Forget Morgan Rogers…missing out on this £60m Chelsea star is Arsenal’s biggest mistake – opinion

Arsenal would be the complete package with Joao Pedro

Despite a lot of excitement surrounding Gyokeres’ arrival after his remarkable scoring numbers at former club Sporting Lisbon, the Sweden international already seems to be behind Kai Havertz in the pecking order now that the German forward is at full fitness again.

Still, there’s a strong case for saying Pedro is better than either of them, and would make a bigger difference to this Arsenal team than even an elite attacking midfielder like Rogers.

It’s pretty much an open secret at this point that Mikel Arteta’s side were ready to bring Rogers to north London this summer, but they already have a similar style of player in Eberechi Eze in that position, while summer signing Christos Tzolis has also made a big impression so far, despite not being the most high-profile name when he first joined.

Perhaps Havertz or Gyokeres will still come good for Arsenal, or perhaps they’ll end up splashing the cash on Julian Alvarez or someone similar in the near future, but they surely won’t find value like £60m for Pedro in this new inflated market.

Striker
Games
Goals
Transfer fee

Joao Pedro
56
25
£60m

Alexander Isak
25
7
£125m

Hugo Ekitike
45
17
£82.4m

Viktor Gyokeres
56
21
£64m

Benjamin Sesko
34
12
£74m

In fairness, Arsenal aren’t alone there, as other clubs also spent big sums of money on inferior-looking strikers last summer, as the table above shows.

Chelsea’s transfer strategy has received a lot of criticism, and they’ve certainly over-paid for some underwhelming players, but Pedro is up there with Cole Palmer as surely the most astute purchase of the Clearlake era.