Ask an Arsenal fan where the team need to improve this summer, and we reckon the majority would say attack.
After all, Mikel Arteta’s side finished second in the Premier League this season with the best defence but scored 17 fewer goals than Champions Liverpool and three fewer than third-place Manchester City.
However, while the North Londoners seem to be making progress on deals to sign the likes of Christian Norgaard and Christian Mosquera, they have yet to make significant ground on a new winger or striker.
Fortunately, the club have now been linked with another centre-forward, a world-class marksman who would be a better signing than Benjamin Sesko and Viktor Gyokeres.
Arsenal's striker search
Arsenal tend to find themselves embroiled in some kind of transfer saga every summer, with Declan Rice being the subject two years ago and Mikel Merino last summer.
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This year, the saga has focused more on a position: a striker.
While there have been more than a handful of centre-forwards linked with the club in recent weeks and months, the two most significant have been Sesko and Gyokeres.
The former has been a long-term target for the Gunners, but with reports suggesting RB Leipzig now want between €80m-€100m for him, which is around £68m-£85m, the North Londoners’ interest seems to have cooled.
At the same time, the latter is currently in open conflict with Sporting CP over a supposed gentleman’s agreement that the club have broken, which in turn has seen his price soar up to £80m, per some reports.
With these problems present, it would make sense for the Gunners to look towards other targets, which appears to be what is happening.
At least that’s according to a recent report from BBC Sport’s Sami Mokbel, who revealed that Arsenal are, in fact, interested in Julian Alvarez.
Speaking on the Latte Firm podcast, the respected journalist claimed that the North Londoners have “looked at” how they could do a deal for the Atlético Madrid superstar this summer.
Unfortunately, Mokbel does not believe it would be a deal the club is capable of doing, which may well be the case, as he only joined the Spanish giants for £82m last summer, and according to the CIES Football Observatory, he is now worth up to €125m, which is around £106m.
With that said, even though it would be a complicated and costly transfer to get done, it’s one Arsenal should be fighting for, as Alvarez would be a better signing than Sesko and Gyokeres.
How Alvarez compares to Sesko and Gyokeres
So then, if we start by looking at the comparisons between Sesko and Alvarez, it’s really quite straightforward to understand why the latter would be a better signing for Arsenal than the former, and it almost entirely comes down to their respective output.
For example, there is no denying that the Slovenian enjoyed a strong personal campaign with RB Leipzig this season, in which he scored 21 goals and provided six assists in 45 appearances, totalling 3,258 minutes, which is an average of a goal or assist every 1.66 games or every 120.66 minutes.
However, even with impressive numbers such as those, he was less effective than the Atlético star.
Appearances
57
45
Minutes
3967′
3258′
Goals
29
21
Assists
8
6
Goal Involvements per Match
0.64
0.6
Minutes per Goal Involvement
107.21′
120.66′
In his 57 appearances for the Spanish giants, which totalled 3967 minutes, the “best forward in the world,” as dubbed by Argentine journalist Roy Nemer, scored 29 goals and provided eight assists, which comes out to a sublime average of a goal involvement every 1.54 games, or every 107.21 minutes.
Okay then, what would make the former Manchester City star a better signing than Gyokeres, who ended this season with a haul of 54 goals and 13 assists in 52 games?
Well, in this case, the argument comes down to two interlocking reasons: the level of opposition and his experience.
Regarding that first reason, the Portuguese league is currently ranked as only the 11th best in world football according to Opta, and worse than that, 11 of the 18 teams in it are considered to be around League One level. In contrast, La Liga is the third best in the world.
Add to that the fact the Swedish international has never played in a top-five league, and the risk of signing him over someone with Premier League-winning experience becomes crystal clear.
Ultimately, Arsenal need to make sure they sign the right striker this summer, and Alvarez looks like he ticks all the boxes, even if it’ll prove tough to get him out of Madrid.
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