Arsenal: The main reason why Wilfried Zaha is perfect

Arsenal are chasing Crystal Palace winger Wilfried Zaha after they submitted an initial £40 million offer. Here is the main reason why he would be perfect for the Gunners.

Arsenal are attempting to sign Wilfried Zaha. The Gunners submitted an initial £40 million offer earlier this week and are expected to chase the Crystal Palace winger throughout the remainder of the summer window.

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Whether they are able to secure Zaha’s services or not remains to be seen. Certainly, there are financial restrictions that will make it difficult. But it is easy to see why Unai Emery wants Zaha, even if some may baulk at the price.

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There is one element of his game that makes him the perfect wide candidate for Arsenal to chase: the ability to dribble. Jurgen Klopp said last season that you cannot defend him with just one defender, Trent Alexander-Arnold said he was the toughest player to contain in one-on-ones, more so than Neymar and Cristiano Ronaldo, while Troy Deeney admitted that you have to take turns to kick him, his skill and technical quality making it too difficult to tackle him cleanly. And these statements are not empty. The numbers back them up.

Since the start of the 2014/15 Premier League season, his first full year in his second spell at Selhurst Park, Zaha has attempted the most dribbles, completed the second-most dribbles, earned the second-most fouls, and won the most penalties. Only Eden Hazard compares to the Palace man’s dribbling numbers. Last season, only Hazard completed more dribbles and won more fouls. For all of his faults, Zaha is one of the best dribblers in the world.

And that, for this current iteration of the Gunners, is absolutely vital. Last season, only two players completed more than 30 dribbles, Alex Iwobi and Alexandre Lacazette. Zaha, in contrast, completed 113 dribbles. Henrikh Mkhitaryan completed just 20 dribbles all year. And Arsenal’s collective dribbles per 90 minutes have dropped in recent seasons, topping the Premier League in the 2014/15 and 2015/16 season before sliding each year to rank 12th last year.

Consistently, Emery’s tactics were hamstrung by a lack of imagination and directness. There was no individual ingenuity or creativity. He was forced to play with wing-backs because of a lack of natural wide options and had only an overlapping Sead Kolasinac flying to the by-line and cutting the ball back as a threat down the flanks to end the season.

Zaha does have his faults, of course. There are character concerns, his capitulation at Manchester United is troubling, and he only topped 10 goals and assists for the first time in his career last year. But because of his truly elite dribbling ability, these shortcomings are somewhat palatable.

Zaha is an expert dribbler, one of the very best in world football. And that is precisely the kind of player that Arsenal desperately need, perhaps more than any other this summer. For that reason, Zaha is the ideal target to chase.