There is no sugarcoating it: the last month or so has been an unmitigated disaster for Arsenal.
Mikel Arteta’s side managed to cope with their early run of tough fixtures relatively well this season, beating Tottenham Hotspur and Aston Villa away while picking up a point on the road to Manchester City.
However, in the last month, the Gunners lost to Bournemouth and Newcastle United and drew against Liverpool and Chelsea, leaving them in fourth place and nine points behind the Reds on top of the Premier League.
While their defence has been lacklustre, the North Londoners’ attack has been more worrying, making it all the more painful that a former player sold by Arteta in the summer has been as creative as Mohamed Salah and Cole Palmer in the league.
Arsenal's lack of creativity
So, before we get to the player in question, let’s examine Arsenal’s most creative players this season, starting with perhaps the one player who’s stood out for the right reasons: Bukayo Saka.
The Hale End icon has been doing his best to drag the Gunners through their current slump in form, and it shows in his statistics, as according to FBref, he’s currently leading the way for goal-creating actions in the Premier League, coming in with 12, or 1.32 per 90.
Unfortunately, the Englishman is the only player from Arteta’s squad to register such a significant number of goal-creating actions, as the next best is Thomas Partey, with five, or 0.46 per 90, and then after him is Gabriel Martinelli, with just two, or 0.26 per 90.
Now, this is obviously a dreadfully poor situation for the title hopefuls to find themselves in, but a couple of extenuating circumstances have undoubtedly played their part.
The first is that either through their own stupidity or harsh refereeing – take your pick – the North Londoners have found themselves down to ten men on multiple occasions this season, which will impact the quality of chances a side creates.
The second reason is that club captain and chief creator Martin Odegaard missed most of the campaign through injury, so now he’s back, we might start to see the side generate more opportunities in open play and from set pieces.
With that said, the bottom line is that Arsenal has not been good enough in attack this season, and to make things worse, one of their departures this summer has been in sensational form going forward.
The former Arsenal star lighting up the Premier League
Let’s get to the point: Emile Smith-Rowe is the former Arsenal star in scintillating form this season that Arteta may regret selling over the summer.
The Hale End graduate finally left North London over the summer after a couple of years in which he fell out of favour and joined West London outfit Fulham in a deal that could eventually see the Gunners earn around £34m.
Now, to make that much money on an academy player is undoubtedly great business, but based on his form for the Cottagers this season and the struggles of his former side, we can’t help but think that he’d be of real help to those at the Emirates.
Appearances
11
Minutes
805
Goals
3
Assists
2
Goal Involvements per Match
0.45
Minutes per Goal Involvement
161′
For example, in his 11 appearances in the Premier League this season, the creative “monster”, as dubbed by Troy Deeney, has scored three goals and provided two assists, equating to an average of a goal involvement once every 2.2 games.
However, while that’s undoubtedly an excellent return so far, the really impressive statistic is the number of goal-creating actions he’s produced as, according to FBref, he is currently joint-third best in the league alongside Palmer and Salah on seven.
Yet, there is more. When broken down by how many minutes those three have played in the league this year, it’s the former Gunner who comes out on top, with 0.79 goal-creating actions per 90 to the Chelsea ace’s 0.66 and the Egyptian’s 0.65.
Ultimately, selling Smith Rowe was the right thing for his development and career, as shown by his form this season.
Still, we aren’t sure Arteta would have been so willing to let the Croydon-born sensation leave had he foreseen his own team’s creative struggles coming.
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