Arsenal’s striker issues: 3 potential targets
One of the worst kept secrets over the last few seasons at Arsenal is their lack of a natural number nine. Goals haven’t exactly been an issue during the last two and a half seasons as title challengers, it is clear however that Arsenal lack a number nine who is going to get them somewhere around the 25-30 goals a season that can be the crucial difference between winning the title and finishing in second place.
Arsenal do have players who can score goals, as has been proven over the last two seasons. Saka has 35 goals over the last two seasons and has been a key part to Arsenal’s pursuit of the Premier League title. But with him out injured for some time, the goals and creativity in the side has dried up. Yes, there are players like Ødegaard, who is a brilliant footballer and creates a lot of chances and contributes his fair share of goals, but you can’t win a title if your main source of goals is coming from a central midfielder. Kai Havertz is the man who is favoured to play up front for Arsenal and has managed to get himself 8 goals in the league this season from 19 starts, but it’s obvious when you watch him play that he isn’t a number 9, he isn’t going to be the man to get 25-30 goals in a league campaign year in year out.
A natural goal scorer is something that fits the culture of Arsenal in the Premier League era of English football. Wright, Van Persie, Thierry Henry. Three giant names of the Premier League era, all know for their natural ability to put the ball in the back of the net. You can even look beyond these three and find natural goal scorers in pretty much every Arsenal squad of the Premier League era. Adebayor, Sanchez, Anelka, Aubameyang, all players who have scored goals while leading Arsenal’s front line.
Yes, there are names being linked with the Gunners this transfer window and the names will no doubt be named again come the summer. Alexander Isak and Patrik Schick are two names that continue to be linked to the club and for good reason, they’re both very prolific goal scorers. However, the likelihood of either of them being allowed to leave their current clubs is very minimal in January, and If they were to, they would cost Arsenal an absurd amount of money.
Here are our three top striker who Arsenal should be looking to invest in this January transfer window:
Mateo Retegui (Atalanta)
Age: 25
Appearances: 19 (15 starts)
Goals: 14
Assists: 3
Market Value: €35,000,000
Retegui joined Atalanta from Genoa in the summer for €28,000,000 having impressed last season where he scored 7 goals in 29 games as newly promoted Genoa finished in an impressive 11th place in Serie A. Since joining in the summer, he has bagged himself 14 goals alongside 3 assists in just 19 games.
His attacking stats back his numbers up. Per 90 minutes this season he is scoring 1.19 goals and assisting 0.25. He averages 4.5 shots per game, with an average of 1.78 on target, to go along with having 7.9 touches in the opposition box and creating 1.44 chances per game. It clear that, when in the opposition area, he’s a real handful, in fact all but one of his goals this season have come from inside the box, and at 6-foot 1 inch tall, he’s won 26 aerial duels this season, which just threat to his threat to defenders. Where Retegui fails is in his general build up play. Although he has contributed 3 assists this season, his passing stats don’t read as well as you would expect. Per 90 minutes of football, he only averages 16.56 successful passes per game to go along with a 78.3% pass accuracy. He also only averages 0.25 successful dribbles with a dribble success rate of 25%. Given the way Arsenal like to play, this could mean that Retegui might struggle to adapt to Arteta’s style of play, however, his goal record is something that you can’t look past.
Jonathan Burkardt (Mainz 05)
Age: 24
Appearances: 16 (16 starts)
Goals: 12
Assists: 1
Market Value: €25,000,000
Burkardt came through the academy at Mainz 05 and after being a first team regular over the last 5 years, he has found his goal scoring form. This season, per 90 minutes of football, he is averaging 0.96 goals and is drastically outperforming his expected goals for the season as a while which is currently 8.72. What’s even more impressive is that he is only averaging 2.71 shots per game, 1.28 on target, and just 4.86 touches in the opposition box, showing just how clinical he is in front of goal. Something that also may be of interest to Arsenal is his ability to play as a 10, as well as a 9, something that Arteta seems to like from his strikers. However, much like Retegui, his build up play leaves a lot to be desired. He only averages 15.62 successful passes per game, with a pass accuracy of 74.8%. He averages 0.48 successful dribbles per game and has a dribble success rate of just 42.9%.
Hugo Ekitiké (Eintracht Frankfurt)
Age: 22
Appearances: 17 (16 starts)
Goals: 9
Assists: 3
Market Value: €40,000,000
Ekitiké is the one that, of the three, is the most exciting prospect. After spending last season on loan at Frankfurt from PSG, the club bought Ekitiké on a permeant deal in the summer for €16,500,000, and it’s proved to be a bargain for the German side. With 9 goals and 3 assists from 17 games, he’s proven to be a key asset to the club. On paper, some of his numbers don’t read as impressive when compared to Burkardt and Retegui. Per 90 minutes, he’s scoring 0.64 goals, and is hitting his expect goals for the season, which currently sits at 9.66. He’s averaging 3.73 shots per game, with 1.43 of those on target. But he’s averaging 6.81 touches in the box, so it’s clear to see that there is a player in there capable of scoring goals at a frequent level, if he can just start getting more shots away. What may be more of interest to Arsenal is the players creativity. He averages 0.21 assists per game to go along with 17.56 successful passes per game alongside a passing success rate of 78.5%. He’s creating an average of 1.79 chances per game and has by far and away the most impressive successful dribbles stat of the players mentioned here, with 2.29 per game. He’s also a player that like to defend from the front and has an impressive average of 3.3 recoveries per game this season.
It’s all well and good giving you the numbers that I have for each player above, so it only seems fair to give you something to compare them to, and to do that I have looked at the numbers for a player I have already mentioned above. The man that Arsenal have trusted to be their main striker since bringing him in from Chelsea for roughly £65,000,000.
Kai Havertz
Age: 25
Appearances: 19 (19 starts)
Goals: 8
Assists: 2
Market Value: £75,000,000
Since his arrival from Chelsea last summer, Havertz has been one of the main players that Arteta puts his faith in. He has played 56 times for Arsenal in the Premier League and has scored 21 goals and provided 9 assists, which doesn’t sound too bad when you read it like that. This season, he is averaging, per 90 minutes, 0.43 goals and 0.11 assists. He currently averages 2.44 shots per game, with only 0.97 of those being on target. He also only averages 5.31 touches in the opposition box. His dribbling stats don’t look too impressive either, with him only averaging 0.43 succesfuldribbles per game with a dribble success rate of 26.7%. The stats that look favourably upon Havertz are very much all related to his build up play. He has an average of 19.6 successful passes per game with a passing accuracy of 80.3%. He’s also proved to be a good target man, winning 56 ariel duels this season with a success rate of 45.5%. I think it’s fair to say that when you look at the numbers for the three players above and compare them to Havertz that any of these players would be a welcome addition to the club, and this isn’t to say Havertz is a bad player and Arsenal should look to move him in, it’s just that he’s clearly played out of position and would benefit from dropping a lot deeper from where he is playing now.
All three players mentioned above are very obtainable players for a club like Arsenal, though I don’t expect them to sign any of these players, nor do I think that this will be the year that Arsenal take that next step and win the Premier League title. And even though Arteta has hinted that Arsenal may sign a striker in this window, I doubt they’ll will. Arsenal will no doubt stick with the formula they have now, and no doubt will finish the season as a completive runner up. And I have no doubt that come the end of the season we will ask the question, “could they gave won the league with a proper number 9 leading the line up top?”.
Sunderland v Stoke City Preview
Sunderland host Stoke City this weekend at the Stadium of Light in what could be described as a must win game for the Black Cats. Although they’ve only lost one of their last eleven games, they’ve only picked up 18 points from a possible 33. If a serious promotion, or even potential title challenge is to be on the cards this season, Sunderland need to start turning draws into wins.
So far this season, Sunderland have played 18 games, winning nine of those, drawing six, and losing three. It’s been an impressive start for the club, who find themselves in 4th place with 33 points, especially after a finishing in a disappointing 16th last season. However, given the start they made, it’s easy to see why some may be disappointed with the current position and being five points adrift from leaders Sheffield United. The drop off comes after drawing five of their last six games (the other non-draw being the 1-0 defeat to Sheffield United), in which time Sunderland have only managed to score three goals.
Missing players hasn’t helped in this run of form, Jobe Bellingham missed three games after receiving a straight red card in the away draw to QPR. Dennis Cirkin, who has been one of, if not Sunderland’s player of the season so far, has missed the last three games after picking up a slight injury against Coventry, though he is expected to return on Saturday. But the biggest miss (from an attacking point of view at least) come from the absence of Romain Mundle. Mundle had been a real handful for opposition defenders before his injury, scoring four goals and provided two assists in his fifteen games and his game stats have been impressive to go alongside them, creating on average 1.57 big chances per game, 2.36 successful dribbles and averaging 4.37 touches in the opposition box. Sunderland will also be without another standout performer in Chris Mepham, who was sent off in the defeat to Sheffield United, though with the return of Ballard in recent weeks to go along side Cirkin, and the reliable and ever presents Luke O’Nien and Trai Hume, it shouldn’t have too much of an effect on the defensive display.
The main attacking threat for Sunderland now comes from Patrick Roberts. Roberts, who although is going through a bit of a poor run of form, has some very impressive numbers to his name this season. He creates on average 1.68 big chances per game, and 31 passes per game (with a 85.2% success rate). He also completes on average 1.47 dribbles per game and 4.34 touches in the opposition box.
Stoke sit 14th in the table with 21 points, winning five, drawing six, and losing seven. It’s familiar territory for them, who have struggled since being relegated to the Championship from The Premier League in 2018. Since then, the highest league finish Stoke have managed was 14th in the 2020/21 and 2021/22 seasons. Chances are that this year won’t be any different for the Potters, though they have made a significant improvement from their dreadful start to the season.
Steven Schumacher was in charge at the start of the season having been appointed last season. Stoke began strong enough with a 1-0 win at home to Coventry. This was followed up with back-to-back defeats to Watford away and West Brom at home. They would manage to beat Middlesbrough 5-0 in the league cup second round (making it through the first with a 2-0 home away win over Carlisle) before Schumacher got the better of his former club Plymouth with a 1-0 away from home. This would be the last time Schumacher would taste victory as Stoke manager as he was sacked just over two weeks later after a defeat away at Oxford. Ryan Shawcross would take over as interim manager for one game as stoke took on Fleetwood in the League Cup (managed by former Stoke player and teammate of Shawcross Charlie Adam) in a game that would end as a 1-1 draw (Stoke winning the tie-on penalties).
Then came the full-time replacement to Schumacher in Narcís Pèlach, who had previously worked as a coach at Huddersfield and Norwich. Stoke have steadied the sip somewhat under his reign, having only lost three of his twelve games in charge (all of which were against teams currently in the top six of the league table). He also managed the side to a 6-1 home win over newly promoted Portsmouth, in which loanee Tom Cannon bagged himself four goals.
Although they’ve only lost three of their last twelve, it probably doesn’t tell the whole story of their season. Stoke have the second highest expect goals against this season (30. and make the second most saves per game (3.. In fact, the best performing player for Stoke this season has been goalkeeper Viktor Johansson, averaging a match rating of 7.49, and picking up the player of the match award on four occasions this season.
Similar to Sunderland, Stoke tend to be happier to play without the ball, averaging 47.7% possession per game. They also have an identical record to the Black Cats in average shots on target per game, with 3.8. Stoke’s main attacking threat come from Joon-Ho Bae, who although he hasn’t scored this season, has five assists to his name and creates an average of 1.9 chances per game, to go along with 1.9 successful dribbles per game. The main goal threat from The Potters comes from Tom Cannon, who has seven goals in fourteen games this season (overachieving from his xG of 5.85). Though four of those goals came in the win over Portsmouth mentioned above, and three have been from the penalty spot. Unless he’s in front of goal, he doesn’t tend to offer much in build-up play either, averaging only 8.37 passes per game (with a success rate of just 65.2%), to go along with only averaging 24 touches per game, and just 3.75 in the opposition box.
Sleeping Giants: Sunderland v Leeds United
Tonight, in the EFL Championship, Sunderland face off against Leeds United in what, if early season form is anything to go on, could be a crucial game in the race for promotion to the Premier League. The reality of it is, if the idea of “football heritage” is to be believed, is a game that should be being played in the topflight rather than being a game that could decide if either of the two teams will play there next season.
Sunderland are very much a sleeping giant in English football. They dominated in the early days of the old Division One, winning 6 league titles between 1891 and 1936. Since then, however, the club has won two major trophies, both the FA Cup, one in 1937, and the other in 1973, coincidentally against Leeds United. The 1973 FA Cup final is seen as one of the competitions greatest stories, Sunderland were sat in the Second Division at the time, and Leeds United were force the reigning champions and seen as one of the best teams in the country. The game ended 1-0 thanks to an Ian Porterfield goal in the first half, and more notably an incredible save from Sunderland’s Jimmy Montgomery in the second half, what is often considered to be one of the greatest ever saves in football. It was also the first English cup final that was attended by one of the games greatest ever player, Johan Cruyff, who said that the game was “a great cup final. It have everything we wanted it to. The underdog won.”
In retrospect, it feels like the game should’ve been the moment that Sunderland kicked on and got back to being one of the best teams in the country again. However, it’s been 50 years since Bobby Kerr lifted the FA Cup and the club haven’t won a major trophy since and it’s fair to say that in the last 50 years, the club has only had two good league seasons, being the 1999/2000 and 2000/2001 Premier League seasons under Peter Reid that saw the club finish in 7th place both times. The only other high point the club would reach would be getting to the League Cup final in 2014, which they would go onto lose to Manchester City 3-1. The club would then be relegated from the Premier League in 2017, and then again the following year, putting the club in the third tier of English football for the first time since 1987 and only the second time in the club’s history. Unlike the 1987/1988 season though, the club wouldn’t be able to gain promotion back to the second tier first time, and Sunderland would spend four years there before eventually making their way back into the Championship in 2022.
The first season in the Championship was a success and Sunderland would finish in a playoff position (they would go on to lose in the semi-final to Luton) and a sense of optimism was there ahead of the 2023/2024 campaign, the idea that Sunderland could be a Premier League team again wasn’t as far-fetched as it was five years earlier. But, as has often been the case over the years, things wouldn’t go to plan. Tony Mowbray, who had become a fan favourite, would lose his job. He would temporarily be replaced my first team coach Mike Dodds, who in his interim spell would lead Sunderland to a 1-0 victory over Leeds in this fixture last season and ending his spell with a record of two wins and one defeat. Eventually, after weeks without a full time manager, the club appointed Michael Beale, who would never have the same connection to the fans that Mowbray did. The stained relationship that was there from the start between Beale and the fans wouldn’t last long though, as Beale would last just three months in the job, which saw him win just four of his twelve league games as well as suffer a 3-0 home defeat to rivals Newcastle in the FA Cup third round. Mike Dodds would take charge again, this time for the rest of the season. His second spell wouldn’t be as successful, with Sunderland picking up just nine points from thirteen games, however one of the best moments from this spell would come away at Leeds as Sunderland held Leeds to a 0-0 draw, which proved to be a crucial factor in Leeds missing out on an automatic promotion place. Sunderland would finish the season in 16th place.
Based on last season, it’s easy to understand why many weren’t too optimistic about Sunderland’s chances of a serious push for promotion. They are coming off the back of one of the most uneventful and least promising seasons in the club’s history. But it’s clear that the club wanted to learn from their mistakes from last season. The club didn’t jump in and appoint a manger straight away, they took their time and assessed their options, before eventually landing Regis Le Bris from Lorient in France. The summer business went about and new faces were brought, most notably Alan Browne from Preston, and the loan signings of Chris Mepham, Wilson Isidor, and Salis Abdul Samed. But perhaps the best business the club conducted over the summer was tying down three key players to new contracts, those being Dan Ballard, Jobe Bellingham, and perhaps most notably, 17 year old wonderkid Chris Rigg, who was handed the short number 11 to go alongside his new deal.
Sunderland go into this game off the back of one of their best ever starts to a league season, winning six and losing two of their opening eight games and currently find themselves top of the Championship. They have a clear and direct style under Regis Le Bris that was missing last season. They have looked a lot more comfortable off the ball, and rank 20th in the league for average possession per game, suggestion that this is the style of play that they are trying to play. At the back, the have been hard to break down, and perhaps this is helped by how well they defend from the front. Pressing the ball isn’t something that associated with Sunderland, however this season one of the main things that stand out about them is just how well they do that.
Four of those six wins have come at home. So far at home, Sunderland have beaten Sheffield Wednesday 4-0, Burnley 1-0, Middlesbrough 1-0, and Derby County 2-0. It has been more than impressive from the Black Cats, and for the first time in the clubs history they haven’t conceded a goal at home in their first four games. Away from home has been somewhat the same story. Sunderland started the season with a 2-0 away win at Cardiff and a 3-1 win followed in their next away game against Portsmouth. The two away games that followed have seen Sunderland lose 3-2 to Wayne Rooney’s Plymouth Argyle and 2-1 to Watford, though you could make that case that, even though Sunderland weren’t at their best in either of those games, they were unlucky to come away with a defeat in each. The loss to Plymouth came about from some poor defending for the first goal, a mistake from Dan Ballard which led to him giving away a penalty for the second, and once again poor defending for the third as Sunderland switched off in injury time allowing Argyle to win the game with minutes remaining. The Watford game was a similar story, poor defending allowed Watford to take the lead in the first half, and late on in the game Sunderland captain, Dan Neil, dove in with a needless tackle to give away a penalty.
Leeds, like Sunderland, are a club that you associate with the topflight of English football. It’s a club with a rich history that dominated domestically in the late 60s and early 70s, under club icon Don Revie, who had a spell during his playing days at Sunderland. Revie would leave the club in 1974 to take the England job, which would ultimately prove to be a disaster and be the beginning of the end of his career in football management. He was replaced by Brian Clough (who also had a spell as a player at Roker Park for Sunderland), which, just like Revie’s time at England, would end in disaster as he lasted just 44 days in the job before getting sacked. It would be a slippery slope thereafter for Leeds as they continued to finish in and around midtable before eventually being relegated to the Second Division in 1982.
The club would spend eight seasons there before eventually being promoted back to the First Division in 1990 under Howard Wilkinson. Two years later they would lift the First Division. Like Sunderland and the 1973 FA Cup, this would feel like the moment that Leeds would once again claim their place at the top of the food chain and be the best club in the country. However, the clubs would finish 17th the season after and would never reach the same heights again (though they would go on to play in the Champions League under David O’Leary in the 2000/2001 season). Wilkinson would be sacked by the club in 1996 and wouldn’t manage another club team until 2002 with nonother than Sunderland. Like the other two Leeds managers who had an affiliation with Sunderland however, this would end with his Sunderland side being relegated with a record low points tally at the time (which would then be beaten by Sunderland again three years later).
It isn’t the fact that Leeds never reached the same heights again though that is the clubs lowest point in recent history, far from it in fact. The club would be relegated from the Premier League in 2004 and face uncertainty about its future due to financial issues. Three years after their relegation to the Championship, one of England’s biggest clubs would hit their lowest ever point and finish bottom of the Championship meaning that that club would play int the third tier for the first ever time in its history. It wouldn’t be as simple as the fans would’ve hoped to get out of the division either and the club would suffer heartbreak in two separate playoff campaigns before eventually sealing promotion back to the Championship in 2010. The club would spend the next eight seasons finishing in various positions in the table and never quite managing to reach the playoffs. That would change in however in the 2018/2019 season. Leeds United announced that Marcelo Bielsa would be the clubs new manager and from that moment on, things changed. Leeds, though still in the second tier, became one of the most desirable teams to watch. Leeds would miss out on a playoff final place after defeat to Frank Lampard’s Derby County in their first season under Bielsa (a fixture that had created a rivalry between the two clubs earlier in the season after the spy gate scandal), but a year later, Leeds would win the Championship in a stylish and comfortable fashion, ending the season on 93 points. Leeds would then go on to finish in a respectable 9th place in the Premier League the following season, but a year later, the unthinkable would happen, Bielsa, the man who had brought back the good times to a club that hadn’t had much to shout about in the last twenty years, would be sacked in Febuary and replaced by Jesse Marsch. Leeds would end the season in 17th, just missing out on relegation by three points. They would not repeat that next season though and the club once again found themselves in the Championship. Daniel Farke would take over and Leeds would start the season well and after 38 games looked in pole position to finish at the very least in an automatic promotion place. Form would dip however and club would eventually finish in 3rd place, meaning they would have to go through the playoffs if they were to go up. They beat Norwich 4-0 over two legs in the semi final, but would then go on to lose 1-0 to Southampton in the final.
After losing in the playoff final to Southampton last season, the aim this season for Leeds would surely be to not have to be in a similar position again and to get back into the Premier League either by winning the league or finishing in second place and going up automatically. However, the summer transfer window didn’t promise much hope to the Leeds United fans, after losing Rutter to Brighton, and Summerville to West Ham. Some fresh faces have been brought into Elland Road though, but perhaps the best news from the summer window was the fact that Wilfried Gnonto committed his future to the club, signing a new four year deal.
Leeds started the season somewhat disappointing, as they were lucky to snatch a late equalizer at home to Portsmouth in a 3-3 draw. They would then go on to manage a 0-0 draw away at West Brom, before beating Sheffield Wednesday away from home 2-0, and then Hull City at home, also 2-0. They then lost 1-0 to Burnley at home, before beating Cardiff away from home in a 2-0, and making light work of Coventry at home in a 3-0 win. There last game saw them gain a respectable draw away at Norwich and leave them sitting 5th in the table.
This game, no doubt, is very much going to play a huge part in where both teams end up at the end of the season. It can’t not. It’s too big a fixture if we are to go on what the history of the sport tells us. There is also no doubt to believe that it should also be an interesting encounter if this seasons stats are anything to go on. Sunderland are ranked first for average goals scored per game, averaging two goals per game so far this season. Leeds aren’t too far behind them in fourth, averaging 1.6 goals per game. On the reverse side of that stat is the fact that both teams are in the top five ranked teams for least goals conceded, Sunderland averaging 0.8 per game and Leeds averaging 0.6. Both sides are also second for clean sheets, both joint on five. Where things might get interesting however is how clinical each side is. On average so far this season, Leeds have missed fifteen big chances, the most in highest in the division, whereas Sunderland have only missed eight, putting them in 15th place on that chart. Whatever happens at the Stadium of Light, is sure to play a huge part in both teams season and be a very small part of two clubs with a very rich history.