Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good

Don’t allow the perfect to be the enemy of the good. A staple expression that has underpinned a lot of Arsenal’s transfer strategy in recent years. Arsenal have shown a willingness to pivot to Plan B in the market when Plan A has not materialised. For Moises Caicedo read Jorginho. For Mikhaylo Mudryk read Leandro Trossard. For Joan Garcia read Neto.

In each of these examples, the acquired players have been in their peak years and, therefore, have not proved to be a significant impediment for longer term solutions somewhere down the line. Of course, there is an element of kicking the can down the road and one cannot help but feel younger wide attackers, a younger deep lying playmaker and longer term competition for David Raya will need to be revisited pretty soon. It feels a bit like a looming credit card bill.

Which brings us onto the deadline day signing of Raheem Sterling. Chelsea started Sterling in all six of their pre-season friendlies before deciding to bomb him out totally, squad number and all, on the opening league game of the season. They are a club playing 4D chess and we are all a bit too thick to appreciate their genius.

While Todd Boehly and co are cosplaying as market disruptors, Arsenal were able to steal their lunch money and acquire Sterling (SEE WHAT I DID THERE?!) and have Chelsea partially fund the pleasure. Sterling would have been no Arsenal fan’s idea of the golden bullet solution on May 31st but the market for attackers has been notably dry this summer.

City did not manage to replace Julian Alvarez. Liverpool reluctantly took a cut price deal for the injury prone Chiesa in the final week of the window. Newcastle needed a right winger for their starting XI but didn’t find one and still have Miguel Almiron on their books. In all the other examples I cited of Arsenal pivoting to Plan B, there was a clear Plan A.

The first Arsenal target we knew about this summer was striker Benjamin Sesko, who ended up not moving at all. That tells you that another attacker was a priority for Arsenal in the window but they struggled for clear targets. In the end, a financially low risk, short term deal for Sterling, a player who has already worked with Arteta, was probably about as well as they could have done in the circumstances.

Sterling is better than Reiss Nelson and Eddie Nketiah and he ought to be able to slot straight into the squad. His presence doesn’t preclude the club from trying their luck again on someone more long-term next summer. Of course, the issue there is that Arsenal might be left with a lot to do in attack next summer.

I dare say another bid from a Saudi club for Leandro Trossard next summer would be considered something of a gift, enabling Arsenal to juice two and a half years of excellent output before moving a player in their 30s on for cash money. But if he and Sterling move on and Jesus produces another injury hit season, the to do list in attack could really start to lengthen.

But as I said at the outset, don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. A short term solution that doesn’t compromise the long-term in any way is better than no solution. And Sterling ticks some boxes for Arsenal in my view. For a start, I think the team lacked offensive threat from the bench last season that Nelson and Nketiah just weren’t able to provide.

Arsenal failed to score at Munich, Porto, Manchester City, Aston Villa and Newcastle last season and scored from a setpiece at Anfield. I think Sterling, either from the start or from the bench, can help Arsenal add some of those clutch goals and help convert some territorial dominance into greater end product.

At this stage of his career, I view Sterling as more of a finisher than a build-up player, much like Trossard. In fact, I would venture to say that Sterling and Trossard should almost never start on opposite wings. Saka and Martinelli are your build up guys, Trossard and Sterling more your second striker types.

Though, let’s face it, Saka is build-up and end-product and nobody need worry about who is on the opposite flank, who is upfront or who is at right-back when he plays. You don’t need to balance the team to play Saka or worry about the other ingredients. But in a team that lacks one principal scorer, Sterling adds to Arsenal’s long list of secondary scorers.

	Shots per 90	Shots on target per 90	Goals + assists per 90	Take on success rate
2020-21	2.45	40.6%	0.60	54.1%
2021-22	2.29	46.3%	0.76	47.3%
2022-23	2.00	38.3%	0.43	41.9%
2023-24	2.32	41.2%	0.55	34.1%

His data around take ons shows you that he is less active outside the area nowadays, that could be a consequence of Chelsea’s dysfunction, of course. But his more end-product / penalty area data is pretty stable. It also means that when he plays on the right, he is probably not going to be a facsimile of Saka but I think finding a player that is to cover for Bukayo is next to impossible.

However, I could very much see Sterling making that run off the shoulder of a left-back for a slipped Odegaard ball in behind. I hope that Gabriel Martinelli takes some notes while watching Sterling in training and in games too. While Trossard is better at finding goal scoring positions by travelling in off the line, he is also a quite low touch and low involvement player.

Sterling is closer to Martinelli’s mould but often finds himself in the area for cutbacks and rebounds. These are positions Martinelli needs to get better at finding when play builds on the right and there are few players from recent Premier League history better placed to teach him how to pick up those goal scoring positions than Sterling.

We cannot take for granted that absolutely everything will stay the same for Arsenal this season compared to last season. What I would say is that I think if they had Raheem Sterling instead of Reiss Nelson, that would have been enough to win Arsenal the Premier League. Eight goals and four assists in 22 starts for a dysfunctional Chelsea team is not to be sniffed at. This isn’t a perfect signing but I think it is a good one.

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