The transfers included William Saliba, Gabriel Martinelli, Dani Ceballos (loan), Kieran Tierney, David Luiz, and most notably Nicolas Pépé with the £72 million price tag. While there was an adjustment period for Pépé to adapt to the Premier League atmosphere, it seems he will start to adapt soon enough. It is also worth noting that this is one of the worst starts by Arsenal in many decades, and it is clear that reinforcements are needed. David Luiz was brought in to maybe fill in a defensive whole, but he is not the best defensive-minded player or in his prime. Sokratis Papastathopoulous has started to weather down on his performances. Rob Holding is having fitness issues, and Mustafi had one too many errors to being considered in the starting xi. The one centre-back that seemed to be helping the backline picked up an injury that will sit him out for the rest of the season, Calum Chambers.
There have been speculations that Arsenal is keen to sign RB Leipzig defender Dayot Upamecano. Arsenal was also eager to sign the young star during the summer transfer window, but he was out of the budget range due to the hefty cost of acquiring Nicolas Pépé. Nonetheless, there was a better option at hand during the summer. My take is that Ajax’s Moroccan playmaker Hakim Ziyech was by far the best option as opposed to Pépé.
It is essential to understand that of Pépé’s 22 goals, nine were from the penalty spot, and while he is a fantastic dribbler, Arsenal’s quick pace tiki-taka playstyle itself would have had to take time to adapt to, not just the Premier League. While Pépé netted 22 goals and assisted 11 goals in the 18/19 Ligue 1 season, Ziyech netted 16 goals and assisted 13 goals, excluding his massive role on Ajax’s miracle run in the UEFA Champions League as well making it into Africa’s Finest XI in the CAF Awards. Ziyech’s creativity score has been dubbed a 94 rating compared to Pépé’s 79. Moreover, Ziyech’s attacking score is 87, and his technical skill is also 87. Pépé has a 77 and a 79, respectively. Currently, Ziyech has netted six goals and assisted 12 in 17 games. Numbers that cannot be ignored again.
Although Frenkie de Jong and Matthijs de Ligt both made moves to larger clubs, Hakim Ziyech and Donny van de Beek stayed at Ajax. Likewise, van de Beek is a great player; however, Hakim Ziyech had a reported £25 million release clause that was later said to be £35 million. If that was true, Arsenal could have saved approximately £37 million and bought a defender as well — a defender that could have come that summer, not sent back on loan such as Upamecano.
Ultimately, a supporter’s job is to support their team. While Ziyech is not here at the moment and Pépé has arrived, but Arteta must take advantage of the situation because Pépé is still a spectacular player.
To summarize, if Arteta were to make any signings during this window assuming he has a bit of support — his best form of defense is attack. It has been confirmed — thus far — that Upamecano is out of reach and will not be signing with Arsenal this transfer window. However, Ajax has set the base price for Ziyech at £43 million, which is once again, a critical steal. If Arteta were to have Ziyech under his wing, the attacking force, and the control on the field would be on another level. Ziyech also fits into Arteta’s management where Arteta makes it easy for creators like Ziyech and Özil to do what they do best, to create. Hakim Ziyech is the player to purchase this transfer window.
Ziyech said in an interview not too long ago that his idol is Özil, and his dream was to play at either Barcelona or Arsenal. If he were to sign at Arsenal, he would not only meet his idol but also have the opportunity to play alongside him and play on the team of his dreams.
