Arsenal: Wissam Ben-Yedder The Best Kept Secret

Arsenal are finally linked to Wissam Ben-Yedder at long last and this guy is certainly one of the best kept secrets out there. Arsenal would win big.

I referred to Ben-Yedder as the ‘Elneny of strikers’ a couple of weeks ago and I still see him as such. There is no reason why a striker with his track record, and still 25 years of age, should only be fetching an £8m fee, but if that’s all it will take, Arsenal has no reason not to nab him.

Upon building up this potential transfer on social media, I was slapped with naysayers saying he would never cut it. So before those naysayers can find their way to the comments section, I’ll just answer all their naysaying via this article.

Only Zlatan and Alexandre Lacazette have scored more Ligue 1 goals than Ben-Yedder in the past four years. The only reason why Zlatan and Lacazette get the attention is because they play on the two best teams in France. They are constantly in the international spectrum and they have a supporting cast that promotes excessive goal tallies.

Wissam Ben-Yedder has been dealing with a Toulouse side that is frequently fighting to avoid relegation. I always say that ‘you can only make the most of what you’re given’ and Ben-Yedder is doing that. He may have never scored over 17 goals in a season, but it’s not like his team mates are helping out much.

Aside from accounting for 40% of Toulouse’s goals (tops in Ligue 1), Ben-Yedder also leads in assists. None of his team mates have provided for more than four assists and only two team mates create more than a chance per game (1.6 and 1.2).

Meanwhile, compare that to PSG and Lyon. At Lyon, five guys create over a chance a game, Valbuena creates 2.6 himself, and five guys have more assists than Lacazette. Fekir would have too if he didn’t get hurt.

At PSG, five guys create over a chance a game, with Di Maria accounting for 3.4 all by himself.

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It’s called a supporting cast, and Zlatan and Lacazette have one. Ben-Yedder does not, yet he still manages to score enough goals to be in the same conversation as the PSG and Lyon strikers, despite the fact that he is struggling to keep Toulouse in Ligue 1.

The best measure of a guy that plays on a lower-tier team is consistency. Does he continually score goals even in a poor set-up? For Ben-Yedder, it’s a resounding yes. 15, 16, 14, 17 – that’s the goal tallies from the past four years for the French striker. Hard to be more consistent than that.

Arsenal need a striker that can play at Giroud’s level and all signs point to Ben-Yedder being that guy. Just because he doesn’t cost a lot of money or capture headlines doesn’t mean that he won’t be the perfect fit. Everyone has to start somewhere. He has stayed loyal to Toulouse despite never seeing the team progress and it’s gotten him just about nowhere. This first move will be the last time he is affordable. Give him a bigger stage and he will adjust accordingly and prove that he can perform no matter the company.

If he can score 15 goals on average for Toulouse, imagine what that would translate too when surrounded by Arsenal’s cast of Ozil, Alexis, Xhaka and Ramsey. Even if he only averages 15 goals for Arsenal, I think we’d be pretty happy with that.

Next: 5 Step Plan To Win The EPL

Wenger is all about the bargain. There is no greater bargain out there than Ben-Yedder. Arsenal risk nothing by signing him.

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