The last week or so has been nothing short of a disaster Arsenal.
Mikel Arteta The team lost points first away to Brighton & Hove Albion in Premier LeagueThen they lost their first leg League Cup A 2-0 semi-final against Newcastle United, and then, to wrap things up, they were eliminated from the tournament FA Cup By Manchester United, although there is a man advantage.
There have been poor performances from across the entire squad in the last few games, but it's hard to ignore the club captain's terrible performances, especially last night and during the week. Martin Odegaard and Kai Havertz.
The Norwegian has looked a shadow of himself in recent weeks and missed a penalty in normal time against United, while the former Chelsea player missed a mountain of chances in both cup defeats, so recent reports link the club with a player who could replace the latter. The revival of the former should not come as a huge shock.
Arsenal continues their search for the striker
According to A A recent report from Miguel Delaney, chief football writer at The Independent, wants to sign RB Leipzig's Benjamin Shishko.
The report did not mention the price, but a story from last month claimed the German club would demand at least 70 million euros for their star strikerWhich amounts to about 59 million pounds sterling.
However, while that is not a high price for a promising striker in the modern game, Delaney also claims the board would “prefer to spend in the summer”.
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However, with the club's season hanging by the smallest of threads, they may have to take a leap and spend more than they want to this month, as Shishko would not only be an upgrade for Havertz, but could also revive Odegaard.
How can Shishko make Arsenal better?
So, if Arsenal raise the necessary funds and bring Cescu to the Emirates Stadium this month, he will be in direct competition with Havertz for a starting place, and judging by their performances this year, we believe it is a competition. He will win.
For example, in 24 games this seasonwith a total of only 1683 minutes, the Slovenian “monster” as it is called Written by analyst Ben MattinsonHe has scored 12 goals and provided three assists, meaning he is currently averaging a goal contribution every 1.6 games, or every 112.2 minutes.
While the Gunners' No. 29 player scored and assisted the most goals this season, He did it in 27 gamesA total of 2232 minutes, which means sharing a goal every 1.8 matches, or a goal every 148.8 minutes, which is a big difference.
In fact, it is this difference that may help him get Odegaard's best back, because despite being far from his best in yesterday's match, the Norwegian still created… Two big opportunities to his teammates, indicating that with a more effective striker in front of him, he will start providing assists for the team.
We can see that the Leipzig player is a much better player By Understat's basic numbersAccording to them, he has scored seven league goals this season from an expected goals figure of just 4.61 and was even more effective last season when he scored 14 league goals from an expected goals figure of 8.60.
|
Shishkovs Havertz |
||
|---|---|---|
|
2023/24 |
||
|
League matches |
31 |
37 |
|
Expected goals |
8.60 |
13.47 |
|
Actual goals |
14 |
13 |
|
2024/25 |
||
|
League matches |
16 |
17 |
|
Expected goals |
4.61 |
9.46 |
|
Actual goals |
7 |
7 |
|
All stats via Understat |
||
On the other hand, the former Chelsea player scored the most goals in the league this season, but from one goal The number of expected goals is 9.46 andAlthough he was less profligate last season, he still performed poorly, scoring 13 goals out of an expected number of 13.47.
Ultimately, Havertz has been a useful player for Arsenal over the past year and a half, but it is undeniable that he is a poor finisher, and as the numbers suggest, the opposite is true for Shishko.
So, if Arteta and company want to improve their attack and help get more from their key creator in Odegaard, signing the Leipzig star this month would be a great start.
