Arsenal Transfers: Three Superstars Who Can Form A Perfect Partnership With Mesut Ozil To Land A Trophy Next Season

Arsenal’s season so far has been nothing short of a roller coaster ride, from title challengers to their fourth place obsession. The Gunners have been falling apart in the last few weeks and after their 3-0 loss to Everton in the weekend, Arsene Wenger’s side might even lose out of Europe’s elite club competition next season. Today however, we here at Soccersouls bring you three players Arsenal must buy in the coming summer transfer market to form a building base along Mesut Ozil to significantly challenge for the Premier League trophy next season.

Antoine Griezmann:

The 23 year old has been sublime for Real Sociedad this season scoring 15 times in 30 appearances for the Spanish side and has attracted widespread interest from Premier League giants especially from Arsenal. The Frenchman was recently linked with move to French Ligue One Champions Paris St Germain but took to microblogging site Twitter to squash any such claims.

Arsene Wenger has the youngster at the top of his wish list saying he follows the Sociedad man to great detail. Capable of playing on either wings and with raw bursts of pace, he would suit Arsenal if Wenger is realistically challenging for the Premier League next season. Apart from Theo Walcott, the dearth of winger strikers in the Premier League is noteworthy and given Griezmann’s coveted signature, Arsenal would add a new dimension to their free flowing style of play.

Apart from pace, trickery and goals, Griezmann has the ability to create and link up with his team mates from anywhere on the pitch. The French International has so far created 32 chances this season, and has a 78% passing accuracy which for a winger is a good return.

Lars Bender:

Both Mikel Arteta and Mathieu Flamini aren’t the kind of imposing players in the middle of the park who can disrupt the opposition flow of attacks and help build from the back. A central defensive midfielder should be the Gunners’ priority and reports from Dailymail claim that Wenger is plotting a move for Bayer Leverkusen’s midfielder Lars Bender.

Arsenal failed with a £19m bid for the German star last summer, but having seen Arteta and Flamini time and again been out played by their premier league opponents this season, Wenger should go all out for Bender and land him.

Bender is  just the kind of player Arsenal need in their armoury, who is adept to playing as an anchorman and possessing accurate passing coupled with being very comfortable in possession. Leverkusen have slipped away in the Bundesliga table after a strong start and with manager Sami Hyypia being shown the door, it is believed that the midfielder will also be soon out of the Bay Arena.

Let’s look at some of his defensive stats. Bender has managed to win 52% of the duels he was involved with in this season. A number which is a testament to his defensive contribution for Leverkusen in comparison with Arteta’s 48%. The German has further made 49 important clearances, 34 interceptions and 10 blocks.

The only area where Bender lacks behind Arteta and Flamini is his passing accuracy, but again he is more of a box to box type of player and loves to be on the defensive side of the game. Bender along with Ramsey and Wilshere can form a formidable partnership in the anchor role while his interceptions in the middle of the park will be useful for the likes of Ozil and Cazorla to take the attacks forward.

Mario Mandzukic:

With Robert Lewandowski’s imminent arrival at the Allianz Arena, it looks as if Mario Mandzukic’s career at Bayern is well and truly over. The Croatian is the highest scorer for the Bavaraians this season and even if major tabloids claim Bayern don’t want to sell their prized asset, Mandzukic is reluctant to sign a contract extension.

The German club are willing to increase the Croat’s salary this season to ward off interest from foreign clubs, but if regular football is what he craves for, interests from Premier League clubs should lure him away from the Allianz Arena. A fantastic striker, more of a fox in the box with skills that of a poacher and a lethal finisher, Arsenal should go all out to sign Mandzukic in order to have a realistic push for the Premier League title next season. His positioning in and around the box might well and truly help Ozil to form a formidable partnership for the Gunners in the final third.

Now let’s compare some of Mandzukic’s stats with Giroud. When looking at the stats for any striker, the first thing that comes to mind is his shot accuracy. Although Giroud has scored 13 goals in the season so far, his shot accuracy is a meagre 40% which goes to tell the disappointment in the French International. Meanwhile Mandzukic having played 4 games less than Giroud in the league has scored 17 goals with a shot accuracy of 70%. Almost 30% more goal threat than the Arsenal man. So it’s safe to say, the Bayern striker can definitely be a better fit than Giroud.

Stats taken from squawka