Arsenal lost a "top talent" for £0, now he's similar to Isak & Havertz

This season has been defined by several things for Arsenal.

The first is the seemingly constant stream of injuries to key players and the suspension of others.

The second is their supposed lack of firepower up top and the criticism that has followed Kai Havertz for that very reason.

Finally, although they have quieted down somewhat, there have been almost constant links to Newcastle United star Alexander Isak over the last few months, as fans have been desperate for frontline reinforcements.

Unfortunately, no signings of any kind arrived last month, and we reckon the club might wish they still had a former player who has previously been compared to Isak and Havertz.

Why Arsenal would want to sign Isak

You’d have to be living under a rock not to notice the near-constant links between Arsenal and Isak this season, and while we can never fully know what’s going on behind closed doors – there is no smoke without fire.

With that said, why would the Gunners want to spend what would be an incredible sum of money on the Swede when they already have a striker in Havertz who, prior to his injury, racked up 15 goals and five assists this season?

Well, even though the German can put up decent enough numbers, the Newcastle star is the far superior centre-forward, and it’s not particularly close either.

For example, in just 30 appearances this season, totalling 2367 minutes, the Solna-born monster has scored 21 goals and provided five assists, which comes out to an average of a goal involvement every 1.15 games, or every 91.03 minutes.

In contrast, the German’s 20 goal involvements have come in 34 appearances, totalling 2776 minutes, which comes out to a far less impressive average of one every 1.7 games, or every 138.8 minutes.

Moreover, according to Understat, the former Real Sociedad star has scored his 19 league goals from an expected goals figure of just 15.11, while the Arsenal ace has scored his nine league goals from an expected goals figure of 11.76,

In all, even though the former Chelsea ace is a talented footballer, the Toon star is on another level entirely, although with the former out of action until next season, we bet the Gunners would be happy with just about any Premier League striker right now.

So, it’s interesting that one they let leave for nothing was compared to both Isak and Havertz not that long ago.

The former Arsenal star likened to Havertz & Isak

Arsenal have seen a lot of talented strikers leave the club in recent seasons, from Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette to Olivier Giroud and even Eddie Nketiah.

However, the player we are talking about is Danny Welbeck.

The former England international joined the Gunners from Manchester United for around £16m in September 2014 and, over the next five years, would go on to score 32 goals and provide 13 assists in 126 appearances before leaving for nothing in the summer of 2019.

After spending an unsuccessful season with Watford, the 34-year-old joined Brighton & Hove Albion, again on a free, and has been there ever since, racking up a reasonable enough tally of 33 goals and 12 assists in 149 appearances.

However, we are interested in his performances across the 22/23 campaign, as that was the season he was compared to Isak and Havertz.

It stemmed from FBref, which compared players in similar positions across the Premier League and, by the end of the year, concluded that the Swede was the number one most similar forward to the Englishman, while the German came in at number eight.

The best way to see where this comparison came from is to look at the underlying metrics in which the trio ranked closely, including, but not limited to, non-penalty expected goals plus assists, goals per shot, expected goals, interceptions, passes into the final third and more, all per 90.

On top of that, all three players produced a similar number of goal involvements in the league that season, with the Magpies ace reaching 11, the then-Blues star eight and the Seagulls “top” talent, as dubbed by Rio Ferdinand, producing ten.

Ultimately, Welbeck is most certainly not the answer to Arsenal’s longterm need for a striker, but given their lack of any options at all at the moment, we reckon Arteta would welcome his former teammate back to the club with open arms.

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