Posted by The Premier League’s worst kept secret is secret no more: Willian has officially signed for Arsenal.
The 32-year-old Brazilian winger joins David Luiz as past-their-prime Chelsea defectors, but if last season is any indication, both still have plenty left in their respective tanks. At least when they’re not giving away penalties.
Mikel Arteta cited Willian’s experience and versatility as the driving forces behind Arsenal’s pursuit of him, telling the official site: “He can play in three or four different positions [and] has the experience of everything in the football world.”
In reality, their pursuit probably hinged as much on Kia Joorabchian than on Willian’s on-field output. But regardless, the Gunners will hope to use some of that experience and creativity, in addition to other new signings, to take them back into the top four in 2020-21.
Playing History
Football has taken Willian all over the world, from the youth setup of Corinthians to the first teams of Shakhtar Donetsk and Anzhi Makhachkala. For the past six and a half years, he’s called West London home as a key player for Chelsea.
Willian readily admits his surprise at the offer to play European football after just one year as a professional in Brazil. “I must admit that I had not planned to leave Brazil so early, and I had certainly not envisaged a future in Ukraine,” he wrote in the Player’s Tribune. “But Corinthians really needed to sell me at that moment, and Shakhtar really wanted me…[and] as you know, every player in Brazil dreams of playing in Europe, especially for one of the big clubs.”
Scouting Report
Willian’s played in the Premier League for seven seasons, so he’s a relatively well known commodity.
Even at his advanced age he’s still an elite level chance creator. He ranked in/around the top 50 in the Premier League in a host of creativity-based metrics, including:
- Key passes: 2.46 per 90 (9th)
- Passes into the penalty area: 2.35 per 90 (6th)
- Expected assists: 0.24 per-90 (14th)
- Non-penalty expected goals + assists: 0.38 per-90 (46th)
- Successful dribbles: 2.15 per-90 (52nd)
For a team that ranked 16th in key passes in 2019-20, his addition could be just what the doctor ordered.
But there are doubts, starting (and let’s be honest, finishing) with his age profile. Willian turned 32 this month, and while he’s shown no sign of decline yet, it’s surely not far away. Will he be the same player 35 as he is today at 32? I don’t think anyone thinks so.
No one thought he’d be the same player at 32 as he was at 28 though, and yet here we are. For an Arsenal team that ranked in the bottom third in virtually all of the above metrics, they could do worse than this. Arsenal are underpaying him now in hopes that they’ll have Champions League money to spend when they’re overpaying him. Let’s hope they’re right.
Final Verdict
Arsenal have gambled that Willian’s experience and chance-creation contributions will be a key cog in getting them back into the Champions League. But they did the same unsuccessfully in 2017 with Alexandre Lacazette, and in 2018 with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
Kia Joorabchian managing the player further muddies the waters. Were Arsenal actually interested in Willian’s player profile, or were they doing Joorabchian a favor in the hopes that he’d return it somewhere down the line?
News broke today that the club were investigating last season’s Nicolas Pépé transfer for inconsistencies with respect to payments towards intermediaries—a Sanllehi / Joorabchian specialty.
The bottom line: the Gunners probably overpaid (significantly) for the player, but he’s with Arsenal now and we’d all do well to give him our support.