Former Arsenal head coach Unai Emery has recently spoken out about his time with the Gunners and suggested the club’s hierarchy overruled him on a key transfer decision.
The Spaniard was sacked last November before Mikel Arteta took over in early December, but recent revelations indicate that life could have been very different for Emery had he got the transfer he desired.
Nicolas Pépé arrived in North London last summer for a club-record £72million from LOSC Lille and his sizeable price tag is yet to prove its overall worth. The Ivorian has struggled for form in his debut season in the Premier League and such struggles have been exacerbated by a relatively unstable season across the board for Arsenal.
Emery told the Daily Mail: "I was in favour of someone coming who knew the English league, more than anything so that he wouldn't need a period of adaptation.
"I had a meeting with Zaha, the Palace player. He was the player I wanted because I could see that he won so many games on his own.
"I saw 20 Zaha games, some incredible performances and I told them that this is the player that I want for this team… I spoke to Zaha. I had been with him personally. And he wanted to come.
"But the club decided that Pepe was younger, he was one for the future. I said: yes, but we need to win now and this lad [Zaha] wins games. He did it to us."
However, the Gunners’ head of football Raul Sanllehi and technical director Edu chose to ignore the head coach’s demands and opted to sign fellow Ivory Coast forward Pépé - who had scored 22 goals in Ligue 1 last season - instead.
Such claims from Emery means that there are a number of unanswered questions about the pursuit of Zaha and why it failed to materialise. The goal-scoring record of Pépé during the 2018/19 is likely to have been a key attraction, but life could have been very different if the club chose to sign Zaha.
As Emery mentioned himself, the club would have been signing a player with vast Premier League experience that might not have needed as much time to acclimatise as Pépé has required. When looking back on his time at Arsenal, the former Arsenal head coach could have enjoyed success far earlier with a signing more likely to make an instant impact.
On top of that, regardless of the managerial situation, swapping Pépé for Zaha in Arsenal’s current squad poses a number of interesting questions about how the Crystal Palace forward would fit into Arteta’s team and what different strengths he would add to the squad.
An obvious place to start is that Zaha predominantly plays on the left wing which contrasts the way Pépé has played on the right this season - and previously did for Lille during the 2018/19 campaign.
In trying to find a way for Zaha to fit into the Arsenal side, playing on the left would raise multiple questions: where does Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang play? How does Bukayo Saka’s role on the left change? Or does it get even more exciting?
The fact that Aubameyang has scored 42.5% of Arsenal’s goals this season with 17 means that moving him out of a position that has resulted in so much joy would appear illogical. Between the Gabonese forward and Saka, a promising partnership characterised by pace had become a useful source of attack before the suspension of football.
However, the fact that Aubameyang’s strengths lay primarily within the penalty area means that he could be viewed as a more threatening option at centre forward as opposed to playing on the left. Therefore, the addition of Zaha might have been an opportunity to experiment with the front three whilst leaving a noticeable gap on the right.
With the likes of Alexandre Lacazette, Reiss Nelson and Gabriel Martinelli also providing attacking options, the manager might have been afforded the chance to find an alternative front three to the current Aubameyang-Lacazette-Pépé set up.
Looking more closely at how Zaha and Pépé have performed this season, data provider Statsbomb via FBRef shows that the Crystal Palace forward could have been a more influential acquisition.
Zaha has averaged 6.47 touches in the attacking penalty area per 90 minutes this season, which is roughly one more touch than Pépé’s 5.48. Such involvement in the penalty area, despite Crystal Palace’s significantly less lower rate of possession.
A key area in which Zaha has excelled this season is through progressing forwards with the ball and enabling his team to get further forward. An average of 257.5 yards in progression towards the opposition’s goal per 90 minutes so far this season highlights how strong Zaha is in carrying the ball.
Such statistics illustrate the strength Zaha has on the ball and that could have been a reliable source of productivity to provide for Aubameyang in a more central area.
Whilst his output in terms of goalscoring numbers doesn’t set the world on fire with five goals and three assists this season, his signing could have been a quicker impact in the Gunners’ attacking line.
Perhaps one that would have given Emery more time in the job.
