makes sense, but if Arsenal’s valuation of him differs from Villa’s, it might be a case we need to adjust if we want the player. Every transfer has its own context, and this one – if it’s something we’re genuinely pursuing – has our pressing need as a major factor. Maybe there are other irons in the fire, but with the clock ticking, I hope it’s something we see addressed this week.
Elsewhere, the conversation about the left-hand side continues apace after the Vinicius Junior thing. That raised expectations, rightly or wrongly, and fans are wondering what Arsenal might do next. If we go into next season without a significant improvement in our front three, it will feel like a missed opportunity to me. Your mileage may vary on this, but as the newly crowned Premier League champions, an inability to use that to add more firepower – which I really think we need – would be disappointing.
In a big discussion around this on the Arsecast Extra yesterday, we spoke about some of the names available, and pondered the possibility that we might do nothing at all. That would mean a Christos Tzolis and Gabriel Martinelli left side, and while I’m not as down as some on the Brazilian, that would frustrate some. I thought Lewis Ambrose’s piece on Martinelli was excellent, adding context to his numbers and what he brings to the team, and it’s well worth a read this morning regardless of your opinion on the player.
I think it’s fair to say that in the market there isn’t the outstanding candidate now that Vini Jr is staying at Real Madrid. There are some good players out there, but – for example – we could all see how the pursuit of Declan Rice in the summer of 2023 was going to very obviously lift the level in midfield, and in the current crop of names linked with Arsenal for the left, that player isn’t really there.
Perhaps though, there comes a time when it’s not as much about sure-fire improvement as something new and different. Nico Williams at Athletic Club, for example, is a player we’ve been linked with often, but in terms of numbers he hasn’t really delivered at the level his early potential suggested – a bit like Martinelli in that sense (even if, as Lewis showed, his numbers are better all-round that he gets credit for).
Last season Martinelli got 11 goals and 7 assists in 52 appearances (2384′ minutes), Williams got 6 goals and 7 assists in 32 appearances (2101) minutes. A better ratio for the Spaniard based on games played, but again I refer you to Lewis’ article about the kind of minutes Martinelli had, and the games he started. So, I don’t think you could definitely say Williams would be a big upgrade on Martinelli, they feel like players of more or less the same calibre, but they are a bit different stylistically.
Right now, Arsenal feel very samey up front, with the exception of Max Dowman whose emergence does give us something extra. We ought not to ignore his age though, and maintain reasonable expectation levels. Tzolis, as has been noted, feels quite a bit like Leandro Trossard, although I think he will leave those comparisons behind as time goes on. We know what we can get from players like Noni Madueke and Viktor Gyokeres, whose techincal levels can leave a bit to be desired. If we can get, and keep, Bukayo Saka and Kai Havertz fit, there’s extra quality there, but if you’re an opposition analyst looking at the Arsenal forward line, there’s nothing new to come to grips with.
Of course goals, and goal threat, doesn’t just come from the front three. The addition of Bruno Guimaraes to midfield changes our dynamic, and with players like Martin Odegaard and Eberechi Eze, we have the potential to hurt teams from deeper, but it feels like we’re at a bit of a crossroads when it comes to the make up of the attack. We tried to go big, really big, in the transfer market, and that’s a tacit admission that we needed more – beyond the opportunity to sign a major world star.
The question now does it become change for the sake of change, by swapping one solid but not spectacular player for another, banking on a new environment and new relationships to improve the team and that player; or can Arsenal pull something unexpected out of the bag before this window closes? People often point to players signed by other clubs, Kroupi and Rayan at Bournemouth, for example. Would fans be happy with that kind of deal, despite the fact it’d be a risk, and acknowledging it is easier to sign for a side with quite a bit less pressure than there would be with us? Or, if the opportunity arose, we keep the left side we have and upgrade at centre-forward?
Regardless of how much we want to see that signing, I think most would agree this isn’t an easy one, but the manager spoke of the club’s ambition in regard to this window, and that’s what many fans would like to see when it comes to our forward line before it closes.
Arsecast Extra below if you haven’t had a chance to listen yet, for now, have a good one.
