Alexandre Lacazette has more winning goals than anyone else in the Premier League this season, surpassing Mohamed Salah with his ninth at the weekend.
Alexandre Lacazette
Before we go any further, it’s important to clear up what a ‘winning goal’ is, as this always creates a lot of debate online. A winning goal is given to the player scoring the goal that is one more than the opposing team’s final total. That’s how the Premier League counts them, so that’s how we’ll count them too.
What that means is that if you score the first goal to make it 1-0, it doesn’t matter if your team then score another 10. As long as your opponents don’t score a goal, the first goal is still the winning goal.
That makes sense, too. There’s no doubting that matches change every time a goal goes in, so no one knows if you would’ve scored the second or third without the first.
By that Premier League-accepted definition, Alexandre Lacazette hit a total of nine winning goals this weekend by scoring the opener against Southampton. He was previously tied with Mohamed Salah on eight, but the Egyptian drew a blank against Manchester United, giving Arsenal’s striker the chance to move ahead.
The two goals of Lacazette’s 11 Premier League efforts that weren’t winners were as follows:
- The first goal in the 5-1 win over Fulham. Though it gave Arsenal the lead, it wasn’t a winning goal because Fulham equalised.
- The first goal in the 1-1 draw with Liverpool. That one was fairly obviously an equaliser, not a winner.
If you assume that every winning goal gets you two points (because it’s the difference between one for a draw and three for a win) and every equalising goal gets you one point, then Lacazette’s goals have won Arsenal 20 points this season. That’s more than Fulham or Huddersfield have in total!
The striker also scored a winning goal in the Europa League against Qarabag for another two points gained. Let’s hope he keeps up this habit for the rest of the season.
Lacazette may lead the Premier League in winning goals, but find out which ex-Arsenal star makes the top 10 in Europe for dribbling by clicking ‘Next’
Jeff Reine-Adelaide
The CIES Football Observatory put together a top-50 ranking of players in Europe’s top five leagues based on the lowest minutes per successful dribble. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Lionel Messi was in first place, and other big names like Eden Hazard and Ousmane Dembele also featured in the top five.
However, former Arsenal youngster Jeff Reine-Adelaide also made an appearance in the top 10, as you can see below:
- Lionel Messi – 19.2 minutes (67% success rate)
- Allan Saint-Maximin – 19.8 (60%)
- Eden Hazard – 21.0 (73%)
- Naim Sliti – 21.4 (72%)
- Ousmane Dembele – 21.7 (63%)
- Jadon Sancho – 24.1 (61%)
- Marcus Thuram – 24.2 (72%)
- Jeff Reine-Adelaide – 24.7 (61%)
- Wilfried Zaha – 25.6 (54%)
- Angel Correa – 27.1 (65%)
As usual, when an ex-Arsenal player is having a bit of success, there will be those asking why the club ever sold him. It’s worth taking these dribbling stats in context though.
Although Reine-Adelaide is undoubtedly an excellent dribbler, he’s really struggled to add anything else to his game so far. WhoScored list dribbling as one of his strengths in their statistical analysis, but nothing else. They have crossing and defensive contribution as his weaknesses.
It’s all well and good beating players one-on-one, but if you aren’t strong at creating chances, playing through balls, finishing, crossing, or even passing, then what are you going to do once you’ve gone past someone? Go past them again?
The 21-year-old is still young enough to develop and add more to his game, of course. Until that happens, Arsenal shouldn’t have any regrets about letting him go to play regular football elsewhere.
Arsenal have been linked with signing another player in the above top 10 list, click ‘Next’ to find out which one
Marcus Thuram
- Age: 21
- Position: Left-Winger/Centre-Forward
- Club: Guingamp
- Contract until: 2020
- Estimated transfer value: £4.05m
Mercato365 claim Arsenal sent scouts to watch Marcus Thuram in action on Wednesday and Football.London report that he’s tipped to be a summer signing for the club under rumoured incoming technical director Monchi.
Despite playing for a terrible Guingamp side at the bottom of Ligue 1, the 21-year-old has 11 goals and one assist in 25 appearances this season. That includes goals against the big-hitters in France like PSG, Olympique Lyon and Monaco. Thuram’s goals against PSG and Monaco helped his team to the final of the Coupe de la Ligue.
The young winger, who has also played up front this season, is very strong in the air, and clearly a confident dribbler. He certainly has a physical presence on the pitch, standing at around 6’3″.
Like Pepe, Thuram also has some areas of his game that could do with some work, but it’s also possible he could thrive in a better team and with a few more years of development. We’ll see if Arsenal are the club to make that happen.
Click ‘Next’ for another winger linked with an Arsenal move this summer
Nicolas Pepe
- Age: 23
- Position: Right-Winger
- Club: LOSC Lille
- Contract until: 2022
- Estimated transfer value: £36m
Le10Sport report that Arsenal are ‘well-positioned’ to bring Nicolas Pepe to Arsenal this summer. The Gunners are favourites to sign their long-term target under Monchi for a fee of around €50m, according to the claims.
Pepe has been in fantastic form for Lille this season, scoring 17 goals and providing 11 assists in just 29 matches. As a result, his team have made a surprising run up the table, only sitting behind PSG at it stands.
Still, the winger does polarise opinion a bit. Despite all his goals, his finishing is a bit inconsistent, and many of his efforts have come from penalties. Though he’s a strong passer and dribbler, Pepe’s crossing can also be wasteful, and he does tend to concede possession quite a lot. His defensive contribution also leaves something to be desired.
If he came to the Premier League and got 28 goal contributions for Arsenal in his first season, most fans probably wouldn’t care much about the deficiencies in his game. It’s certainly something to think about before spending €50m though.