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There have been two significant problems for Arsenal this season, which have resulted in yet another trophyless campaign.

The first is their numerous and significant injuries, and the second is their lack of cutting-edge up top, which said injuries have exacerbated.

For example, as things stand, the North Londoners have scored 17 goals fewer than Liverpool in the Premier League despite being just one place behind them in the table.

So, with such a clear deficit between them and their title rival, it’s hardly been surprising to see a host of talented attackers linked with the Gunners in recent weeks, such as Bryan Mbeumo, although even with his lofty price tag, one of Arsenal’s own stars is worth millions more.

Why Arsenal want sign Mbeumo

So, according to reports from earlier this week, Arsenal are keen on signing Mbeumo during the summer, but what is it about him that has caught the North Londoners’ eye

Well, the main thing is that even though he’s not the biggest name around and plays for a team who were in the Championship just a few seasons ago, the Cameroon international is a lean, mean goalscoring machine.

For example, in just 41 appearances, totalling 3487 minutes this season, the “unplayable” attacker, as dubbed by Brentford boss Thomas Frank, has scored 19 goals and provided nine assists, which comes out to an average of a goal involvement every 1.46 games, or every 124.53 minutes.

Moreover, on top of his prolific nature in front of goal, the former Troyes star can play in a number of different positions, from right-wing to centre-forward to second striker, and he’s even made a few appearances off the left.

In all, Mbeumo would bring a mountain of goals with him to the Emirates and help bulk out Arteta’s attacking options, making his supposed £60m price tag seem relatively reasonable.

Yet, while he’d likely be a hit in North London, the Brentford star would have to hit the ground running and then some to see his valuation get anywhere near one of his potential teammates.

The Arsenal star worth millions more than Mbeumo

The good news for Arsenal is that while they haven’t all performed at their best this season, they do have a few very talented attackers in the squad, such as Gabriel Martinelli, Leandro Trossard and Kai Havertz.

However, when it comes to someone who is worth considerably more than Mbeumo, only one player stands out: Bukayo Saka.

Yes, according to Transfermarkt, the young Englishman is worth up to an astounding €150m, which is about £126m, or a whopping £66m more than the Brentford ace is likely to cost the club.

Now, while that might sound like an absurd valuation, it’s probably a fair one, as, despite still being just 23 years old and missing over three months of the season, the Hale End superstar has still been the Gunners’ most productive player this season.

For example, in just 36 appearances, totalling 2592 minutes, the “legend in the making,” as dubbed by talent scout Jacek Kulig, has scored 12 goals and provided 14 assists, which comes out to an average of a goal involvement every 1.38 games, or every 99.69 minutes.

Appearances

24

9

3

Minutes

1709′

764′

119′

Goals

6

6

0

Assists

11

2

1

Goal Involvements per Match

0.70

0.88

0.33

Minutes per Goal Involvement

100.52′

95.5′

119′

Moreover, according to FBref, he sits in the top 1% of attacking midfielders and wingers in Europe’s top five leagues for shot-creating actions from shots and goal-creating actions, the top 2% for expected assists, the top 5% for goals plus assists and more, all per 90.

Ultimately, while Mbeumo would be a brilliant signing, it feels unlikely that he’d ever be as valuable as Saka, as the talismanic winger is already performing at a world-class level and has many more years to get even better.

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ByJack Salveson Holmes May 20, 2025

Aston Villa suffered a 3-1 defeat away to Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League quarter-final first leg on Wednesday evening.

Despite the quality on show for PSG, it was the Villans who took the lead, and what a goal it was. Marcus Rashford played a perfectly weighted pass into the path of Youri Tielemans, who fired a cross to the back post where Morgan Rogers was waiting to tap home.

The home side hit back just moments before the halftime whistle. The electric Desire Doue was the goalscorer, cutting inside onto his right foot and curling his shot into the top right corner, past Emiliano Martinez.

Khvicha Kvaratskhelia gave PSG the lead in the 49th minute with a goal that put his side in the box seat.

It was a remarkable effort, carrying the ball from just inside the Villa half into the penalty box, before rolling it onto his left foot and firing home high into the back of the net. Nuno Mendes sealed the win in the second minute of stoppage time, selling Martinez a dummy and rifling his effort home into a near-empty net.

It was a tough night at the office for Unai Emery’s side, who came up against some high-quality attackers. Matty Cash was one player who struggled to cope at times.

Matty Cash's performance in numbers vs PSG

It is never easy as a defender when you are coming directly up against Doue, Kvaratskhelia and Ousmane Dembele. Poland international Cash certainly struggled at times at right-back and had little respite from the Les Parisiens attackers.

Indeed, those attackers in a PSG shirt were relentless and really had Cash tied up in knots at times. The Villans number 2 picked up a yellow card for a cynical foul in the 17th minute to stop a counter-attack.

This made it tough at times for him to engage, given that he was at risk of committing a foul and receiving a second yellow card.

In fact, the stats from the game reflect just how tough of a night it was for Cash. As per Sofascore, the 27-year-old won just three of eight attempted ground duels and committed four fouls. Impressively, he did manage to win all three of his attempted tackles.

It was certainly a tough evening and it was perhaps unsurprising to see he was substituted at half time for Axel Disasi.

He will surely be hoping the second leg at Villa Park is a little more forgiving. However, he was not the only Villa player who struggled at the Parc des Princes.

Aston Villa's other underperformer

As much as Villa had to do defensively on Wednesday night, it meant their attackers did not get much joy going forward, aside from Rogers’ goal. One of the players who suffered that fate was homegrown hero Jacob Ramsey.

Chalkboard

Football FanCast’s Chalkboard series presents a tactical discussion from around the global game.

The boyhood Villa star did not necessarily play badly against the French giants but did not have much joy going forward. He also had his work cut out defensively, having to track Achraf Hakimi, who mauraded forward a lot throughout the game.

Indeed, Ramsey’s stats from the game show just how tough it was for him. The Villa number 41 had 29 touches of the ball, completing 61% of his passes and losing the ball ten times. He won three from four duels but failed to win his only attempted tackle.

The 23-year-old received a 5/0 post-match rating for his performance from Goal journalist Richie Mills. He described Ramsey as “quite quiet” throughout the game and explained that “much of his work involved trying to track back” and defend against Hakimi.

It will be interesting to see if Ramsey keeps his place in the starting lineup in the next seven days. Villa have the already-relegated Southampton away from home over the weekend before the return leg against PSG next Tuesday.

Emery has several options at his disposal. PSG Lonaee Marco Asensio replaced Ramsey on the hour mark at the Parc des Princes, and Ollie Watkins also missed out on a starting spot.

Perhaps Emery will turn to one of those if he decides to look for more directness in the attack, thus rotating Ramsey out of the side for a huge clash next week.

He was worse than Disasi: Emery must drop 4/10 Aston Villa dud after PSG

Unai Emery must drop this Aston Villa flop who was even worse than Axel Disasi.

By
Dan Emery

Apr 10, 2025

India have the batting to get into strong positions at Edgbaston, and their bowling is not much behind England in terms of quality and experience

Sidharth Monga26-Jun-20259:44

Batters, bowlers or fielders: Who cost India the Leeds Test?

Headingley was a weird Test. India dominated large chunks of it with bat and ball, but still lost. Despite the somewhat-deserved flak the Indian bowlers are getting, they consistently created more chances than England’s bowlers did. India lost ten wickets to just 108 false shots in the first innings and 92 in the second; England lost ten and five wickets in 137 and 113 false shots.Often such losses can be attributed to luck, but India weren’t unlucky either. At least not unlucky in the way their false shots went to hand at an inordinate rate as it did during the 36 all out in Adelaide.Headingley wasn’t a typical Bazball Test. The Bazball philosophy is to play more shots against good balls, trusting a combination of their batters’ attacking qualities and the new flat pitches in England that don’t deteriorate. The surfaces at Headingley just keep getting better for batting. Other teams bat conventionally and play fewer shots to good balls. England’s taller bowlers have tended to bash the good lengths and draw more out of the pitches than the opposition.Related

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During the Bazball era, England’s batting average and strike rate on false shots have usually been better than their opponents in that match. That wasn’t the case at Headingley, where India averaged more and scored quicker on false shots in the first innings. The difference would have been bigger if India had held even half of their catches.This is not to decry dropped catches, but to suggest India had England. They dragged England out of familiar territory largely because their attack lacked pace and experience. England’s bowlers were unable to, in Stuart Broad’s succinct words, hold length or bowl in disconcerting areas. In the first innings, their fast bowlers bowled just 197 balls in the 6-8m band in 86 overs; India put 203 balls there in 77.4 overs. India drew more average seam from good length than England, although at around 0.6 degrees it didn’t consistently trouble the batters.The England seamers did have better average and strike rate from these good-length balls, but it is not attributable to them getting more out of the pitch from there. The numbers are also influenced by the lopsided dropping of catches, which is not likely to repeat itself.!function(){“use strict”;window.addEventListener(“message”,(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data[“datawrapper-height”]){var e=document.querySelectorAll(“iframe”);for(var t in a.data[“datawrapper-height”])for(var r,i=0;r=e[i];i++)if(r.contentWindow===a.source){var d=a.data[“datawrapper-height”][t]+”px”;r.style.height=d}}}))}();