Maybe all those concerned with the success of Arsenal in the Premier League in the coming months will have something to worry about if the reports about this transfer deal turn out to be true and the Spanish international striker Pedro Rodriguez does join our rivals Chelsea from Barcelona this summer.
I think his pace and finishing ability could be a significant addition to the options up front for Jose Mourinho and so I hope he stays in La Liga or goes elsewhere. But I do not believe the Arsenal transfer rumour reported by Metro which explains that one of the Catalan sports papers is saying that Pedro has `snubbed´ a transfer to Arsenal to move to Stamford Bridge.
For one thing, the reason given for him choosing Chelsea over us is that he would feel more comfortable there because of the Spanish speaking players in the Chelsea squad. Are Nacho Monreal, Gabriel, Hector Bellerin, Mikel Arteta, Santi Cazorla and Alexis Sanchez not enough then?
The main reason for paying no attention to this rumour, however, is that we do not need Pedro. His usual position of playing on the right of a forward three is pretty well covered already, as Arsene Wenger explained when he gave the reason for not trying to sign Raheem Sterling.
Seriously Gooners, why would we go for Pedro when you have Walcott, Gnabry, Chamberlain, Wilshere, Ramsey, Ozil, Welbeck, Alexis and Akpom able to play on the right?
I would really like to see young akpom banging in the goals in the coming new season! Coyg!
…..on-loan, where he can actually get first-team football
You are both right. Love to see Akpom given a better chance with 1st team. But I guess we must trust Wenger to know if he is ready and a good loan spell might just give us the answer.
The good thing about Chelsea making transfers is that unless they sign Suarez pogba Neymar etc they won’t be really improving the team that much , they have a very strong squad which only elite players will improve now ! Which makes it easier for the rest of us to catch up ! Let them have pedro he ain’t no alexis or ozil . I think this season could potentially have 4 teams battling it out till the end but I’ll wait till after deadline day to confirm that opinion
Are you talking about the Pedro Rodriquez from Barcelona? The one that the article is also talking about? Pedro is an obvious upgrade in that Chelsea team should he be signed. A lot of goals haven’t came from Chelsea’s right side last season especially when Schurlle left and am sure he will be scoring a lot for them so I am not sure if that statement of him not being an upgrade is correct.
Take a good look at Chelsea’s side most of their Fowards have won accolades in other leagues, Most Assist’s, Most Goals.. Its not like any of them came from the Chelsea academy. I dont see Pedro being capable of beating Hazard or Costa’s performances last season and its not like the other guys are useless either. Pedro in all honesty is just one expensive squad player because he is not being brought in compete with Hazard and Costa he can’t .. he is just not on their level. He just enters a rotation of good attacking forwards at Chelsea
What are the women like on your planet?
You know there is a reason why Pedro isn’t a frequent starter at Barcelona. Its not because he’s bad, Its because the front 3 of the line up are so far out of his league, he may aswell be playing baseball to them . Bringing him to Chelsea He wont surpass Costa or Hazard, if Hazard was the best player in the league, he couldn’t get in the Barcelona team ahead of Sanchez and Isaac Cuenca and had to fight for his place with Christian Tello.. Dont get me wrong he is a goodplayer, at the end of the day it isnt really bringing something they dont already have or could get between Oscar, Willian, Cuadrado and at extreme Mo Salah I mean the f£cked of people like De Brueyn and Schurle who are similar types of players and while it can be put to debate as who is better out of the three, the difference in ability isn’t that vast. Once again Champagne Charlie an expensive squad player
Completely warped argument to say Pedro wouldn’t play ahead of Costa/Hazard….
…he’s not a ST firstly so why Costa is mentioned idk. Secondly with Hazard, I fail to see why there would be a choice between the two. Isn’t the point of having a LW and a RW such that TWO top class players can play in the positions? To apply it closer to home it’s like saying Pedro wouldn’t play ahead of Giroud or Alexis….uhmm well he def would play ahead of Theo/Ox so there’s where the improvement comes.
How isn’t Pedro an upgrade over Willian/Cuadrado exactly? Pedro brings a work rate, goals, and assists, the other two bring the work rate. To call Schurlle and De Bruyne similar to Pedro shows a distinct lack of understanding. Pedro improves Chelsea, simple.
I agree with you C. Charlie.
I believe the only reason why most people are saying Pedro is not an upgrade for Chelsea is because Arsenal are not going to get him.
I’m sure that if Arsenal were to get him…we’ll continue reading accolades of Pedro’s brilliance.
I do hope we make quality signings so we’re not struggling for 3rd or 4th place.
I never said he wasn’t an upgrade I said he may he improve them slightly . I wouldn’t mind us signing him at all don’t get me wrong but it doesn’t bother me if Chelsea do i’d be more concerned if they bought pogba bale etc which they could do potentially
Why so much interest on Chelsea team. Leave them, let them do the analysis of their team cos WE ARE ARSENAL
PeDro is better than everyone on there right he has more ability , End product and work rate just as good as William who only managed 2 goals
I’m not saying he’s not a very good player of course he is but is he really much of an upgrade on Willian Oscar cuadrado or hazard not really for me! I’m sure he may improve then but on slightly whereas a top striker for us will improve us massively . which would close the gap in my eyes
I get your point mate. Your saying well at least there not bringing in someone like Bale who would likely tear the place up. Like how Arsene said he will only look at the top quality.
I also believe that Pedro is an underrated player, he was probably perceived to have no ambition because he never moved earlier so may have went under the radar somewhat. Still, he has allot to prove.
Bingo. Mostly they sign the same quality of player (very good) and just hope he fits better into their lineup.
When Mourinho acquired Schuerle he proudly declared that Schuerle was HIS signing and that Schuerle would become a Chelsea legend. A few months later he Schuerle was gone and someone else was inserted with little improvement if any. Looks like Cuadrado will follow a similar path.
They are still a very good team no doubt. But you are right. They need a massive signing to improve the squad significantly. They can hope Neymar gets bored at Barca.
That’s good to hear that !happy I’m not the only one seeing the obvious
My main priority “wish” right now is beating chelsea in the community shield! What a way that would be for us to start off the new season! Coyg!
Cech to win it by saving Fabregas’ penalty in a shootout.
Mine will be beating them to the league
“why would we go for Pedro when you have Walcott, Gnabry, Chamberlain, Wilshere, Ramsey, Ozil, Welbeck, Alexis and Akpom able to play on the right?”
Because Alexis plays on the left, and Pedro is MUCH better than anyone else in the list at RW. It’s like some people don’t even watch football I swear….
Eric Abidal: “Players such as Pedro cannot be allowed to go…..I know him as a player but also as a person. He is a player who fits into the first team very well. When we won everything in 2009, the most important goals were his”.
Yes that’s a fair statement but let’s be honest if pedro was not there barce would prob still have won everything still with the players they had and have
What a hypothetical and completely speculative comment….
Fact is he was there, and played a significant part in their success the past few years.
Can’t help myself but give a little ‘I told you so’ in regards to Sterling… Supply and demand, City had the money and need. Was always going for over 40mil and 150k/week.
Yea sorry Josh, but City engaging in terrible business practices proves nothing. FFP has been alleviated and homegrown talents are a premium, two factors that came into effect only recently. You couldn’t school me in economics to save your life.
Yeah, ”…the part few years”. That explains it…
Just like Chelsea winning the title last year with remy there they couldn’t of done it without him!! My point is if pedro weren’t there someone else would be just as good but not the same without Suarez Neymar messi is it . I’m aware he contributed (a bit)
Precisely, Pedro would be more than an excellent signing. Honestly I doubt people paid much attention to Barcelona’s front 3 when it was Pedro Messi and Villa or they’d realize Pedro is class
I would never get upset about a quality signing like Pedro – especially if the price was reasonable. But to make the biggest improvement for the money Wenger would do better to go for some other positions first. 1st – DM. 2nd – Striker.
As always, I could be wrong. (But I doubt it). And I would still be thrilled with an addition like Pedro.
Pedro is better than any winger we have, other than Alexis of course, so why shouldn’t we get him? Though having said that, I’ve never really wanted Pedro for some reason. But I wouldn’t welcome Chelsea getting him, why would we want them to strengthen?
The thing is we all no Chelsea are goin to strengthen there squad so if pedro is there main signing I’ll take that all day long I no he’s a quality player but it’s not worrying like other players would be
That assumption only works under 2 conditions:
a) that Chelsea only make that signing which is HIGHLY doubtful
b) that we make the signings to improve the gap
Very true indeed but tbf to Chelsea they try to run the club by the book now so don’t think we’ll see to many players (hopefully)
Also Mick we obviously have a budget to stick to so me personally would rather spend it on what we need rather than what we want ! We NEED a striker and cdm with prob about 60m at a guess. Suppose we could sell ox or Walcott to fund pedro tho or just to make room for him but there’s the homegrown situation aswell as of next season upto 12players as we no
Hmm so let me get this straight. Chelsea are welcome to improve their squad, make it better than it was last season after they finished 15 points in front of us and we’ll just say, ” Hey, no biggie, you gave us Cech so we’ll return the favor”.
First of all let me give you an in depth analysis.
In the last 3 seasons, only Messi and Neymar scored more goals than Pedro. Pedro was a regular under Guardiola and was key in Barcelona’s 2011 CL win. He has a superb shooting technique and a work rate matching Sanchez.
It should tell you his quality that Sanchez was let go instead of Pedro.
As for Chelsea they have a strong squad but their problem is that their main source of creativity is from Hazard, Fabregas, Oscar and Willian in that order. Willian isn’t very creative as a right winger but that’s because he ISN’T a winger. He played as a CAM at Shaktar Donetsk. Oscar only performs well for half a season which is part of the reason Chelsea’s form dropped in January.
If Chelsea get Pedro and move Willian to CAM that will be a substantial upgrade to their midfield. Pedro would slot seamlessly into Chelsea’s midfield as he’s already defensively minded.
Pedro to Chelsea is NOT good news for Arsenal.
Please, the standard of the articles here has dropped, can we please do some research before we write these articles?
In depth analysis lol he messi and Neymar are the only barce forwards to of played there the last 3 seasons do u think maybe that’s why!!!! He has scored 33league goals in the last 4 seasons good but not out of this world ! Thanks for the football lesson tho
Oh really? How about ALEXIS SANCHEZ? David Villa? Afellay? Suarez? Tello? Fabregas who was used as Barcelona’s failed false 9? Any of those names ring a bell?
U said in the last 3 seasons only messi and Neymar have scored more YEA???? And I said that’s prob because there the only 3 forwards to of played there the last 3 seasons!! Not rocket science is it !! Sanchez played 2of last 3 villa 1 Suarez 1 !!! Misleading information poorly executed lol
That’s like me saying Giroud is better than Sanchez because he’s scored more goals than him over the last 3 years for arsenal CLUELESS but entertaining aswell fair play
No, I said in the last 3 seasons not FOR the last 3 seasons. Surely you understood this because you included Neymar within your assessment, Neymar has only been at Barcelona for 2 seasons, 2013/2014 and 2014/2015.
the Neymar point makes your praise of pedro even more discrediting then . So you’ve either made a really stupid comment by comparing 3seasons at barce when all bar messi haven’t even played in all of the last 3 ,or your saying pedro 40goals in the last 3 seasons is higher than Suarez at barce and Liverpool in the last 3 ??
Fair point tho I thought Neymar had done 3 seasons at barce shoot me now for the obvious lack of knowledge of la liga
Pedro 40goals last 3 Sanchez 57 goals Suarez 76goals
Chelsea, City and United will spend money to sign top class players. We must not worry too much because we already have a fantastic bunch of players. Players are confident that as a team they are on the verge of achieving great things. We already shown last season that when we have less injury, then we can compete with the top.
People are talking about a top striker but Giroud has scored 14 PL goals this season and Sanchez has score 2 more than him, had giroud been not injured he would definitely had scored 20 PL goals . Then we have Walcott who is on good form lately.
Coqualan stats is one the best in PL, if he misses a game then we can very well put a combo of Ramsey and Wilshare to do the job,
We should worry about 2 things now
1. Fitness of the players: Wenger needs at least one season where all his players are injury free to show if he is actually correct with his signingss to.
2. Players form: Each player has give their 100%. Need a big season from Ozil, Sanchez and Giroud has to keep on scoring, walcott has to continue his devastating form in front of the goal. Ramsey and Cazorla has to dominate midfield and chip in double digit goals. OX has to be more productive and increase his assist tally.
Coqulan and Bellerine and Nacho has to keep on their emergence and shaoe that they are not once season wonder. Mersakar and Koschilemy has to continue their great partnership, specially Koschielmy has to take the crown from terry as Pl best Defender.Peter Check has to give us 10 plus points as excpected
Now we all know that these players does not need a miracle to achieve this, they have actually done it last season.
we just need them to do it a full season
Let me just poke one hole in it its the Giroud and the top striker. He went 8 games in a row without scoring! I’m just saying no other striker stepped up to the plate, if you are on the quest for a title s and accolades and in 8 games you have 3 goals from your recognised forwards.. now i known your saying a miracle of having an injury free season , but when he gets tired and there is no one on the bench to replace him so we can rest him… fatigue does play a factor in form… we will end up with him going on another run of not scoring goals. Thats why we need another striker.
Pretty sure someone else stepped in as striker and scored a hat-trick then the opener in the Cup final…
OK. Costa went 7 games without scoring but no praise is too great for him. Aguero went 6 games without scoring twice. Rooney went 9 games. Dzeko went 13. The seeming fan fave Benzema went 6. Higuain went 6 games twice. This are top strikers – it is not unusual mate, honestly.
is it simply bcz that pedro is said to bevheading to chelsea the reason he is no better??????! open your eyes..THINK!Pedro is world class and can improve any team on the RW including Chelsea,arsenal,manutd,man city and Liverpool…clear and simple..
imagine a Chelsea of:
hazard costa pedro
_____fabregas____
mantic–Willian
No offence but putting Willian in the holding role shows that u ain’t got a dickiebird
This article sounds a bit bitter. True, we have cover and quality on the right, but would Pedro not be an upgrade to that position? Depends on one’s opinion I suppose. I wouldn’t see it as a step back, though.
When the rumour was the Arsenal were going to go in for him, his praises were being sung (nay, screamed) from the rooftops. Now a rumour is doing the rounds about him joining Chelsea, suddenly we don’t need him anymore, Akpom is touted as good enough to compare to him, and Chelsea are “welcome” to him.
Heart ruling head, I suppose.
I think the real question is – does Pedro coming and us sacrificing a right sided player to accommodate him make as much sense as buying a new striker and sacrificing nobody? Any team making purchases will try to strengthen the weakest part of their team while also trying to buy the best available players. With a huge plethora of right sided midfielders, RM is the least important position on the whole pitch for us to try and make a signing. By making that signing we make ourselves vulnerable in another area of the pitch.
Chelsea, conversely, are probably weakest in RM as they are still struggling to find that right fit over there. Even Oscar has not been able to hold the position down. SO making a RM signing makes sense for them.
Let’s look at it another way. For each position we have to consider quality, depth and versatility. Our RM is flush with players so depth is covered, and many operate in differing ways so our versatility is covered. Our quality might not be top notch, but generally the position is solid. In direct opposition our LM has 1 player (and a few CMs that can play it), a high quality player, but lacks depth or versatility. That 1 player, Alexis, is even naturally a RM so you can instantly see LM is a WAY more pressing signing than RM. You can apply the same principle to every position and you quickly realise that our most vulnerable positions are DM and CF. RM is in fact probably only a higher priority than GK and RB at this point.
Pedro would be MORE than a luxury signing when we can make bigger squad improvements in virtually every other area of the pitch. Granted, he is a good signing, but he is not our most vital one and with our budget, I’d prefer Chelsea to take him than us end up benching good players while having a crisis elsewhere on the pitch.
Good analysis. Contrary to what has been said above many on here have praised Pedro – myself included. I accept he is a better player than Walcott and Oxlade Chamberlain. But as you say RAM/RW has been Chelsea’s glaring, albeit relative, weakness for some time. Curiously they also have a similar situation to us on the left – no effective cover, but like us how do you back up Alexis/Hazard with “effective” cover?
I do think Pedro is a risk though for Chelsea. They have failed to accommodate so many wide players in recent times, players with good reputations and players who have managed to perform at a higher level than they managed at Chelsea elsewhere. Salah, De Bruyne, Schurrle and now Cuadrado is quite a list. And whilst people have drawn favourable comparisons between Alexis and Pedro I think there are some fundamental differences in background and mental attitude. Alexis was a street kid who has travelled the world plying his trade – I have read quite a bit on Pedro being quite the home-town boy. He has had a cosseted existence and will be leaving his beloved club/country for the first time.
Having said all that, nothwithstanding their relative technical merits, if (significant “if” I appreciate) Theo retains his RW slot I would back him to outscore Pedro.