Arsenal flop is fast becoming their worst signing since Mustafi

When Mikel Arteta took the manager’s job almost six years ago, Arsenal were in a sorry state.

Since then, he has turned a club that were sliding down the table into consistent Premier League challengers and a serious threat in the Champions League.

While this change has in part been down to his tactical approach and philosophy, it’s also been down to a recruitment strategy that has generally worked out.

However, every manager is going to have their misses in this regard, and Arteta’s signings could end up going down as Arsenal’s worst since Shkodran Mustafi.

Arsenal’s worst signings in the Emirates era

Now, an element that has to be considered when discussing a team’s worst signing is how much they cost.

After all, if a cheap or free player ends up being a flop, it is generally less of a problem than a big-money player flopping.

With this in mind, the first transfer dud who comes to mind is Lucas Perez, who joined the Gunners for around £17m in the summer of 2016.

The Spaniard was a talented striker; his time in La Liga proves as much.

However, he failed to make a mark in England and was loaned back to Deportivo La Coruna in the 17/18 season, then sold to West Ham the year after, with just seven goals and five assists to his name in 21 games.

An attacker who made a greater impact at the club but cost the club much more was Nicolas Pepe.

The Ivorian international joined Unai Emery’s Gunners for a then-club record fee of £72m in the summer of 2019 following a season in which he scored 23 goals and provided 12 assists in 41 games for LOSC Lille.

It would be fair to say that there was an awful lot of expectation on his shoulders then, an expectation he wouldn’t be able to fulfil.

Despite a reasonable enough first season, in which he produced a tally of eight goals and ten assists in 42 appearances, the dynamic winger would end up leaving the club by mutual consent in the summer of 2023 following two loan spells and with a middling tally of 27 goals and 21 assists in 112 games.

Last but not least, the player many fans consider to be one of the worst big-money signings made during the Emirates era: Mustafi.

The German centre-back joined the North Londoners for an astounding £35m in the summer of 2016, and at the time Arsène Wenger described him as a “very focused player who can play with the ball as well.”

Unfortunately, that couldn’t have been much further from the truth, as while he started off well enough, the former Valencia star would soon prove to be something of a liability.

In fact, it got so bad that after a couple of years, he was labelled the “King of the blunders” by former Arsenal and Chelsea midfielder Emmanuel Petit.

As if that wasn’t enough, Martin Keown slammed him for “schoolboy defending” after a 3-2 defeat to Crystal Palace in April 2019.

The 33-year-old was eventually phased out of the team by Arteta and left the club altogether in 2021.

In all, Arsenal have made their fair share of costly transfer blunders in the Emirates era, and the bad news is, they may have done so again in the summer.

Arsenal’s worst signing since Mustafi

The good news for Arsenal is that, so far anyway, most of the summer signings have looked pretty good this season.

The bad news is that due to their broad success, one has stood out as being comfortably the most underwhelming and, if he doesn’t improve quickly, could become the club’s worst signing since Mustafi: Viktor Gyokeres.

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Now, before the pitchforks and torches come out, there is, of course, every chance that the Swedish marksman will come good for Arteta and Co, but it cannot be denied that, so far this season, he has been poor.

For example, despite ending last season with 67 goal involvements in 52 appearances, the former Sporting CP star has scored just six goals in 19 appearances, totalling 1273 minutes.

That comes out to a poor average of a goal involvement every 3.16 games, or every 212.16 minutes, which just isn’t good enough for someone who cost around £63m.

Moreover, while some might make the argument that his teammates haven’t created enough chances for him, the counter to that was his performance against Wolves on Saturday.

The 27-year-old was beyond poor against the Premier League’s bottom side, be that due to his total lack of box movement or his lacklustre attempts when he did have a chance.

As content creator and analyst James B put it, the star striker simply “looks way off it.”

Ultimately, the fans and team will rally behind Gyokeres over the next few months, but unless he improves, and significantly at that, the word flop will be impossible to ignore, and he’ll join the likes of Mustafi and Pepe.

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