Heading into the January transfer window, there is one thing abundantly clear over any other problem in the Premier League; Arsenal need to sign players. They also need to sign forward players.
Heading into their game with Aston Villa, Mikel Arteta had probably one of the worst benches in the league at his disposal and it said it all that Raheem Sterling was the only option he called upon and even then, it wasn’t until the final ten minutes of the game.
Kieran Tierney, Oleksandr Zinchenko, Jakub Kiwior and Jorginho were all options but with the Gunners requiring a goal, they only had Sterling with first-team experience to call on. The other options were 19-year-old Ismeal Kabia and 22-year-old Nathan Butler-Oyadeji.
So, that probably explains links to players like Alexander Isak and Benjamin Sesko, don’t you think?
No new defenders then, right? Well, think again. Another full-back could be on their way to the Emirates Stadium.
Arsenal looking at Bayern Munich star
Over the last few years, Arteta has made a strong effort to bolster the club’s defensive line and to his credit, he’s done an admirable job in that department.
No team conceded fewer goals (29) than the Gunners in last season’s Premier League. The trouble is, a lot of them are injury-prone.
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We still haven’t seen the best of Riccaro Calafiori who just can’t seem to stay fit, while Takehiro Tomiyasu and Ben White are both sidelined with injury at the moment.
That being said, it’s likely that the aforementioned Tierney and Zinchenko will depart in the coming months. The Scot’s contract is due to expire while the latter has been linked with Borussia Dortmund in recent days. Perhaps recruits will be needed?
Well, one of them could be Bayern Munich sensation Alphonso Davies. That’s according to reports in Spain who suggest that Arsenal and Liverpool are looking to convince the Canadian to sign for them over Real Madrid.
Davies is edging towards a new deal with Bayern with his current terms set to expire in the summer when he would become a free agent if he doesn’t put pen to paper.
Arsenal are on red alert, therefore, and alongside Arne Slot’s side, have ‘intensified their contacts with the player’s agents’ in a bid to bring him to English football.
Why Davies would be a great signing for Arsenal
Yes, Arsenal need attacking players, but in Davies, they could sign a makeshift forward capable of boosting productivity at both ends of the pitch.
A natural winner, having won several Bundesliga titles with Bayern, he’s an experienced player who could hit the ground running immediately.
Primarily a left-back, he would present Arteta with a different option to what he already has at his disposal.
While Calafiori is more of a brutish defender, Myles Lewis-Skelly has been performing the inverted role admirably in recent weeks, with data analyst Ben Mattinson already suggesting the 18-year-old is “the best player in the league at drawing fouls”. Fine praise indeed.
However, they miss that swashbuckling type of left-back, someone who’s going to bomb forward and support the attack. That’s where Davies could come in.
Clocked as the joint seventh-fastest player in Bundesliga history, he’s evidently an “electric” player in the words of Mattinson and could provide Gabriel Martinelli and Leandro Trossard with the type of flank support that we’ve seen Ben White give Bukayo Saka down the right throughout the years.
As we can see below, Davies is a totally different profile to someone like Lewis-Skelly and Calafiori but he’d offer so much with regard to ball-carrying and extra attacking threat.
Shots
1.13
0
0.76
Key passes
1.59
0.64
0.51
Progressive passes
7.02
4.04
4.43
Pass completion %
90.4%
92.2%
84.4%
Shot-creating actions
3.64
1.06
1.01
Successful take-ons
1.79
0.85
1.01
Progressive carries
4.57
1.91
1.52
Crosses into box
1.26
0.21
0.38
What’s interesting to note, is that Davies isn’t just a left-back. Indeed, he has played as a left winger on 45 occasions in his club career and 16 times from the right wing.
For his country, Canada, the 24-year-old regularly features in a more prominent attacking berth, notably starting two of his nation’s three 2022 World Cup games as a left winger. At the 2017 Gold Cup, he began two of the four matches on the right.
There are exciting parallels with a certain Saka here. Of course, the England international started as a left-back in senior football before migrating further forward and eventually playing off the right. Saka has the same sort of ball-carrying ability as Davies too, leading us to believe the Canadian could play in a more offensive role on a regular basis for Arsenal.
He is still young enough to be moulded into something else and there is plenty of evidence to suggest a player boasting so much pace and trickery could thrive in the final third. Saka stands as evidence, as does Wales legend Gareth Bale.
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