Arsenal could make a third signing of the month before the January transfer deadline with Brighton’s Moises Caicedo subject of interest from the Gunners
We ‘signed’ Moises Caicedo for Arsenal as January transfer with unexpected results
Arsenal’s hunt for a midfielder has picked up in recent days, with the Gunners heavily linked with Brighton and Hove Albion’s Moises Caicedo.
After having their first bid rejected, Arsenal’s second was also turned away by Brighton, with the Gunners’ £70m offer not meeting the Seagulls’ evaluation of their key player. If Arsenal were to sign Caicedo, it would be Mikel Arteta’s third signing of the summer following the arrivals of Leandro Trossard and Jakub Kiwior.
Caicedo released a statement on the weekend claiming he wants to leave Brighton this month, and the Ecuador international was asked to stay away from training until after the transfer deadline day had passed.
Despite this, the Seagulls are still not willing to sell.
So, could Caicedo star with the Gunners if he was to make a move to the Emirates Stadium? We simulated the rest of the season with the midfielder in the squad to try and find out.
Arsenal’s 2022/23 season simulated with Moises Caicedo
To set up this simulation, we used Football Manager 2023 to arrange for the Ecuadorian international to join Arsenal this month, using FM23 to run the simulation. We then simulated the remainder of the 2022/23 season to see if the midfielder could continue to impress in the Premier League.
After arriving for a major price tag, Caicedo was thrown straight into the starting XI by Arteta, with Granit Xhaka the man who was more than often harshly replaced. Despite playing regularly, the midfielder didn’t produce any performances worth shouting about, failing to replicate the form shown at Brighton.
During his time at both Brighton and Arsenal, the midfielder made 37 appearances, with 22 of them with the Gunners. In his time with Arsenal, Caicedo managed one goal whilst averaging a rating of 6.98 per game. His best competition was the Europa League, where the 21-year-old played six times and averaged a rating of 7.22.
But, Caicedo was pretty average in the Premier League for Arsenal, with the Ecuadorian averaging just a 6.79 rating per game and picking up a red card in his fourth game for the Gunners. When compared to the rest of the Arsenal midfielders, it wasn’t pleasant viewing for Caicedo.
Only Albert Sambi Lokonga (6.73) averaged a lower rating than Caicedo, with Vieira surprisingly averaging the highest (7.19). Odegaard, Xhaka and Partey all impressed, whilst Emile Smith Rowe was played centrally on his return to the squad and averaged a rating of 7.15.
At the end of the 2022/23 season, Football Manager 2023 put together an overall best Arsenal XI, based on performances, statistics and other metrics. This is what it looked like:
Despite Caicedo becoming a regular and starting all but one of his 22 games for Arsenal, the midfielder didn’t make the best XI. Partey, Odegaard and Xhaka was the chosen midfield trio, whilst ex-Brighton man Trossard missed out on the best XI to Gabriel Martinelli.
Arsenal’s results with Caicedo from the 2022/23 season
Arsenal struggled for form between February and March as they suffered their toughest run of results during the season, but a strong end to the campaign saw the Gunners win the Premier League title. After the 38 games, Arteta’s side tallied 85 points, seven more than Manchester City in second, who ended the season poorly.
The Gunners were the league’s top scorers whilst occupying the third-best defence, only behind City and Newcastle, with the latter dropping out of the top four after drawing a whopping 19 games. Arsenal were unable to make it two trophies in the 2022/23 season though, losing 3-2 on aggregate to Roma in the Europa League semi-finals.
Overall, the Football Manager simulation predicts that Caicedo may struggle to impress at Arsenal in his first season at the club, with other midfielders like Xhaka, Partey, Odegaard and Vieira all having better seasons than the Ecuadorian. but at just 21 years old, there’s plenty of time for improvement, and he may just need time to adjust to a new playing style.
Source: dailylifeworld.com
