It looks as though Arsenal’s transfer business is far from over.
Having already signed Willian and Gabriel and secured Dani Ceballos on loan for another year, the Gunners are poised to add a new goalkeeper to Mikel Arteta’s ranks.
With Emiliano Martinez on the cusp of signing for Aston Villa, the north Londoners have identified Icelandic stopper Runar Alex Runarsson as the Argentine’s replacement.
Runarsson, currently with Ligue 1 side Dijon, will provide back-up for Bernd Leno, who is expected to keep his place as Arteta’s first-choice keeper having missed the latter stages of the 2019/20 season with a knee injury.
Runarsson is the son of former Iceland international Runar Kristinsson, who earned a record 104 caps for his country.
Having come through the youth ranks at both KR Reykjavik and FC Nordsjaelland, Runarsson joined Dijon in 2018 on a four-year deal following an impressive final season with the Danish side.
In his first year in France, he made 25 appearances for Dijon, keeping five clean sheets as his side narrowly avoided the drop into Ligue 2 after beating Lens in the relegation play-off.
As per Wyscout, during the 2018/19 season, he conceded 43 league goals against an xCG (expected conceded goals) of 34.12 from 108 shots faced.
Last season, he played fewer games following the arrival of Alfred Gomis from SPAL. The Senegalese stopper started 19 league games compared to Runarsson’s nine.
And the five-time Iceland international fared reasonably well, conceding 17 goals against an xCG of 16.78, meaning he was considerably closer to his expected goals conceded than he was during his first year at Dijon.
Overall, he is fairly solid at defending his goal against long-range shots, having conceded only two efforts from outside the box in the last calendar year, per Wyscout.
One of his biggest strengths, statistically, is defending aerial balls into the box. In the last calendar year, he ranks seventh among Ligue 1 goalkeepers with 0.85 successful duels per 90, and an overall success rate of 88 per cent.
As you can see from the Wyscout graph below, he has seemingly favoured the left flank when taking goal kicks for Dijon. He often finds his intended target, too, having conceded possession only once inside his own half.
While the ability to distribute quickly and effectively is favoured in the modern era, Runarsson is competent at a goalkeeper’s bread-and-butter, too.
Look at the graph below, for example, which illustrates how he has only conceded twice from set-pieces in 62 corners faced, both of which came from the right flank.
Like any goalkeeper, Runarsson is prone to the odd error. In one of his most recent games, he gifted Monaco a late equaliser when he pushed Islam Slimani’s header straight into the path of Guillermo Maripan.
Two weeks prior to that, in Dijon’s 3-3 draw with Nantes, he was guilty of straying too far from his line before allowing Stephy Mavididi’s header to loop over him.
Had Andrei Girotto not levelled for Dijon two minutes later, it would have been a costly mistake for his side.
While Runarsson’s stats are far from exemplary, it is important to remember that Dijon have finished near the bottom of the Ligue 1 table in each of his two seasons at the club.
Naturally, given how France’s bigger teams can dominate, he has faced shots on a much more regular basis than, say, Paris Saint-Germain’s Keylor Navas, who faced 2.91 shots per 90 last season in Ligue 1 compared to Runarsson’s 4.62.
However, conceding 17 goals against an xCG of 16.78 last term suggests that, for the most part, he did little wrong with the shots he faced.
It is true that Martinez’s stats look better: the Argentine conceded 0.95 goals per 90 last season against an xCG of 1.19.
But with Villa paying £20million for Martinez and Arsenal supposedly forking out less than £2million for Runarsson, a low-price move for a second-choice goalkeeper has to be viewed as a promising piece of business, and one which will perhaps enable Arteta to pursue other targets to aid his Gunners rebuild.
