Chelsea are set to complete the signing of João Pedro from Brighton in a £55million deal. Arsenal have watched on as the Blues, including the Brazilian, will add six players to the squad this summer.
Pedro will join Liam Delap, Estevao, Dario Essugo, Mamadou Sarr and Kendry Paez in west London as part of the Blues’ strategy to sign young players. The Gunners, meanwhile, have signed just the one player with Kepa Arrizabalaga arriving from Chelsea. However, many are in the works and football.london expects there may be further announcements this week.
Despite the volume of confirmed signings by Arsenal’s London rivals, none should be of much concern. None of the listed players would make a dent in the Arsenal team, even before the work they intend to do, especially in the forward line.
Delap and Pedro are not upgrades on Kai Havertz, who left Chelsea two years earlier. You could make a good case that Nicolas Jackson is already a better option—red cards aside, of course. Arsenal will be more concerned by their genuine title rivals Manchester City and Liverpool, whose business has been far more impressive.
Arne Slot has added Jeremie Frimpong, Milos Kerkez and the record-breaking addition of Florian Wirtz. While Pep Guardiola added to the big January investment with deals for Rayan Cherki, Tijjani Reijnders and Rayan Ait-Nouri, although they were not enough to see them past Al Hilal in the knockout stages of the Club World Cup.
Much of the criticism that does exist on Arsenal’s business is whether the likes of Kepa, Christian Norgaard or Cristhian Mosquera would be signed by their rivals. The reality is they are necessary competition and depth with little financial outlay that allows the club to strengthen and leave funds free for the genuine marquee deals.
Martin Zubimendi is just the type of player who would arguably start for any Premier League side, perhaps barring City, where his Spanish teammate Rodri resides. Then their other key targets; Eberechi Eze, Rodrygo, Benjamin Sesko or Viktor Gyokeres, well they all too would be welcomed with open arms.
Chelsea shouldn’t be operating the way they are if they have dreams of the title, but this obsession with signing younger players does not appear to be going anywhere anytime soon. In such case, the gap between themselves and the top three is likely to widen.
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