Transfers this summer: how Arsenal compare with other PL teams

 

• How the media are repeating last year’s transfer rumours as this year’s news
• Gyökeres goal tally may be exaggerated by the media but he looks a good buy

By Tony Attwood

As the media gets hyped up about Arsenal, it is interesting to reflect on how the club has developed over Arteta’s years in power.  So although this piece is primarily about the squad I thought it worth also taking a look at which players who don’t actually count as being in the squad because of their age, will be in the squad next season. 

 As far as I can tell they are Myles Lewis-Skelly and Ethan Nwaneri, obviously from the past season, and then possibly Max Dowman of whom you may not have heard as yet.  He’s an attacking midfielder and in the under-18s league, he played 22 games, scored 17 and had 10 assists.  He also scored three in three, in the youth cup last season.

Now of course, this is not to say that this young player will suddenlyly burst into the first team, but it is a further reflection on just how good the Arsenal youth set up is, at finding and bringing through such players.

What helps of course, is that parents generally tend not to believe the media hype about Arsenal’s failures and their dependence on buying in players.  Rather those who look the club tend to see progression.   Here’s where the club finished in the league each full campaign under Mikel Arteta.

 

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts
2	Arsenal 2024.5	38	20	14	4	69	34	35	74
2	Arsenal 2023/24	38	28	5	5	91	29	62	89
2	Arsenal 2022/23	38	26	6	6	88	43	45	84
5	Arsenal 2021/22	38	22	3	13	61	48	13	69
8	Arsenal 2020/21	38	18	7	13	55	39	16	61

 

Of course, these are difficult times for Arsenal’s manager, as the old adage that “fourth is not a trophy” that was thrown at Wenger, is now transmuted in “Second is not a trophy” aimed at Arteta.

The most obvious explanation for not winning the title last season comes both in the days lost through injuries and the combination of players injured.  Of the teams competing for top positions Arsenal certainly suffered the most days lost with 297 days – including injury after injury to forward players.  Despite this Arsenal were still the third highest scorers in the league, which gives a lot of hope for the season to come.

Injuries are also measured by some commentators (in this case Sky Sports), with Tottenham having had the most injuries resulting in a player missing at least one game this season – they had 13 separate cases.  By this measure, Arsenal were sixth in the injury league having had 10 such cases.  But of course none of these figures take account of the impact of injuries in the same position (in Arsenal’s case, goal scoring forwards).

Moving on from injuries and looking at the tables above we can see that the number of defeats has gone down and down across the years, while the number of goals scored went up and up until this past season, when, as we have noticed, all the goal scorers missed games through injury

Even so, the goal difference last season was still twice as good as in 2020/21 and 2021/22.   The key lesson to be learned must be that clubs will now try and kick Arsenal to bits, and referees will not do much about it, so a bigger supply of back-up players in all positions is needed.

Arsenal had 22 Premier League squad players last season, the same number as Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester United, and one more than Manchester City.  Among the top clubs, only Newcastle United had the full complement of 25.  Tottenham Hots had 23.  So there clearly is space to buy more players, but as all the clubs have found, a top player who can really deliver in the Premier League doesn’t want to come and just be a back-up for the whole season.

Although we have regularly kept track of the transfer rumours that swirl around Arsenal each summer, noting as ever that at most only three per cent of those tales turn into real transfers, we have now found something else rather odd – a fair number of the players tipped to be coming to Arsenal this season were also tipped to come to Arsenal last season.   We are, in short, being fed the same story twice.

Anyway, back to today, and here are the transfer details as of 7 July.  

Arsenal: 2nd in the League, two transfers in

• Martín Zubimendi £56m 
• Kepa Arrizabalaga £5m