Arsenal plotting move for £28m “serial winner” who’s similar to Saka

Arsenal’s title hopes suffered one more setback on Saturday night, held to a 1-1 draw by Brighton & Hove Albion.

Mikel Arteta’s workforce began a Premier League sport with none of Bukayo Saka, Martin Ødegaard or Kai Havertz, three of final season’s 4 highest scorers, for the primary time for the reason that German joined the membership, and one may inform, with the Gunners missing attacking leading edge all through.

Final season, Arsenal scored 91 targets within the Premier League, their most in a single league marketing campaign for the reason that title-winning marketing campaign of 1952/53, whereas they grew to become the primary workforce in English top-flight historical past to attain 5+ instances in six separate away league video games in a calendar yr throughout 2024, surpassing the earlier file held by Sunderland in 1892 and Manchester Metropolis in 1937 of 5.

Nonetheless, the Gunners have scored both zero or one purpose in 9 of their 20 league matches to date this season, for context, run-away league leaders Liverpool have performed so simply twice, underlining that attacking reinforcements are required in January, particularly contemplating their star man Saka is about to be sidelined for “greater than two months”.

Arsenal chasing Bundesliga winger

With Saka out for a while and Ethan Nwaneri – who discovered the web in opposition to Brighton final Saturday – set to spend time on the sidelines with a muscular drawback – it requires recruits this winter.

Certainly, in accordance with a report by Connor Humm for Soccer Insider, Arsenal have set their sights on Bayern Munich winger Kingsley Coman.

Valued at £28m by Soccer Transfers, the French winger is at present underneath contract in Munich till June 2027.

How Kingsley Coman compares to Bukayo Saka

Labelled as a “serial winner” by European soccer knowledgeable Zach Lowy on Twitter, with the winger profitable the league title in the course of the first 11 seasons of his senior profession, two with Paris Saint-Germain, one with Juventus and eight at Bayern Munich, this might be a transfer that lastly helps Arsenal recover from the road themselves.

No participant has received the title in 4 of Europe’s “large 5” leagues, a reality Gooners will hope modifications ought to Coman make the change to North London this month.

Any wide-player Arsenal are in a position to signal within the January window might be tasked with replicating what Saka produces, which definitely won’t be straightforward for anybody, however how do Coman and Saka evaluate?

Nicely, the England worldwide blows him out of the water for purpose involvements however there are some attributes the place they’re alike, with FBRef’s ‘comparable gamers’ characteristic suggesting that Saka is likely one of the most comparable gamers in Europe’s prime 5 leagues to the Bayern ahead.

Since August 2022, Saka has performed twice the quantity of minutes Coman has, with the Englishman having gathered extra targets and assists, in addition to a frighteningly spectacular targets – xG determine of +9.2.

Nonetheless, nobody Arsenal will be capable of get their arms on in January might be nearly as good as Saka, however Coman’s numbers do counsel he might be a greater than helpful version.

The Frenchman has been profitable with virtually half of his tried take-ons throughout this huge pattern dimension, one thing Gabriel Martinelli has been extensively criticised for not doing anymore, so Coman’s high-quality dribbling potential – which truly sees him register extra progressive carries per 90 than Saka – may add an additional dimension to the Gunners’ assault.

He has additionally scored a powerful variety of targets, bagging 4 this season in simply 885 minutes on the sector for Bayern, so whereas Coman is unlikely to be Arteta’s dream, long-term answer, he might be a much-needed version this month.