French champions Lille continued their summer of restructuring last night with the capture of Dimitri Payet from Saint Etienne in a four-year deal rumoured to be in the region of 10m Euros. The move means it’s more than likely Gervinho will be following Yohan Cabaye out of the club as Rudi Garcia plans for next season’s title defence and, similar to Cabaye, Gervinho seems set for a move to the Premier League, with Arsenal hotly tipped to snap up the Ivorian winger.
Gervinho is the typical Arsene Wenger type wide man; although he is predominantly right-footed, he’s adaptable and can play on either flank- last season saw him feature in five different attacking positions over the course of thirty-five league games for Lille.
With the likes of Andrei Arshavin and Tomas Rosicky failing to deliver last season, Wenger is looking to shake up his attacking midfield options and has admitted he’s likely to invest in new players this summer. The possible departure of skipper Cesc Fabregas hangs over the club yet again and in the event of his leaving, will Wenger look for a replacement for his skipper or will he give the central attacking role to Samir Nasri -providing the Frenchman stays- with Gervinho moving wide left and Walcott taking the opposite flank? His arrival would certainly present the Gunners with more options on the flanks, however Wenger decides to set the side up.
A haul of 15 goals and 10 assists saw Gervinho better the tally of Lille’s other wide man Eden Hazard, who managed 7 goals and 8 assists, suggesting that while Hazard picked up much of the headlines for his trickery, there is more of an end product to Gervinho’s game, and this could be key to his acquisition.
A look at Gervinho’s stats in comparison to the four main Arsenal wide men last term proves favourable and shows his acquisition would be a positive one for the Gunners, with their offensive threat set to be boosted by what he’ll bring to the side:
Passing and Dribbling
The stats show Nasri’s tendency to drop back and link play, with an average of 49 Passes per game far superior to the likes of Walcott (16) and Arshavin (27). Walcott’s lowly 16 is indicative of how he pushes higher up on the right and is therefore involved in less build-up play. A move to Arsenal’s left side would see an increase in Gervinho’s average 22 Passes per game for Lille last season and a chance to be more productive.
In spite of his fairly low number of Passes per game, Gervinho still impressed creatively. While his 1.31 Key Passes is not outstanding, the quality of his distribution was clearly shown by the 10 Assists. Though Arshavin fared well with 11 Assists and Walcott added 7, Nasri -astonishingly- picked up a mere 1 Assist all season, despite making a total of 58 Key Passes over the season (1.93 Key Passes/game over 30 games).
With Rosicky also managing just 1 Assist in his 21 appearances, it’s obvious an increase in creative play from out wide is essential for the Gunners, regardless of Fabregas’ future. Compare this to Man United, where Nani’s 11 Assists was more than Nasri, Rosicky and Walcott combined.
When it comes to Successful Dribbles, only one Arsenal wide man made more than one per game, as Nasri managed 2. Jack Wilshere was the only other regular first-team player who equalled Nasri, a surprising statistic, given Arsenal’s reputation for silky, skilful football. Gervinho’s per game suggests he’ll add some much-needed trickery to the starting XI.
Shooting
Going forward, specifically in the second half of the season, Arsenal’s main problem was too much of a reliance on Robin Van Persie on finding the net. Upon fully recovering from injury, the Dutchman was a sensation up front for the Gunners, scoring 18 goals in his last 17 games but he had little assistance from those around him as the club fell out of the tile race and finished fourth. Fellow forward Marouanne Chamakh failed to find the net in the league after the end of November, and captain Fabregas scored 3 Goals during the entire season, with just 1 from November onwards.
Arshavin played in all but one of Arsenal’s games last season, more than any other player but Wenger is clearly not satisfied with his level of performance; the Russian finished just 6 games last term and scored only 6 Goals. Despite a good start to the season, Nasri faded badly, scoring just 2 goals in his last 17 appearances from mid-December onwards. Walcott’s season went the same way, finding the net 3 times in his last 14 games. More firepower is desperately required and Gervinho could help provide it.
While Gervinho had more Shots per game than any of the Arsenal four, it’s perhaps fairer to measure how accurate and clinical his shooting turned out. With 2.2 Shots per game over 35 games, his 15 goals equate to 1 Goal per 5.1 Shots. This was on a level similar to Nasri, and while Walcott’s 1 goals per 6.2 Shots was a healthy average, Arshavin’s 1 every 9.2 Shots indicates the Russian’s wastefulness in front of goal.
Rosicky had 21 Shots in total all season but failed to find the net even once- Wenger must address this lack of goal threat and, weighing up the overall stats, a move for Gervinho looks a no-brainer as he looks to strengthen and build on these last few seasons that have promised so much but ultimately failed to deliver.
