Arsenal have become a lean, mean, winning machine on the pitch in recent years and shrewd operators off it as well.
The days of dramatically overpaying for a player who can’t deliver and letting their stars leave for next to nothing are seemingly over – at least for now, anyway.
However, even though Mikel Arteta and Edu Gaspar have steered the club in the right direction at the moment, there are still some stars the club let slip between their fingers in the past who would’ve been perfect for the team today.
In fact, one superstar who has recently made a big move was at the club as a youngster, outperformed Gabriel Martinelli last season and would’ve been the perfect Bukayo Saka rival.
Saka and Martinelli’s recent form
So, even though Arsenal couldn’t quite get over the line last year, it was another brilliant season for the North Londoners, and of all the stars at the club, Saka was probably the most magnificent.
The Hale Ender made 47 appearances for the team across all competitions and racked up a frankly ridiculous haul of 20 goals and 14 assists, equating to an average of a goal involvement every 1.38 games.
The only issue was that, due to a lack of competition, there were moments throughout the season in which he looked tired and perhaps should have been given a rest.
On the other hand, Martinelli struggled somewhat and couldn’t quite produce the same moments of magic he did in 22/23 when he scored 15 goals and provided six assists in 46 matches for the North Londoners.
Instead, the Guarulhos-born gem could only muster up eight goals and five assists in 44 appearances, meaning he averaged a goal involvement once every 2.19 games two years ago and once every 3.38 games last season.
Ultimately, both players are fantastically talented wingers, although the former Arsenal youngster outperformed the Brazilian last year and would have been the ideal rival or backup for the Englishman.
Michael Olise’s 23/24
So, the former Arsenal youngster in question is Michael Olise, who was part of the club’s youth system before leaving to join Chelsea in 2009.
The Hammersmith-born gem then left Chelsea as well and, after a very brief stint with Manchester City, joined Reading. There, he made his senior debut in the 18/19 season before earning a starting role over the following two campaigns, which earned him an £8m move to Premier League outfit Crystal Palace.
After a couple of injury-hit but nonetheless impressive years with the Eagles, the “magic” winger, as dubbed by data analyst Ben Mattinson, really exploded last season, scoring ten goals and providing six assists in just 19 appearances, which saw Bayern Munich splash £50m on him in the summer.
Now, not only did the Frenchman outperform Martinelli last season, but he also won comparisons to Saka thanks to his performances.
The comparison stems from FBref, which looks at players in similar positions across Europe’s top five leagues, the Champions League and Europa League, creates a list of the ten most comparable players for each one, and in this case, concluded that the Englishman is the second most similar attacking midfielder or winger to the former Palace ace.
You can better understand how they came to this conclusion by examining the pair’s underlying numbers and seeing the metrics in which they rank closely, including, but not limited to, progressive carries, non-penalty expected goals, passing accuracy, passes into the penalty area, shot-creating actions and even ball recoveries, all per 90.
A ball recovery is defined by the number of loose balls recovered by a player.
Ultimately, there is no point crying over spilt milk, and while Olise would be an incredible backup option to Saka on the right and someone who could challenge Martinelli on the left, the Gunners already have a pair of incredibly talented wingers on their hands – even if one of them is not at his best at the moment.
