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Raheem Sterling’s move was a classic case of reacting to an opportunity.
Arsenal didn’t go into the summer window thinking about signing him, Edu openly admitted that himself when he spoke to the club’s media team soon after the window shut. But having been unable to add to their attacking depth, the opportunity was there just before the deadline to try and do a deal with Chelsea because of Sterling’s situation and Arsenal took full advantage of that.
In the end you have to say that it looks like a great piece of business by Arsenal. Ultimately though, it will be judged on how well Sterling does while he is with the club.
But on the face of it Arsenal have landed themselves an excellent player, who can play anywhere across the frontline and who has the experience of winning four Premier League titles under his belt. And they have done it without having to pay a loan fee, without being tied into any sort of obligation to make the move permanent and by committing to only paying a fraction of his wages. It’s Chelsea who will still be covering the majority of them.
So there’s no doubt it’s a good deal for Arsenal. The key thing is though that they need Sterling to rediscover his best form during the year that he is with the squad. Hopefully Mikel Arteta can find a way of doing that and the signs are good, given we know that Sterling credits Arteta for getting the best out of him while he was with Manchester City.
You look at Arsenal’s squad right now with the departures of Emile Smith Rowe, Reiss Nelson and Eddie Nketiah and with the injury absence of Gabriel Jesus, and it looks light in the attacking department. So Sterling needs to get up to speed quickly and needs to start making a difference.
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