My current car is the first I’ve ever bought. Growing up, I always thought I’d be in the market for brand-new, freshly assembled luxury automobiles with formidable horsepower and various state-of-the-art bells and whistles. But now that I’ve grown up a bit and understand the value of money a little more (and married into a family of pragmatic New Englanders), springing for something flashy strikes me as a poor allocation of limited funds.
That’s not to say I drive a hunk of junk to save money. My vehicle was made by a manufacturer that’s quite popular these days and is a model that was only released a couple years ago. When I drove it off the lot, it had only been used for a few months; apparently, the previous owner had quickly become enamored with a fully electric model and opted to trade in. The engine boasts a surprising level of power, the fuel efficiency is lovely, and the trunk can handle an exorbitant splurge at Costco. I love my car.
But now that it’s on my dime, I have become painfully aware of just how many things can go wrong with a modern automobile. And it makes sense, of course — there are now so many bits and bobs in every car that is produced these days. Naturally, that means a higher risk of malfunction.
Not only can you be forced to remedy a flat tire, but perhaps your car’s computer might glitch out and suddenly your blind spot detectors aren’t operational. Sure, your brake fluid might become discolored but there’s also a chance that your battery dies quicker than you’d expect because you keep plugging your phone into the USB port. Oxidized headlights remain a risk, but your check engine light can come on regardless of whether the engine actually has an issue.
Knowing this can make road trips nerve-wracking. Four hours into a drive to the Poconos last weekend, I fretted for quite some time that it sounded like I was driving a weathered jalopy. Thankfully, I realized this was due to the section of highway I had entered. Something about the material comprising the road and how it was laid caused a clip-clipping noise when my car’s wheels met it, but that subsided when we got back onto asphalt. If while driving I hit a pothole or run over debris, I’ll scramble out of the car and examine each tire once I reach my destination.
It might seem a little paranoid, a little neurotic. But that’s the thing — you never know what can go wrong.
And when something does go wrong, naturally the car won’t perform as well. A spare tire doesn’t allow a vehicle to reach the same speeds it did before. Eroded brake pads mean you need to allow for more time and distance if you still plan to decelerate instantaneously to a standstill. A lack of Bluetooth connection means a carefully balanced phone on your dashboard will serve as your navigation system.
My question is, does that mean we view the car as incapable of its usual level of performance when it has been serviced and restored to pristine condition? Sure, perhaps we should perceive its reliability a little differently if the vehicle keeps confronting us with issues. But when properly repaired, when operating at full capacity again, it’s almost always going to be the same car we drove off the lot. You know, unless it gets absolutely totaled.
Forgive the slight stretch of a metaphor, but that’s the closest I can come to analogizing the issue I have with how Arsenal’s attack has been spoken about recently. Maybe I should just be more direct.
Throughout the summer, I witnessed much catastrophizing regarding the champions’ offensive group. Admittedly, it was hard to argue that it had improved given the numerical changes; Leandro Trossard, Gabriel Martinelli, and Gabriel Jesus all departed the club during the offseason while only Christos Tzolis arrived. The number of attackers had the club had objectively decreased. And that’s before the loan of Ethan Nwaneri to Borussia Dortmund.
However, one can also argue that those roles have already been filled by others in the squad. Tzolis naturally appears to be an analogue for Trossard. Eberechi Eze and Noni Madueke look a solid bet to split the minutes vacated by Martinelli in some fashion. And many would have selected Mikel Merino above Jesus to serve as Arsenal’s third-choice striker long before the Brazilian joined Barcelona.
Additionally, Arsenal needed to decrease the size of the squad this summer. Even without adding to the Gunners’ ranks, multiple players stood to consistently miss out on matchday squads. Against Chelsea in the third matchweek of the Premier League season, the bench consisted of Eze, Madueke, Merino, Piero Hincapié, Martín Zubimendi, Viktor Gyökeres, Bruno Guimarães, and Max Dowman. This is with William Saliba, Cristhian Mosquera, and Jurriën Timber all out injured as well.
The thing about having the top-of-the-line depth Arsenal do is that it means a big squad. To an extent that’s quite acceptable, particularly for a side challenging on all fronts. However, the champions’ roster had become too bloated. There were too many mouths to feed in terms of game time. Would Martinelli and Jesus have been able to oust anyone from that bench? Or would they have become discontent, festering on the fringes of the squad?
But there was also the inability to bring in a star forward to play on the left side of Arsenal’s attack which inspired doomerism among the club faithful. While who qualified for that role and how feasible signing such a player was last summer are both very much up for debate, the fact is that Tzolis currently appears to be the Gunners’ starting option at left wing. That doesn’t quite represent a blatant upgrade at the position.
And so, in the minds of many Arsenal fans, the only change to last season’s attack was the addition of the Greek forward. Which, when framed that way, is concerning. At the conclusion of the 2025/26 season, the English champions were third in the Premier League for expected goals, third in the league for shots on target, second for big chances, and second for goals scored according to FotMob. Additionally, StatMuse has the Gunners fourth for total chances created last season with 404 — significantly behind Manchester United (445), Manchester City (454), and Liverpool (455). StatMuse also ranked Arsenal at sixth for open-play xG.
In a vacuum, these aren’t bad numbers. While not the outright best in any attacking department, Arsenal were typically near the top in terms of those stats. However, it is typically difficult to win the league without being the best goalscoring side; in the previous 20 seasons prior to the Gunners’ championship campaign, only five teams won the English top flight without putting the ball in the back of the net more than anyone else.
Furthermore, Arsenal scored 71 goals in the league last season. Only Leicester in 2015/16 (I’m very upset I have to think about the season again right now), Manchester United in 2008/09, Arsenal in 1997/98, and United in 1992/93 have won the title while scoring fewer times in the Premier League era. Four of those 71 goals came by way of opponents’ friendly fire. 24 were produced by set pieces in the league, with the breakdown of scorers as follows:
Gyökeres: 4 (3 penalties)
Timber: 3
Gabriel: 2
Zubimendi: 2
Merino: 2
Eze: 2
Madueke: 2
Own goals: 2
Saliba: 1
Calafiori: 1
Saka: 1 (1 penalty)
Havertz: 1
Trossard: 1
For the sake of argument, I want to remove these set piece goals from consideration. Not because of some weird fetish for scoring from open play like the one rival fans developed last season, but because I want to really zero in on the contributions of Arsenal’s attacking core. For Arsenal (and most clubs these days), set pieces are rehearsed routines in which most outfielders can play a pivotal role; if you don’t count penalties, defensive players proved the most effective at scoring from dead ball scenarios. But in open play, teams are typically progressing the ball up the pitch to their designated attackers to do the damage.
Which means that we are left with 45 goals. And not all those came from players that are specifically tasked with putting the ball in the back of the net — Gyökeres (11 goals), Saka (six), Trossard (five), Eze (five, all against Spurs), Jesus (three), Martinelli (one), Havertz (one), Madueke (one), and Martin Ødegaard (one) combined for 35 of those open-play scores. It’s a somewhat meager return over the course of 38 matches.
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There are of course reasons for this. Arsenal have had a reputation as one of the strongest sides in Europe for quite some time now; thus, almost every team they face greets them with a low block. Such is the prevalence of those tactics and the elite athletes needed to execute them that the most recent iteration of the Premier League saw a downturn in goals, shots, and other offensive statistics across the board. Manchester City, who managed the most goals in the division, only scored six more than the Gunners did. In contrast, Arsenal finished with 23 goals in the Champions League league phase, the most of any team in Europe’s premier tournament.
But ultimately, the champions needed to improve their offensive output over the summer. And the lone acquisition they made in that department was a £34 million winger from Club Brugge. That attack described above is the one that many Arsenal fans think Tzolis has been added to.
But in a way, I would contend that this isn’t the case. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that the offense we witnessed last season was an impostor, a flawed reimagining, a Backrooms-esque Still Life blankly staring at you from an armchair in the corner of an eerily uncanny chamber.
Below are the number of starts and minutes compiled by every Arsenal forward and attacking midfielder, in descending order:
Gyökeres: 27 starts, 2,231 minutes
Saka: 25 starts, 2,226 minutes
Trossard: 21 starts, 2,008 minutes
Eze: 20 starts, 1,900 minutes
Madueke: 16 starts, 1,217 minutes
Ødegaard: 13 starts, 1,371 minutes
Martinelli: 11 starts, 1,073 minutes
Merino: 10 starts, 1,027 minutes
Havertz: 7 starts, 583 minutes
What jumps out immediately is that Kai Havertz was practically a nonfactor last season. The German came on as a substitute in the very first matchweek of the Premier League season and suffered a knee injury at the hands of Manuel Ugarte. As a result, the center forward — a player who truly serves as a focal point and fulcrum for Arsenal’s buildup and attack — missed almost the entirety of the 2025/26 campaign. Even when he returned from his initial knee injury at the end of January, Havertz still contended with various (likely related) muscle issues for the remainder of the season.
Merino missed essentially the second half of the season due to a broken foot. The fracture kept the Spaniard out of action from the end of January until the very last game of the league campaign. This was a huge blow because as an emergency center forward he offers many of the traits that Havertz does.
Ødegaard is another key player who is too far down that list. The Norwegian also struggled with fitness throughout the season, suffering multiple injuries that essentially were freak accidents. Even when he made it back onto the pitch, it was clear that the Arsenal captain’s performance remained hampered by his body and his own lack of trust in it.
Saka, of course, was also a victim of a fairly injury-ravaged season. This may seem counterintuitive given the winger is second for starts and minutes on the list. But we didn’t get the talisman that we have come to expect over the years. And that is because the Englishman struggled with injury last season as well.
At times, he was sidelined by hamstring, hip, and Achilles problems. However, he attempted for large portions of the season to play through such hindrances, and the result was a Saka far from the height of his powers. On occasion the winger didn’t move well on the pitch and his ability to consistently win matchups failed him. Despite still managing to end the season with 11 goals and nine assists in all competitions, he just wasn’t the same player.
That is a lot of high-end talent to be without for most of the season. All of the players I mentioned have elite technical quality. Saka, Ødegaard, and Havertz are among the best in the world in their respective positions, and have spectacular chemistry between them. It’s probably worth saying that not having Ben White, the final piece of this right-sided attacking unit, available at times throughout the season also hurt in this regard. A lack of availability for Riccardo Calafiori didn’t help, either.
But the harm was two-fold: while those stars were out of action for so long, players meant to largely function as depth options picked up the slack in their stead. And these footballers had essentially never played together prior to last season. As a result, we often witnessed a disjointed front four of Eze, Madueke, Gyökeres, and Martinelli.
The latter three in particular repeatedly displayed a lack of on-ball quality, meaning that when the trio were on the pitch together (which was often considering their injury situation) Arsenal typically failed to keep possession in the final third and sustain pressure. The consistent availability and production from Trossard alleviated matters, but only so much. The fact is, the Gunners were forced to dominate matches with their defense, not with their forward players.
Last season, the Gunners’ attack was a car in disrepair, trundling forlornly down the avenue after an accident. The fan belt was broken, the computer had gone haywire. Arsenal’s chance creation light on the dashboard was emitting a foreboding glow, and smoke was billowing from the bonnet that sheltered their technical quality.
That’s not to belittle the players who featured more heavily last season, by the way. In a vacuum, they all have worthwhile qualities. Gyökeres is a great finisher who scored 21 goals in all competitions and worked his socks off for his team. Madueke is chaos personified who created plenty of threat against opposing defenses. Eze produced several moments of spectacular match-winning quality. Arsenal would not have won their first title in 22 years without them.
But to start the new season, the champions’ offensive stars are fit and firing. Saka appears healthy and intent on showing he can be a prolific contributor in front of goal. Havertz has continued his great scoring form from the end of last season. And Ødegaard, off the back of an impressive World Cup and confident regarding his health, looks like a man possessed. The trio have combined for ten goals already in this young campaign.
This shouldn’t come as a surprise. Saka and Ødegaard were instrumental as Arsenal scored 88 goals in the Premier League, a record for the club, during the 2022/23 season. Havertz arrived from Chelsea and helped his new side break the record once more, this time achieving a tally of 91 scores. After two difficult campaigns that saw the trio deal with continued fitness difficulties, they finally are fueling optimism that they can help their team achieve a similar offensive showing.
That is the attacking unit that Tzolis joins. The Greek completes a front four that only has the technical quality to play in tight spaces (which is all that is typically afforded by Premier League defenders), as well as the elite intelligence to adapt to those challenges and play with a level of relationism on the pitch. Havertz can not only serve as a reliable target man for David Raya and the Arsenal defense, but is also capable of drifting out to the right flank to combine with teammates — neither are actions you can reliably expect from Gyökeres. Saka will tuck into a more interior channel in order to function as an inside forward, with a superpower of almost always making the correct decision on the ball. And Ødegaard is the mastermind, the brains of the operation who cleverly manipulates defensive blocks by dribbling to and fro while directing his teammates in the press.
Additionally, Calafiori — a unicorn in his own right who floats all over the pitch and regularly pops up to combine in the final third — boasts a goal and two assists so far this season. Guimarães adds world class progressive passing and, as we saw at Sunderland last weekend, goalscoring threat from long range. And Merino, Eze, Madueke, and Gyökeres will compliment them and fill in the gaps.
Sure, it’s disappointing that Arsenal couldn’t get Vinícius Júnior or Julián Alvarez. That game-breaking offensive talent continues to evade the English champions (although frankly, it is debatable whether such a footballer is currently on the market). But don’t kick the tires on the wrong vehicle for the Gunners’ success. As long as they’re firing on all cylinders, these attacking pieces can certainly drive Mikel Arteta’s side to further glory.
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