Arsenal have “looked at” signing £82m star

Ask an Arsenal fan the place the crew want to enhance this summer season, and we reckon the bulk would say assault.

In any case, Mikel Arteta’s aspect completed second within the Premier League this season with the very best defence however scored 17 fewer targets than Champions Liverpool and three fewer than third-place Manchester Metropolis.

Nevertheless, whereas the North Londoners appear to be making progress on offers to signal the likes of Christian Norgaard and Christian Mosquera, they’ve but to make vital floor on a brand new winger or striker.

Fortuitously, the membership have now been linked with one other centre-forward, a world-class marksman who can be a greater signing than Benjamin Sesko and Viktor Gyokeres.

Arsenal’s striker search

Arsenal have a tendency to seek out themselves embroiled in some sort of switch saga each summer season, with Declan Rice being the topic two years in the past and Mikel Merino final summer season.

This yr, the saga has targeted extra on a place: a striker.

Whereas there have been greater than a handful of centre-forwards linked with the membership in current weeks and months, the 2 most important have been Sesko and Gyokeres.

The previous has been a long-term goal for the Gunners, however with experiences suggesting RB Leipzig now need between €80m-€100m for him, which is round £68m-£85m, the North Londoners’ curiosity appears to have cooled.

On the similar time, the latter is at present in open battle with Sporting CP over a supposed gentleman’s settlement that the membership have damaged, which in flip has seen his worth soar as much as £80m, per some experiences.

With these issues current, it will make sense for the Gunners to look in direction of different targets, which seems to be what is occurring.

A minimum of that is in accordance with a current report from BBC Sport’s Sami Mokbel, who revealed that Arsenal are, the truth is, fascinated with Julian Alvarez.

Talking on the Latte Agency podcast, the revered journalist claimed that the North Londoners have “checked out” how they might do a deal for the Atlético Madrid famous person this summer season.

Sadly, Mokbel doesn’t imagine it will be a deal the membership is able to doing, which could be the case, as he solely joined the Spanish giants for £82m final summer season, and in accordance with the CIES Soccer Observatory, he’s now value as much as €125m, which is round £106m.

With that mentioned, regardless that it will be a sophisticated and expensive switch to get finished, it is one Arsenal needs to be preventing for, as Alvarez can be a greater signing than Sesko and Gyokeres.

How Alvarez compares to Sesko and Gyokeres

So then, if we begin by wanting on the comparisons between Sesko and Alvarez, it is actually fairly simple to know why the latter can be a greater signing for Arsenal than the previous, and it nearly solely comes right down to their respective output.

For instance, there isn’t any denying that the Slovenian loved a robust private marketing campaign with RB Leipzig this season, during which he scored 21 targets and offered six assists in 45 appearances, totalling 3,258 minutes, which is a mean of a objective or help each 1.66 video games or each 120.66 minutes.

Nevertheless, even with spectacular numbers reminiscent of these, he was much less efficient than the Atlético star.

In his 57 appearances for the Spanish giants, which totalled 3967 minutes, the “finest ahead on the planet,” as dubbed by Argentine journalist Roy Nemer, scored 29 targets and offered eight assists, which comes out to a elegant common of a objective involvement each 1.54 video games, or each 107.21 minutes.

Okay then, what would make the previous Manchester Metropolis star a greater signing than Gyokeres, who ended this season with a haul of 54 targets and 13 assists in 52 video games?

Properly, on this case, the argument comes down to 2 interlocking causes: the extent of opposition and his expertise.

Relating to that first motive, the Portuguese league is at present ranked as solely the eleventh finest in world soccer in accordance with Opta, and worse than that, 11 of the 18 groups in it are thought of to be round League One stage. In distinction, La Liga is the third finest on the planet.

Add to that the very fact the Swedish worldwide has by no means performed in a top-five league, and the chance of signing him over somebody with Premier League-winning expertise turns into crystal clear.

In the end, Arsenal want to verify they signal the appropriate striker this summer season, and Alvarez seems to be like he ticks all of the packing containers, even when it’s going to show robust to get him out of Madrid.