Arsenal deals so far this summer, goal scoring percentages, and breaking news

 

• Second club banned from transfer deals
• Arsenal face a psychological battle at the start of the season

By Tony Attwood

In the list below we can see the players who have been transferred to selected Premier League clubs this summer,   It does not include players whose transfers are noted in the media as being “all but done” quite simply because history tells us that the all-but-dones quite often are never done, and the “all-but-done” statement is usually a bit of PR from a club trying to placate fans or journos.

Players who have moved on only include those who have left for a fee, and not those who have left on a free or as a loan has ended.

 

Club	Players in	Cost	Players out	Income
Arsenal	Arrizabalaga	£5m	Tavares, Marquinhos + 6 others	£9m
Aston Villa	Razmond, Ozcan	Undisclosed	Keysler Haden +5	£3.5m
Chelsea	5 fee paid and and two loan ended	£149.1m	Arrizabalaga + 4	£5m
Liverpool	Wirtz,, Kerkez, Frimpong, Pesci Mamardashvili +1	£212m	Quansah,  Kelleher, Alexander-Arnold, Phillips + 2	£52.5m
Manc City	Reijnders, Aït-Nouri, Cherki +1	£61.5m	Couto, Wroght,  +4	£27.6m
Manchester Utd	Cunah + 2	£62.5m	Lindelöf, Evans, Erikson	£0
Newcastle	Cordero	0	Kelly + 1	£20m
Totteham Ho	Tel, Danso, Vuskovic	£63m	Højbjerg +6	£17m

 

As we can see from this, clubs this summer are moving at very different speeds and seem to be playing very different games.  But when it comes to adding all these together so for the number of players moving in or out for each club is not quite so varied as we might first assume.  Newcastle and to a lesser degree Manchester U) are the odd ones out, the rest of the clubs are in the same sort of area.

• Arsenal: one in, eight out – total 9 players
• Aston Villa: two in seven out – total 9 players
• Chelsea seven in, five out – total 12 players
• Liverpool six in, seven out – total 13 players
• Manchester  City, four in, six out – total 10 players
• Manchester United three in, three out – total 6 players
• Newcastle 1 in, two out, – total 3 players
• Tottenham three in, seven out – total 10 players.

To try and make a bit more sense out of what is happening we might compare this with what happened at Arsenal last summer.   In fact Arsenal signed seven players in all last summer

Indeed, what actually happened can be seen through the players who scored 10+ goals in recent seasons

2024/25: Havertz 15 goals in 30 games (50%), Saka 12 in 30 games (40%), Martinelli 10 in 40 games (25%) and Trossard 10 in 37 games (27%)

2023/24: Saka 20 goals in 46 games (43%), Trossard 17 goals in 25 games (69%), Havertz 14 goals in 43 games (31%), Odegaard 11 goals in 45 games (24%), Martinelli 8 goals in 31 games (26%)

If we look at this data we can see that Havertz scoring rate went up, Saka’s and Martinelli’s were pretty much the same, but Trossard’s rate went down.

These figures don’t explain everything but the fact that players’ scoring rates generally stayed pretty much the same in terms of goals per games, shows us yet again, that the explanation for Arsenal’s decline in league goals from 91 (two seasons ago) to 69 (last season) was not because players lost their ability to score but, as we have suggested all along, because they were not playing so many games because of the multiple injuries.  

And as we have also suggested (but here we are on less solid statistical ground), the reason for the injuries was that clubs playing Arsenal (particularly those further down the league) were increasingly using illegal tactics as a way of breaking up Arsenal’s forward movements.

All these figures suggest that Arsenal players are going to continue to be injured, and we need more back-up players who can score goals, so they can take over when our first-choice players are cut to pieces in front of the eyes of referees who seem to be reluctant to take much notice.

As a final footnote, while writing this piece the news has come in that Thomas Partey has been charged with multiple rapes.   Obviously we don’t comment on legal situations of this nature, but I mention it since I happened to be writing the above piece as the news came in.