Arsenal must rue axing “superstar”

It has felt like Arsenal have simply gone from one problem to another this season.

Mikel Arteta has had to deal with silly suspensions, a constant stream of injuries to key players and a lack of form from his attacking options.

In fact, the only fit attacker who is on song at the moment is 17-year-old Ethan Nwaneri, who’s racked up a brilliant haul of seven goals and one assist in just 790 minutes of first-team football.

In contrast, club captain Martin Odegaard and experienced winger Leandro Trossard have been disappointing and, worse yet, are being outperformed by a Premier League star axed by the club as a youngster.

Odegaard and Trossard’s season so far

So, after winning the club’s Player of the Year for the second successive campaign last season, it would be fair to say that there was an expectation that Odegaard would once again be one of Arsenal’s best players this year.

Unfortunately, as things stand, that is not the case, and while his ankle injury has likely played a role in his lacklustre form, it seems equally unlikely that it’s all down to that.

In all, the Norwegian maestro has scored three goals and provided six assists

in 26 games this season, which isn’t enough from the team’s leader, and on top of that, he’s been taken off early in several games when the team have been searching for a goal, such as Everton at home and Newcastle United away.

Like his captain, Trossard has been incredibly underwhelming this season.

For example, the Belgian ace, who racked up 17 goals and two assists in 46 appearances last season, has only been able to score five goals and provide seven assists in 37 appearances this year.

That’s a drop from an average of a goal involvement every 2.42 games to one every 3.08 games, which might not be enormous, but considering how much of the goalscoring burden rests on him for at least the next month, it is concerning.

What makes the pair’s drop-off all the more frustrating is that a player axed from the club’s academy well over a decade ago is now pulling up trees in the Premier League and outperforming them both.

The Arsenal youngster sold too soon

Given the size of Arsenal and their impressive academy system, there are several players who they’ve released too soon, from the most well-known, Harry Kane, to his new teammate at Bayern Munich, Micheal Olise.

However, in this instance, the youngster in question is actually the Frenchman’s old teammate, Eberechi Eze.

The dynamic attacker joined the North Londoners’ academy as a child but was released in 2011 at just 13 years old, after which he’d spend the next five years in the academies of Fulham, Reading and Millwall before finally joining Queens Park Rangers in 2016.

Four years after that, with 32 goal involvements in 112 first-team appearances and a loan spell with Wycombe Wanderers under his belt, the young Englishman secured a £20m move to Premier League side Crystal Palace, where he has since cemented his place as one of the most exciting players in the division.

Not only can the “superstar” attacker, as dubbed by football analyst Ben Mattinson, play in midfield and out wide, but he’s also more than capable of chipping in with goals and assists, racking up a total of 32 goals and 23 assists in 150 games for the club.

However, in terms of just this season, he’s already scored six goals and provided six assists in just 26 appearances, totalling 2012 minutes.

That means the former QPR ace is averaging a goal involvement every 2.16 games, or every 167.66 minutes, which is a better rate of return than both Odegaard and Trossard, despite playing a team that’ll likely finish midtable at best.

Ultimately, determining which youngsters are worth investing in is notoriously difficult, so it’s hard to blame Arsenal for missing out on Eze, but we reckon the team’s injury crisis would be a lot more manageable with him in the side.