With a header against Man United last night, Richarlison scored his 7th goal in the Premier League this season, more than any other player in the Arsenal squad.
At the beginning of this season, many people might not have believed it if they knew that Richarlison would score more goals than every Arsenal player. Because they witnessed the Brazilian striker’s ungainliness and the Gunners’ impressive ability to “fire” last season. However, by this time, things had changed direction.
Specifically, with a header against Man United last night, Richarlison officially scored his 7th goal in the Premier League this season, surpassing the 6 goals scored by Arsenal’s top scorer, Bukayo Saka. . This is clearly a clear improvement for the Tottenham striker compared to the beginning of the season.
In the first 10 rounds, Richarlison started all 10 matches but only scored 1 goal in Tottenham’s 2-1 victory over Sheffield United. The 26-year-old striker received a lot of criticism for being too out of place in a rising team led by coach Ange Postecoglou.
However, after 1 match without playing, 2 matches off due to injury and 2 matches only being played as a substitute, Richarlison has begun to change. From round 16-21 of EPL, the former Everton star opened fire in 5/6 of Spurs’ matches with 6 goals, including a double in the Roosters’ 4-1 victory over Newcastle in round 16. Richarlison is clearly gradually taking over. regained his scoring instinct after more than a season of struggling in the white half of North London.
On the contrary, Arsenal’s attack has shown a decline in performance this season. Last season, the three players who scored the most goals for the Gunners in the Premier League were Martin Odegaard, Gabriel Martinelli (15 goals) and Bukayo Saka (14 goals). After 21 rounds last season, Odegaard scored 8 goals, Martinelli and Saka scored 7 goals.
At the same stage this season, the above 3 players only fired 4, 2 and 6 times respectively, showing a markedly poor scoring performance of the entire Arsenal team. This problem may originate from the fact that the Gunners have to strain to compete in the Champions League or that their opponents are gradually catching up with the playing style of coach Mikel Arteta and his team.