Under Mikel Arteta, Arsenal have been utterly transformed.
The North Londoners were stuck in tenth place and looking downwards when he took control, and now they’re genuine contenders for the Premier League title.
However, for everything he’s got right, the Spaniard has made his fair share of mistakes tactically and in recruitment.
The likes of Fabio Vieira, Pablo Mari and Albert Sambi Lokonga are all players who have failed to live up to their billing, but arguably the worst signing made under Arteta was Willian, and now it looks like he’s found his new version of the Brazillian.
Willian's disastrous Arsenal career
Willian joined Arsenal in August 2020 on a free after his deal with Chelsea expired, but while he didn’t cost the Gunners a fee, he was on a hefty wage of around £138k-per-week, which in turn meant there was an expectation that he’d be a useful first team player.
That looked like it would be the case following his debut away to Fulham, as in just 76 minutes of action, the Brazilian winger managed to chalk up two assists in what was undoubtedly his best performance for Arteta.
Unfortunately, things quickly started to go downhill for the former Blues star, and across his next 17 league appearances, he’d provide just a single assist.
He eventually ended the campaign with a tally of one goal and seven assists in 37 appearances across all competitions, and for an experienced player on the money he was on, that simply wasn’t good enough.
Moreover, his actual performances were so poor that he’s now often cited as one of the club’s worst signings in recent history.
Appearances
25
9
2
1
Goals
1
0
0
0
Assists
5
2
0
0
Goal Involvements per Match
0.24
0.22
0.00
0.00
By the time the 20/21 season came to a close, it was crystal clear that the Ribeirão Pires-born ace was not of the level required to help move the club forward, and to his credit, he opted to rip up his contract instead of demanding a large payout, which reportedly surprised the board.
In all, while the 36-year-old has enjoyed a brilliant career, he was undoubtedly a disaster for Arsenal, and now it looks like Arteta has found his next Willian.
Arteta's new Willian
Despite remaining just about within touching distance of Liverpool in the Premier League and finishing third in the league stage of the Champions League, it would be fair to say that most of Arsenal’s attackers have underwhelmed this season.
Leandro Torssard and Gabriel Martinelli only have 11 goal involvements a piece, Gabriel Jesus only just started to perform prior to suffering his ACL injury, and while Kai Havertz has found the back of the net 15 times already, he’s still incredibly profligate, as demonstrated by Understat’s data suggesting that his nine league goals have come from an expected goal figure of 11.76.
However, none of these attackers could be fairly described as Arteta’s new Willian; that rather unfortunate tag belongs to one Raheem Sterling.
There are several reasons why this comparison fits, such as the move from Chelsea to Arsenal and the fact he’s a big-name player, but the most significant is that, like the Brazilian, the Englishman has been incredibly disappointing in North London.
In all, the Kingston-born attacker has made just 18 appearances for the Gunners, in which he’s scored a single goal and provided just two assists, and worse yet, two of those three goal involvements came in a League Cup tie against League One Bolton Wanderers.
Saka
24
9
13
Havertz
34
15
5
Martinelli
35
7
4
Trossard
36
5
6
Jesus
27
7
2
Nwaneri
23
7
0
Sterling
18
1
2
The former Manchester City star looks a shadow of the player who used to terrorise Premier League defences for fun, and while it sounds incredibly harsh, it’s hard to disagree with content creator Connor Humm’s assertion that his loan move has been an “absolute waste of time and money” for the club.
Ultimately, Arteta has worked wonders during his time as Arsenal boss, and for the most part, his signings have worked out one way or another, but Willian’s move was unquestionably a mistake, and it looks like the same will be said of Sterling’s come the summer.
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