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When you only have three strikers, an injury crisis up front is inconvenient to say the least. Having wrapped Olivier Giroud in cotton wool for the season so far, Arsenal’s French forward is set to miss his second game on the trot against Tottenham at the weekend, and the Gunners’ forward woes are compounded by an injury to back up forward Nicklas Bendtner.
With the injured Yaya Sanogo yet to feature since his summer move and the experiment of using Lukas Podolski up front against Cardiff at best inconclusive, Arsene Wenger looks set to dip into the transfer market for another striker. With ten goals already this season, Newcastle’s on loan QPR striker Loic Remy could be a contender. Here’s how he would fit in.
For a start, he would bring the side goals. Remy has scored ten goals this season, two more than Arsenal’s top scorer Giroud, in a Newcastle side that have scored ten goals fewer than the Gunners.
His ten goals have come in a season in which the Toon have only scored 29 goals, meaning that Remy has scored 34% of their goals. Chuck his pair of assists into the mix, and the loanee has been involved in 43% of Newcastle’s goals.
As that figure suggests, Giroud does have more assists than Remy. Giroud has laid on five goals for team-mates, whilst Remy has two. However the popular criticism of Remy – and strikers of his ilk – that he is just a finisher is far from the truth. Whilst he clearly does not possess the work rate of build up play of Giroud, accusations about his build up play do Remy a disservice.
He has created 18 chances for Newcastle this season, just four fewer than Giroud and in a team that have created 11 fewer chances. Remy has provided 8.3% of Newcastle’s chances this season, whilst Giroud has provided 9.6% of Arsenal’s. A difference, but not a huge one.
To add further context, Gunners forward Podolski – who it has to be said has a great goals to game ratio this season – is yet to create a chance this season. He may only have played 170 minutes, but on average Remy would have created 2.13 chances over the same period.
An area where Giroud does comfortably compare favourably is in headed duels. With 80 headed duels won to Remy’s 29 he is comfortably ahead of his rival. However even in this area the pair are not as far apart as expected. It is worth noting that Remy has played many of his games next to target man Shola Ameobi at Newcastle, and as such has not had to compete for many headed balls.
Of the duels contested, he has won 44% of his aerial battles. Whilst a number of these will have been against right backs rather than centre backs due to his spells on the left wing, it is a good win rate and not far off of Giroud’s 51% success rate.
The direct comparison between the two shows that the pair clearly have different strengths. If Remy were to sign then the duo would of course be competing, but would more importantly be part of squad rotation and depth. Remy has flourished alongside Ameobi at Newcastle, and playing the pair in tandem would provide Wenger with a plan B should the Gunners be chasing games.
Remy would also provide a different option should Wenger decide that Giroud is not suited to a particular opponent or is having little impact on a game, and could play wide if needed. The recent return of Theo Walcott has shown the importance to Arsenal of an injection of pace into their side, helping them to stretch teams and hit more direct passes, and Remy would also help to provide this added dimension.
Remy has completed 17 take ons this season, more than Giroud, Podolski and Bendtner combined and almost double the number completed by fellow speed king Walcott (9).
With Arsenal in the market for a striker and Remy recently talking of his desire to return to Champions League football a move would make sense. Whilst Newcastle would hate to lose their topscorer, he has remained coy when asked if he is keen to make the move permanent and would surely relish a move to Arsenal.
His loan deal runs to the end of the season, meaning that Arsenal would probably have to wait until the end of the season to secure a deal. However, with Wenger not one to panic buy, such a move is feasible and the French striker would fit in well at the club.
