Arsenal Transfer News: Making Sense of the Rumours

Even though all 3 relegation spots in the EPL have been settled, the fight for the final CL spot has been drawn right to the final day of the season. With Arsenal and Spurs the 2 contenders for this spot, both of them have equally tough fixtures against adjacently placed Newcastle and Sunderland; though Arsenal have to travel to Tyneside on the final day.

There also lies the small case to consider where Chelsea might drop points against Everton. A major possibility here lies that Arsenal may finish 3^rd with a win, or else we can see a play-off due to equal GD and goal scored between the 2.

These possibilities point towards the simple fact that unless Wenger’s in-form team are at their poorest against Pardew’s lethargic and lowly Magpies, there is a more than definite chance that Arsenal would find themselves qualify for the next CL. This fact opens the door to the familiar routine of hoards of Arsenal transfer rumours coming up. But again Wenger has been behaving quite ‘un-Wengeresque’ in the last few windows, and some if not most of the strong rumours have come through. This also holds the other way around, as there has been more talent going out than coming in.

Here we look through the feasibility and also compatibility of few players linked with Arsenal already:

Gonzalo Higuain: RVP’s exit might have meant that Arsenal did not have a lot of fire power at the start of this season, but a look across the club’s stats at this point shows a very motivating picture. Last season along with RVP’s 37 goals, there was only Walcott in double digits at 11. This time around there are 4 players at 21, 17, 16 and 12 goals. So the crux here lies that Wenger is not in dire need of an out and out striker, and with 17 goals and 9 assists in his first season Giroud is more than capable of leading the line again.

Coming to Gonzalo Higuain’s case; the Argentine has had a start stop season with Madrid and as is the case with most big teams, whenever they lose a high profile encounter, the fans call for the entire squad to be refreshed. And in this case Real indeed seems set to replace most of the heads, and with a poor display against Dortmund Higuain becomes one of the first names on that sheet.

The Argentine is valued at a cut-back price of 22 million pounds with wage of 110k pounds per week. The initial figure directly indicates that this transfer would become Arsenal’s highest in their history, and the fee figure would again create chaos with the recently resolved fee structure. Apart from these monetary concerns, Higuain’s style of play though suitable to one touch football does not actually suit Arsenal. The Argentine striker has always been played as lone striker, and on occasions when played with other forwards he prefers to play through the centre. This would mean that he would be barely compatible with Giroud through the centre; Giroud’s presence in the box is unquestionable as seen in the crossing dilemma in the last 3 games. So Higuain’s role would be pretty much restricted to the left wing and rarely as the striker, as Wenger does not play a 2^nd finisher at No.10.

Possibility of transfer: 40%

Next: Stefan Jovetic

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