Mohammed Kudus transfer gives Arsenal dream Bukayo Saka competition Mikel Arteta has wanted

Arsenal have been linked with a move for Mohammed Kudus of Ajax. After their successful negotiation with the Amsterdam-based club for Jurrien Timber, discussions with the Dutch giants may not be over as the Gunners look to strengthen their options in attack.

Kudus would offer Arsenal perhaps the one thing that they currently lack in their squad: greater competitive depth at both right-wing and centre-forward. Whilst this might seem harsh on both Reiss Nelson and Eddie Nketiah, Kudus has shown in the Eredivisie and the World Cup his quality, though questions still remain.

He managed 30 league appearances for Ajax last season, a record for him after suffering persistent injury problems. He’s truly only had one full season of senior action in his 20s, and therefore would be something of a risk having suffered a serious meniscal problem and a fractured rib which kept him out for two extended stints of 10-plus games on each occasion.

Yet last season he did perform, and played in three roles: right wing, attacking midfield and centre-forward. Now, football.london takes a statistical look at the Ghanaian to see how he stands up against some of Arsenal’s best and a transfer target of the recent past.

Firstly, taking the raw goal and assist statistics according to FBRef from league showings, Kudus' 0.55 goals per 90is better than that of Bukayo Saka (0.4) Leandro Trossard (0.32) and Moussa Diaby (0.3). However, for assists he ranks lowest out of the four with 0.15 per 90 (three in total) compared to Trossard (0.48) Saka (0.31) and Diaby (0.27).

What Kudus could achieve in the context of playing for Arsenal, though, is interesting. Despite paling in comparison to Trossard’s assist numbers, both players managed 3.41 shot-creating