Arsenal have 20 reasons for Edu to sign ‘world class’ Ivan Toney in January
Brentford slap £100m price tag on Ivan Toney
Edu and the Arsenal board backed Mikel Arteta in the recent VAR row at Newcastle. Now they may need to save him from himself if Arsenal are to have a chance of winning the Premier League title this season.
They not only have to give him permission, they need to convince the Spaniard to sign Ivan Toney – dubbed “world class” by his Brentford manager Thomas Frank – in January. The facts of the matter are clear. Only the very best managers have ever won the Premier League without a 20-goal-a-season striker – and Arteta is simply not there yet.
Sir Alex Ferguson, Pep Guardiola, Arsene Wenger and Jose Mourinho – and most of those were in the first half of Premier League history. That would be the entire list of managers who have achieved the feat if Mo Salah had scored just one more in 2020 when Liverpool won their long-awaited Premier League title thanks to 19 of his goals.
Almost as impressive is the list of those top strikers who have effectively won the title with their goals. Sergio Aguero, Diego Costa, Jamie Vardy, Yaya Toure, Robin van Persie, Dimitar Berbatov, Didier Drogba, Cristiano Ronaldo, Thierry Henry, Dwight Yorke, Alan Shearer and Eric Cantona.
Of course, scoring 20 goals a season is no guarantee of success – just as Harry Kane. But it explains why Arteta will not win the title with Eddie Nketiah and Gabriel Jesus vying for position.
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The former is in the form of his life with five goals in Arsenal’s opening 12 games, but that puts him on course for at best 16 goals over the entire campaign. It is the most open title race for years, but Arteta will need more firepower if he is to get over the line – the mathematics is there staring him in the face.
Luckily, there is a solution. Toney reached the magical 20-mark last season playing for lowly Brentford and is busy going through his paces at the tail end of his FA ban for breaching gambling guidelines and raring to go.
His return is set for January 17, just after the winter break. 18 more matches to make an impact. That may just be time enough. Recently, Arsenal have suffered for a lack of end product to their exemplary passing football and Toney would offer a more direct route to goal to give the Gunners a wider attacking plan threat than they currently have at the moment.
Naturally, there will be other interest in the signature of the England international, but when the Arsenal board head to the Community Stadium on Saturday for their Premier League clash with the Bees, the groundwork needs to be made on arranging a potential signing.
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Anything less would smack of over-confidence in Arteta’s project against the wealth of facts and numbers and the clear 20-20 vision of what’s needed.
Champions and their top goalscorers
2023 – Man City – Haaland, 36
2022 – Man City – De Bruyne, 15
2021 – Man City – Gundogan, 13
2020 – Liverpool – Salah, 19
2019 – Man City – Aguero, 21
2018 – Man City – Aguero, 21
2017 – Chelsea – Costa, 20
2016 – Leicester – Vardy, 24
2015 – Chelsea – Costa, 20
2014 – Man City – Toure, 20
2013 – Man Utd – Van Persie, 26
2012 – Man City – Aguero, 24
2011 – Man Utd – Berbatov, 21
2010 – Chelsea – Drogba, 29
2009 – Man Utd – Ronaldo, 18
2008 – Man Utd – Ronaldo, 31
2007 – Man Utd – Ronaldo, 17
2006 – Chelsea – Lampard, 16
2005 – Chelsea – Lampard, 13
2004 – Arsenal – Henry, 30
2003 – Man Utd – Van Nistelrooy, 25
2002 – Arsenal – Henry, 24
2001 – Man Utd – Sheringham, 15
2000 – Man Utd – Yorke, 20
1999 – Man Utd – 18 Yorke, 18
1998 – Arsenal – 16 Bergkamp, 16
1997 – Man Utd – Solskjaer, 18
1996 – Man Utd – Cantona, 14
1995 – Blackburn – Shearer, 34
1994 – Man Utd – Cantona, 25
1993 – Man Utd – Hughes, 16
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