Arsenal are on their way to blowing this title now but the reality is the real problem was the transfer business of last summer
What a sorry indictment of Arsenal’s recruitment that the £64million striker bought last summer was not deemed good enough to start the biggest game of the season.
Instead, Kai Havertz started ahead of Viktor Gyokeres and, sadly, the German forward’s familiar failings against Manchester City reminded us why Arsenal bought a new striker.
Havertz, who did at least get on the score sheet in the first half, missed a big chance when he should have scored but was denied by City keeper Gianluigi Donnarumma.
Then, right at the end, Havertz headed over a chance which could be the biggest miss of the season because it could end up costing Arsenal the title.
But the fact is Arsenal are better when Havertz plays. Way better. But he misses chances. And that is why Arsenal paid so much money to sign Gyokeres.
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Effectively, they want a combination of the two. Havertz’s technique, skill and all round play. Gyokeres’ finishing. It was 97 goals in 102 appearances for Sporting Lisbon.
Unfortunately, he needs way too much space and time – which he had in the Portuguese league – than he will ever get in the Premier League.
And Gyokeres would never have taken that 95th minute headed chance because he is hopeless in the air.
Arsenal have ended up with two players who do not really solve the main issue: goals. It is why City will outscore Arsenal in the run-in and it is what will cost Arsenal the title.
If Arsenal had signed a half decent striker last summer they would be 10 points clear by now.
Yet they chose to ignore the stats and warnings. The deal has to fall on Arsenal’s sporting director Andrea Berta who came in last spring, almost immediately changed Arsenal’s sights from Benjamin Sesko to Gyokeres. They wanted the here and now.
Sesko will probably end up maturing into a better striker. But what about Hugo Ekitike? Or Joao Pedro? Better strikers than Gyokeres will ever be.
Arsenal’s recruitment last summer really does leave a lot to be desired. Huge money on the likes of Gyokeres, Noni Madueke, Kepa Arrizabalaga, Eberechi Eze, Cristhian Mosquera and Christian Norgaard.
Let’s not forget Martin Zubimendi but the reality was that the previous recruitment team had agreed that deal before Berta arrived. Piero Hincapie is a good signing but he is on loan.
Eze is a good player and is improving all the time. But anyone could see Arsenal needed a left winger last season. So what did they do? Sign a right winger in Madueke.
Honestly, this fawning over Berta is just ridiculous. He did some poor, badly thought out deals. Berta has a habit of wearing trousers which look an inch or two short. Sadly a few of his transfers have been ill fitting, too.
And who is there to challenge on where the money went? There seems to be a power vacuum at the top because Mikel Arteta clearly championed Berta. So who will challenge Arteta? Not Berta.
Arsenal are on their way to blowing this title now but the reality is the real problem was the transfer business of last summer. It did not do enough to improve the starting XI.
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