Arsenal: Kieran Tierney, Wilfried Zaha make winning summer

While Arsenal’s summer has been productive, two objectives should remain; Kieran Tierney and Wilfried Zaha. Here is how they can have a winning summer window.

With less than three weeks remaining for Premier League teams to operate within the summer transfer window, Arsenal are on the verge of a nice have enjoyed a nice haul thus far.

The first domino to fall became the 18-year-old Brazilian winger Gabriel Martinelli, reported just as the summer transfer window was to open. Fellow 23-year-old Brazilian international Everton Soares continued Arsenal’s trend of adding depth and youth to a position that lacked both last campaign.

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Centre-back William Saliba was confirmed this week. While Arsenal agreed to loan him back to Saint-Etienne for the upcoming season, his future and that of the centre-back position appear to be mutually trending positively.

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And then 22-year-old Spanish attacking midfielder Dani Ceballos’s loan agreement broke after the aforementioned signings, which is a superb deal for the Gunners. For both the present and future, it makes sense; a season loan, paying a cheap salary for a young and vibrantly talented player. With Ceballos out of favor with Zidane, a positive campaign could very well lead to the players outright purchase next summer.

Moreover, the likes of Kieran Tierney and Wilfried Zaha could highlight this ambition exponentially more. The team still has eighteen days to provide further renovations.  Tierney’s transfer from Celtic, which appears imminent, appears within the clubs financial means, but Zaha’s would be much tougher to secure as the team currently stands. The attractiveness of attaining both players is lost on no one.

Pairing Tierney on the left with Hector Bellerin or Ainsley Maitland-Niles on the right side of the backline instantly aides the desperately flimsy side of Arsenal’s last campaign. Sokratis in the middle of a back three provides toughness and grit before Saliba’s arrival next year; in a back four, meanwhile, Rob Holding or Calum Chambers could replace an older, more frustrated Laurent Laurent Koscielny, as well as a very transferable Shkodran Mustafi. The leaky sieve of last year’s Arsenal defense would set up much better for the foreseeable future with Tierney.

Zaha’s fit would be equally as beneficial, if not as easily facilitated by a transfer. With his cost more than Arsenal can afford without exporting a player or three, financial finagling would be necessary. The benefits would be obvious immediately.

Zaha could fit behind Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang where Mesut Özil often plays in a 4-3-1-2 shape, while playing wide in a 4-3-3 on the left when spelling Aubameyang. In the former shape, his remarkable dribbling and pace could help to break the last line of defense more easily when Arsenal moves to attack from back to front of the shape, while his attacking presence would give the club one of the most potent attacking three’s in Europe. The latter formation and its possibilities loom potentially greater still.

Were Zaha to join Arsenal, the 4-3-3 would have a front three rotation with Aubameyang, Zaha or Iwobi (should he remain after Zaha’s arrival) on the left, Lacazette, Aubameyang and Eddie Nketiah in the central striking position while Everton Soares, Henrik Myketarian or Gabriel Martinelli manned the right winger position. The pace, creativity, finishing and passing abilities of an offensive team with the likes of Özil in coordination are petrifying to most any European squad, regardless of competition.

I myself admit the likelihood of landing Wilfried Zaha is minimal. Unless Arsenal sell Koscielny and Mustafi, alongside the likes of an Özil, Iwobi or Myketarian, the money for Zaha appears nonexistent. The backup plan for this was first reported prior to the Zaha saga unfolding itself.

If the two deals for Tierney and Zaha can be completed in the final eighteen days of the summer transfer window, Arsenal would have had a successful simmer, which at the start of the window, seemed unlikely.