Arsenal seem to be getting closer to signing another big named player. The Gunners have bought Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez in the last 2 seasons and it seems that they might also sign the PSG striker Edinson Cavani in January. Reportedly, Arsenal would have to pay around £50 million to sign the Uruguayan, Cavani who has found his scoring boots for PSG this season after a rather sluggish start has been wanting to move away from the French Champions for more game time and while he may not get that at Arsenal right from the get go, he surely will become the first choice striker, not only at Arsenal but at many other clubs in Europe, let alone the Premier League.
Cavani in but who goes out?
Edinson Cavani has always scored goals no matter which club he has played for, he might have had a tough start to the season for PSG but now he is firing on all cylinders. Cavani has scored 13 goals in 25 appearances. If Wenger goes sign Cavani, he should go straight into the starting line-up but will he substitute Danny Welbeck or Olivier Giroud from the starting line-up.
Danny Welbeck was signed in the summer from Manchester United but he hasn’t had the impact that Arsenal fans would have wanted, he did score a hat trick in the UEFA Champions league but that feels eons ago for a team which really hasn’t played to its potential, mostly due to injuries and a paper thin backline.
In 20 appearances for the club, Welbeck has scored 6 times and although he has been played more wide than down the centre which is his preferred position his tracking back and defensive work is commendable.
The other striker is Olivier Giroud who has been the star striker for Arsenal since his transfer from France. Giroud had missed a good chunk of this season due to injury but as soon as he returned, he started scoring goals, including a very well taken goal against Liverpool last weekend.
He already has 5 goals in just 8 appearances this season for the Gunners and probably will score a lot more goals since his finishing is by far the best from the lot of Arsenal strikers. The other two strikers Joel Campbell and Yaya Sanogo would probably be loaned out to other clubs to make room for Cavani, especially since it is expected that Cavani will start.
The problem facing Wenger would be how can he use Cavani, he will not play 2 strikers up front as he is pretty happy with the 2 wide men, which means that Cavani would be shifted to one of the wide positions to allow Giroud to stay in the middle. Cavani has played as a wide man cutting in during his time at PSG and even a couple of games in the position for Uruguay.
The other option would be to play Cavani right behind Giroud so that he can link up with the French striker, that would mean Alexis Sanchez would either be benched or played in the wings, either way, if Wenger does complete the signing of Cavani, he will be facing a lot of selection headaches. A headache he wouldn’t mind having with the likes of Ozil, Giroud, Sanchez and Cavani at the club, the competition for places would increase and hopefully the performances of the attackers as well.