Arsenal: Top 3 reasons 2019/20 season has been catastrophic

2. Unproductive recruitment

There was plenty of praise for Arsenal’s summer recruitment. With limited resources and some players they desperately needed to offload, the club managed to sign several positive players to solve longstanding and extreme issues. However, while on paper, their business was positive, for a variety of different reasons, the moves have not proved productive.

More from Pain in the Arsenal

• 3 standout players from 1-0 victory over Everton
• 3 positives & negatives from Goodison Park victory
• Arsenal vs PSV preview: Prediction, team news & lineups
• 3 talking points from Arsenal’s victory at Goodison Park
• Mikel Arteta provides Gabriel Martinelli injury update after Everton win

Take Arsenal’s three major signings from the summer. Nicolas Pepe was the record signing. A £72 million winger who scored north of 20 goals and assisted more than 10 goals last season, the only player not named Lionel Messi to do so in a top-five European league. He has only four goals and six assists in the Premier League this season. It is not a catastrophic return, but it is not the type of production you expect from a record signing.

Kieran Tierney arrived in a £25 million move from Celtic. He arrived injury due to a sports hernia, then suffered a dislocated shoulder, and has contributed to fewer than 300 minutes in the Premier League. This does not make him a wasteful signing, of course. But for this particular season, it was £25 million that produced essentially nothing.

And then the other big-money acquisition, William Saliba, has spent the year on loan at Saint-Etienne, all the while Arsenal have toiled disastrously through at centre-back. Again, signing Saliba was only possible if the loan was included, so it is a little difficult to criticise the club for completing the transfer, but for this particular season, Saliba’s absence — and the fact that his signing meant it was difficult to sign a capable centre-half — was a problem.