Arsenal’s technical director, Edu, managed to give Mikel Arteta some extra attacking players during the recent summer transfer window.
Namely, the Gunners brought in Gabriel Jesus from Manchester City as an experienced Premier League attacker that had scored 95 goals in 236 appearances for the Citizens, in addition to bringing in Marquinhos as a young prospect from Sao Paulo.
However, another young winger that was linked with a move to the Emirates that Edu should be kicking himself over not being able to strike a deal for is Shakhtar Donetsk’s Mykhaylo Mudryk.
At the age of 21, the winger has made 30 senior appearances for Shakhtar, during which he has scored three goals and delivered 12 assists.
In 11 league appearances last season, the attacker scored two goals and delivered six assists, leaving him with the second-highest rate of assists per 90 minutes at the club (0.86).
In more recent times, the Ukrainian played a big part in seeing his side beat RB Leipzig 4-1 in the Champions League on Tuesday.
With 90 minutes under his belt against the German club, not only did he provide two assists on the night but he also scored Shakhtar’s third goal of the game.
This backs up why Fabrizio Romano labelled him as a “top talent” and also shows how deadly he can be in an attacking sense, as well as being able to do it on club football’s biggest stage.
Bearing in mind how Gabriel Martinelli is the only predominant left-winger in Arsenal’s squad, it should have been the club’s priority to bring in another player for that position over the summer, as Arteta needs someone that can feature in that area.
While Mudryk would have been an ideal signing for the Gunners, he is now showing why they made a mistake in not getting him when they had the chance.
Moving forward, with the upcoming January transfer window in mind, it should definitely be in Arsenal’s plans to revisit the possibility of signing the Shakhtar star and actually get him to the Emirates this time.
