Arsenal close to signing £40m striker

Unlike some of their rivals, Arsenal have not had much trouble integrating summer signings so far this season.

The standout addition is probably Martin Zvimendi, but Viktor Gökeres is also not outdone despite the criticism he received a few weeks ago.

After all, the Sweden international had scored six goals in 14 appearances before his recent injury, making him the club’s all-time leading scorer.

That said, it seems Arsenal are still looking for a player who can one day replace him, but who better than both Erling Haaland and Jean-Philippe Mateta?

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Gokeres has had a good season so far at Arsenal, but has lost out to both Haaland and Mateta.

The former, for example, already has a frankly ridiculous record of 19 goals and one assist in 15 appearances for Manchester City, while the latter has eight goals and nine assists in 19 appearances for Crystal Palace.

With numbers like these, it’s easy to see why Arsenal would be interested in signing a young striker who has been compared to both international superstars.

Recent reports from Spain suggest that the young striker in question is Etta Eyon.

Indeed, the report reveals that the Gunners are not only interested in the Levante talent, but have also decided to trigger the youngster’s £40m release clause.

According to the article, if all goes according to plan, an announcement will be made in the coming weeks.

It’s a lot of money to spend on young players, but Ejon, who has been compared to Haaland and Mateta in particular, could be the ideal successor to Gokeres.

Comparison of Eyon and Haaland & Mateta

The first thing to note is that Aeyoung is still developing, considering she just turned 22 last month.

But even in his short career, he has shown incredible scoring ability, and that’s just one of the qualities he shares with Haaland and Mateta.

For example, in 30 appearances for Villarreal B last season, the Cameroon international scored 19 goals and provided 6 assists. This means that on average he was involved in a goal every 1.15 games.

The exciting forward then made the step up to La Liga this season, scoring five goals and providing one assist in nine appearances for Levante.

Moreover, one of those goals came against Real Madrid, and he also scored one against Arsenal in pre-season, so you can’t simply accuse him of being a flat-footed bully.

However, while his achievements are very encouraging, the comparisons between Haaland and Mateta mainly come from elsewhere, FBref.

They compared the 22-year-old to all forwards in Europe’s top five leagues and determined that the Frenchman was the most similar, with the Norwegian coming in eighth.

We can better understand how these comparisons were made by looking at the underlying numbers where Cameroonian players rank close to the two national players.

For the Palace star, these metrics include non-penalty goals and assists, progressive carries, shot-producing actions and live passes, all per 90 points.

In the case of City’s monsters, the underlying numbers included metrics such as shot-producing actions per 90 minutes, expected number of assists and, most interestingly, goals per shot and goals per shot on target.

Those last two statistics are particularly encouraging, suggesting that the Levante star, described by talent scout Jacek Kulig as “incredible”, is almost as calm as the Norwegian goal machine when he finds himself in dangerous situations.

After all, Eyon’s career is still in its early stages, but as things stand he looks like an excellent young striker and someone who could be the perfect successor to Gokeres for Arsenal.