Category Archives: Arsenal

Who is the best Brazilian attacker in the Premier League?

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Hope everyone is having a cracking Saturday so far.

So Gabriel Jesus, Richarlison and Raphinha. Three 25-year-old Brazilian attackers all making a big move this summer.

We have secured Jesus, Richarlison looks off to Tottenham and Raphinha is Chelsea bound. Rumoured transfer fees range from £45m – £65m.

So who is getting the better player?

All stats per 90 minutes

Now it is easy to compare Richarlison and Gabriel Jesus as both played a similar role at their respective clubs last year.

Both spent plenty of time playing down the middle but have also performed out wide for club and country.

Raphinha is a little different as he plays exclusively out wide.

All 3 men average the same amount of goals per 90 minutes – Raphinha leads the way in total goals (11) but has played the most minutes (2922) – and over 1000 minutes more than Jesus/

Raphinha’s goal return from out wide is impressive compared to the two others who have played most of the season through the middle.

However once you take penalties out of the equation, Gabriel Jesus becomes the leader.

Excluding penalties, all 3 men scored 7 goals last season – 4 of Raphinha’s 11 goals came from the spot and 3 of Richarlison’s 10.

Taking into account Harry Kane takes penalties for Tottenham, Richarlison’s goal scoring impact at Spurs will not be as great as it was at Everton.

Arsenal are another story however as our three preferred penalty takers – Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Alex Lacazette and Nicholas Pepe – have left the club (or are leaving).

Bukayo Saka took up the mantle towards the end of the season but our regular taker spot is certainly up for grabs.

I would be surprised if Jesus becomes our regular taker as he has missed 3 out of 6 penalties taken in the Premier League – but with 8 penalties awarded to us last season in the league there might be an opportunity to further boost that goal tally.

Whilst is is perhaps unfair to throw Raphinha in with Jesus and Richarlison when it comes to scoring goals, we can legitimately compare his other statistics.

When it comes to assists, Raphinha comes out surprisingly poorly with just 3 assists last season.

Considering he was Leeds United’s corner taker last season, this is very poor – although you also have to take into account Leeds were the lowest goal scorers of themselves, Everton and Manchester City. Man City scored over twice as many goals.

What is becoming clear is that in Gabriel Jesus, Arsenal are getting a striker that scores and creates, and one that is clearly superior to Richarlison in both departments.

As we go further down the statistics, Jesus is also the best passer of the 3 – attempting the most per 90 minutes.

Richarlison comes off fairly poor in this area with just 18 passes a game.

That might suit Tottenham who tend to play long ball football, but Arsenal need a striker that can drop into the 10 and get involved in the build up.

Jesus is also clear when it comes to pass completion.

Arsenal’s new striker has an 84.84% pass accuracy. Both Richarlison and Raphinha are below 70%. Not a single outfield player for Arsenal had a pass accuracy below 70% last season.

Raphinha and Richarlison are well known for their take-ons (a posh word for dribbling). But Jesus leads this category as well.

He completes the most per game, and also has the highest take-on success.

So Jesus is the best goal scorer, most creative, best passer and best dribbler. He is also the cheapest option.

Now there is another Brazilian attacker in the Premier League who is a little bit younger than his compatriots – Gabriel Martinelli.

If we remove Jesus from the comparison matrix and add Martinelli, how do things look?

Richarlison, Raphinha and Martinelli are all equal when it comes to non-penalty goals – the younger man slightly behind when it comes to all goals.

Martinelli leads the way it comes to assists per 90, pass accuracy, take-ons completed and take-on success.

It makes you wonder why we were bidding for Raphinha when Martinelli is ahead of him on every important matrix of a wide forward.

So when it comes to Brazilian attackers in the Premier League, we have signed the best of the best. And we also have the second best.

Marching on with Edu’s Army.

Keenos

Raphinha has not “rejected Arsenal”

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In the next few days we will see headlines such as “Raphinha has rejected Arsenal for Chelsea” and other variations.

It will be spread on Twitter by Chelsea (and oddly Tottenham) fans in an attempt to show that the Brazilian picked them over us. And that he has snubbed us.

This is not the truth.

Raphinha has not rejected Arsenal. We just did not have a bid accepted by Leeds United.

It is clear to any outside observer that Raphinha wanted a move to Barcelona. Reports emerged earlier this year that Deco – his agent – had already agreed personal terms with his former club.

The problem was Barcelona never agreed terms with Leeds United – unable to pay the £65million the Yorkshire side were demanding.

That opened the door to Arsenal who began negotiations with Leeds United and Raphinha’s representatives.

With the Barcelona deal seemingly dead, it is clear and obvious that Raphinha was interested in joining Mikel Arteta and Edu’s Portuguese/Brazilian revolution.

But like with Barcelona, Arsenal would not match the £65million Leeds wanted.

At no point did Raphinha reject either Arsenal or Barcelona. It was Leeds that rejected both.

And then we have Chelsea who swept in and offered the asking price (reportedly) and look set to complete the deal.

If that Chelsea deal goes through, it will not be Raphinha choosing Chelsea ahead of Barcelona or Arsenal. It will actually be the opposite.

The argument could easily be made that it was Arsenal and Barcelona who rejected Raphinha – they decided he was not worth the £65million Leeds wanted so turned down the deal.

Throughout, Raphinha has not turned down or rejected anyone. Just ignore the noise.

In other news, I see Tottenham fans celebrating that they have “the best striker in Brazil, best striker in Asian, best striker in Europe”. They also talk about Antonio Conte being “the best manager in the world.

I wonder what their excuse will be when they fail to win a trophy for the 15th season in a row.

Pre-season has started and it feels a bit “Rentord Rejects” at London Colney.

The majority of those pictured so far are those that went out on loan last season or got very little game time. Hopefully some of them will be shifted soon.

Enjoy your Friday.

Keenos

As the Raphinha door shuts, an Nkunku one opens

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So we have lost out on Raphinha. I am not concerned one bit.

Edu and his team will have long lists of transfer targets on a white board somewhere at London Colney.

They will be in a locked room that only he, Mikel Arteta and a selected few other senior members of staff can access.

Every club has one. The transfer room. It is where the magic of happens.

Whilst Raphinha was probably top of the list, he will certainly not be the only name on the list.

In-fact, we do not know that he was top of the list. That might have been Serge Gnabry. Or Raheem Sterling. Or another winger that we established early on would be unobtainable.

So we move on from Raphinha. Just like we moved on from Dusan Vlahovic in January.

Now back in January we made the decision not to buy another striker once Vlahovic went to Juventus.

There would have been other options – Alexander Isak and Dominic Calvert-Lewin were being touted around at the time. But the club decided to bide its time.

It is clear now that the option after Vlahovic was Gabriel Jesus; but he was not available until this summer.

Had we signed Isak or Calvert-Lewin in January, their move might have impact Jesus joining.

If the Jesus deal was not “nailed on” for this summer, we might have gone for another name in January.

On a side note, I do wonder whether we were actually considering signing Vlahovic and Jesus at one point?

Vlahovic would have been first choice striker, Jesus his cover whilst also being a regular option out wide. That scenario would have meant we would not have been in for Raphinha (or any other winger) as Jesus would have been that option. It also would have meant Eddie would not have signed a new contract.

Anyway, I digress.

So with Raphinha now not an option (although at the time of writing the deal with Chelsea has not been confirmed so it might still collapse), Edu will go to the next name on the list.

The situation now reminds me of the summer we signed Nicolas Pepe.

Pepe was clearly our primary target that summer.

Lille wanted a lot of money for him. Probably too much money.

We begun to be linked with other players including PSG’s Christopher Nkunku.

Nkunku was a couple of years younger than Pepe and no-where near as established. Although he clearly had the raw materials to become a top player.

In the end we opted to go for the “ready” player in Pepe and paid the £72million for him.

Meanwhile Nkunku went to RB Leipzig for just £10million.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing in football.

Pepe has struggled in his 3 years at Arsenal. The talent is clearly their but something is lacking mentality.

Meanwhile Nkunku has grown into a terrific football over in Germany – scoring 30 goals in 54 games last season.

Now 24 (the same age Pepe was when he signed), he is being linked away in a big money move. One club linked is Arsenal.

Pepe was signed during the Raúl Sanllehí era – a period of time where we bought a lot of “ready made” senior pros.

The likes of Pepe, David Luiz, Pablo Mari and Cedric Soares – with Willian joining the day before he left the club.

Clearly Sanllehi was looking at players for the hear and now and not too concerned with what the future may bring.

Pepe v Nkunku was “ready now but expensive” against “could be a star of the future and cheap”.

Under the current regime with Edu at the BBQ , we probably would have gone for Nkunku ahead of Pepe.

Edu has shown a couple of times that when a deal gets a bit too expensive, a bit too hot, he is willing to walk away from it. I think he would have walked away from Pepe.

Likewise his recruitment has focused on younger talent.

Now whilst Pepe at 24 would still have been in the target range of Edu, £72million would not have been. We probably would have ended up with Nkunku.

So back to Raphinha.

The price on Raphinha got very big – £65million is just not worth it.

So we now look at who is next on the list? And those players will probably be exciting younger talents.

It could reopen the door for someone like Cody Gakpo – the 23-year-old Feyenoord winger has been on our radar for a while and recently been touted as a replacement for Raphinha at Leeds. Or you have Moussa Diaby currently playing out in Germany. Just 22.

We might also look the other way.

Raphinha at £40million would have been a good deal. But at £65million are there better players on the market?

I am thinking Joao Felix.

Or might the world turn a full circle and we end up signing a certain Christopher Alan Nkunku – spending £50m+ on the man who was our full back option back in 2019?

In football transfers, as one door shuts another opens.

In 1999 we lost the best young player in the world to Real Madrid – Nicolas Anelka. To replace him we signed a gangly winger from Juventus. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Keenos