Arsenal submit offer to sign £68m “powerhouse”

Arsenal have come an incredibly long way over the last few seasons.

Just four years ago, Mikel Arteta’s side were languishing down in mid-table, and in the campaign after that, were unable to make it into the top four.

Since then, the North Londoners have made it to the quarter-finals and then semi-finals of the Champions League while also finishing as runners-up in the Premier League three campaigns on the bounce.

However, the time has come for the club to make good on their transformation and finally lift some major silverware next season, which could explain recent links to a superstar attacker who has won comparisons to serial winner Kylian Mbappé.

Arsenal transfer news

With the club being so close to achieving something great over the last few years but still coming up short, it’s not been much of a surprise to see them linked to several attackers who could provide them with that extra push in recent weeks; stars such as Morgan Rogers and Nico Williams.

The former could be available for a fee as high as £100m this summer, but while that’s an astronomical amount of money, it would be hard to say he wouldn’t be worth it, as in 54 appearances for Aston Villa this season, he scored 14 goals and provided 15 assists.

Williams, on the other hand, wasn’t quite as productive, scoring 11 goals and providing seven assists in 45 games for Athletic Bilbao, but then again, he’d also cost a lot less, with a release clause reportedly worth around £50m in his current deal.

Yet, while both players would certainly improve Arteta’s side next season, they might not utterly transform it, unlike Viktor Gyokeres.

Yes, according to reports from Spain, Arsenal have maintained their intense interest in the Sporting CP striker ahead of the transfer reopening next week.

In fact, the report has revealed that, alongside Premier League rivals Manchester United, the Gunners have already submitted an offer for the Swedish star.

However, it would appear as if the Portuguese outfit now want €80m, which comes out to about £68m.

While it would represent a serious financial investment to match that fee, Gyokeres’ incredible ability and record suggest it would be one worth making, especially as he’s won comparisons to Mbappé.

How Gyokeres compares to Mbappé

Before going over some of the other reasons why Arsenal might want to sign Gyokeres this summer, it’s worth examining this comparison to Mbappé and where it’s come from, as the Real Madrid forward is undoubtedly one of the biggest stars in world football.

Well, in this case, it stems from FBref, which looked at players in similar positions in the Champions League this season and then created a list of the ten most comparable players.

By doing this, it concluded that the Frenchman was the number one most similar forward to the Swedish international in the entire competition this season.

The best way to see how this is worked out is by taking a look at the underlying metrics in which the pair rank closely, including but not limited to assists, non-penalty expected goals plus assists, progressive carries, goals per shot, passes into the penalty area, shot-creating actions and more, all per 90.

With all that said, while a comparison to one of the best and most exciting players in the world is certainly encouraging, there is another enormous reason why the Gunners should be doing all they can to sign the former Coventry City star: his ridiculous output.

In his first season with Sporting, the Stockholm-born “powerhouse,” as dubbed by respected analyst Ben Mattinson, was able to rack up a sensational haul of 43 goals and 15 assists in 50 appearances, totalling 4169 minutes, which equates to an average of 1.16 goal involvements per game, or one every 71.87 minutes.

Then, as if on a one-man mission to prove he wasn’t just a one-season wonder, the 27-year-old marksman did even better this year, scoring 54 goals and providing 13 assists in 52 appearances, totalling 4248 minutes, which comes out to a frankly absurd average of 1.28 goal involvements per game, or one every 63.40 minutes.

Ultimately, Gyokeres is a lean, mean goalscoring machine and, like Mbappé, is someone who could potentially lead a team to multiple league titles, and therefore, is someone Arsenal should be doing all they can to sign this summer.