Arsenal have spent around £135m this summer to improve their squad. As good as this sounds, it is rather pathetic how the Gunners have spent the funds injected by their owners.
Mikel Arteta, Manager of Arsenal gestures during the Premier League match between Arsenal and Chelsea at Emirates Stadium on August 22, 2021 in London, England. (Photo by Shaun Botterill/Getty Images
The KSE Enterprise, Arsenal Owners have been under criticism for years for not investing much in the club as the club is gradually losing its big team tag.
After their eighth place finishes in consecutive seasons in the Premier League, fans called for their American owners to sanction the sale of the club, to another owner, and of course Daniel Ek became a famous name for his interest in taking over the club.
However, Stan Kroenke was adamant about selling the club and to appease the club faithfuls, he decided to inject the cash so the club can bring in new players and become more competitive in competitions.
The Gunners priority in the market is to buy a backup for left-back Kieran Tierney, defensive Midfielder, a central Midfielder, a new Goalkeeper and maybe a different type of striker, given the failure of their strikers last season.
The first signing of the summer is Nuno Tavares. Young, good prospect and promising future. The 21 year old was brought in for around £8m from Benfica. It is a good deal considering he will be a backup to Tierney.
Arsenal surely needs a traditional defensive Midfielder given the likes of Thomas Partey and Granit Xhaka are makeshift. Even the later was close to leaving the Emirates this summer, but was later retained, and given a new long term contract.
Arsenal did however bring in Sambi Lokonga, who will not be expected to start ahead of either Partey or Xhaka. How will you explain that as an improvement in a position when you crave for more ?
Arsenal are becoming less ambitious in the course of their rebuild. Getting young players that can not compete at the moment instead of getting young ones that are ready-made. Funding is not the issue now as the amount they have spent in the current summer is a lot when well spent.
Earlier in the summer, the Gunners were linked with players like Yves Bissouma and Manuel Locatelli but the later was more determined to join Juventus, and the Arteta maybe did not do enough to get Bissouma from Brighton. They brought Lokonga from Anderlecht to compete in an intense league.
Ben White also arrived from Brighton in a £50m deal, he comes into a team with the third best defensive record in the league last season, and as a replacement for Rob Holding, who arguably was the best player in the position for the Gunners last season. How is that good business when that same amount or less could get Yves Bissouma instead ?
Martin Ødegaard spent the second half of last season with the club, although fans are divided on whether the Norwegian is the right player to improve the club after managing just three goal involvement in 14 league appearances. He returned to Arsenal in a permanent deal.
His move will means he affects the position of Arsenal’s best player in the last eight months, Emile Smith Rowe, notwithstanding it will be very close to tell who is better between the two in that position.
Arsenal have been long term admirer of Houssem Aouar and the Frenchman is available for less than £30m this summer. He can play in central of the midfield, as an attacking Midfielder and on the flanks which would have given Arsenal different dimensions to their play.
However, it appears that will never be as the fee to apparently lure him to the Emirates has been spent on a player, who is only interested in joining, because he is not needed over there in Madrid.
Despite having to improve the goalkeeper area, Aaron Ramsdale was signed in a deal that could rise to £30m, that much for a Goalkeeper good enough to serve as backup to the underwhelming Bernd Leno. Another disastrous decision from the manager.
Apart from transfer decisions, Arsenal look like a team without identity. Their play has no direction and players are unable to express themselves because the team does not yield together, and they spent most part of games chasing their opponents.
The team structure when opposition have the ball is also off it. They lose organization, leaving spaces to be explored and they look totally lost when defending.
It will be interesting to learn that Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang dip in form also started in Arteta’s first full season. Before thinking of bringing in a new striker, what if the Gabonnese is not the problem after all ?
After opening days loss at Brentford, the woes continue for the Gunners, losing 2-0 to Chelsea at the Emirates on Sunday. They have now loss more home games in Mikel Arteta’s 20 months than they did in six years under Arsène Wenger.
They have also lost the opening games two games in the league for only the third time in the Premier league era, and they play defending champions, Manchester City in the next league game.
It will be down to luck for the Gunners to avoid their worst ever start to a premier league season, given form and recent record against the Citizens.
Arsenal return to action on Wednesday evening at the Hawthorns to play West Bromwich Albion in the round two of the EFL Cup and they will be hopeful for a first win of the season, before the face Manchester City in the league.
Afolabi Kehinde Hassan
