Just like we saw Arsenal doing last season, we brought in another player from a club who are now looking like close friends more than rivals off the pitch, that player is none other than Raheem Sterling and that club is none other than Chelsea.
Kai Havertz and Raheem Sterling were two players who were in similar positions before their respective moves to the Arsenal, both were on the periphery of the starting eleven at Chelsea with the latter’s case being worse given how he was forced out of the club on loan.
Havertz came with zero confidence, the huge price tag and the hard task of winning over the Arsenal fans, and surely enough he started life very poorly. The calls for him to get dropped from the side were getting louder by the week. However Arteta persisted, and fast forward over a year later the big (but lanky) German has established himself as one of the first names on the team sheet.
Similarly again this year, Raheem Sterling’s start to life at the Arsenal has been underwhelming, he has only managed 2 goal contributions this season and both were against a League One side in the EFL cup, indeed his goal and assist against Bolton Wanderers has been the only ones for the Gunners so far. In fact the only games in which he has shown a menacing threat this season has been the two games in the EFL cup against Bolton and more recently, Preston North End.
He did very well recently against Preston with his dribbling and pace causing all sort of problems for the Championship side, this was especially so when he got drifted out to his favorite left-wing role, and I think we can all agree that he was very unlucky not to score. Part of the reasons why he hasn’t been effective for us, including low confidence, has been his limited game time and his deployment on the right wing. This is understandable because he was particularly brought in as a replacement for Bukayo Saka due to his versatility and ability to play across the frontline.
If he’s going to come good for us, I believe he has to played more off the left. Furthermore he’s going to need all the love and support from the Arsenal fans to pull him out of his poor form. I’m sure there’s a player in there who can help us this season and who knows, if he does well maybe he’ll get signed permanently.
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