Rumours insist that Jamie Vardy is heavily linked with a big money move to Arsenal, with ESPN FC recently reporting that the Englishman is heading to north London for a medical on Monday (AEST).
While Vardy scored 24 league goals in the Premier League this past season, the rampaging style of Leicester City is very different to the finesse of Arsenal.
Arsene Wenger reportedly met with the 29-year-old to discuss his transfer and triggered his £20million release clause just a few days ago.
Since then, both Olivier Giroud and Leicester manager Claudio Ranieri have confirmed a mutual interest between the two parties, however it begs the question. Will Vardy actually fit with Arsenal?
The North London club scored 94 per cent of their goals this season inside the box and that includes Olivier Giroud’s lone penalty against Aston Villa in December.
Vardy meanwhile earned himself the moniker of ‘Fox in the Box’ as he scored all but one goal inside the area throughout the title-winning campaign.
While the end result may be the same, the slow tactics of Arsene Wenger and fast-paced style of Claudio Ranieri could not be any different.
The Foxes were second in the league in shots coming directly from counter attacks with 135, falling just short of Manchester City who finished with 139.
Meanwhile, Arsenal finished sixth with 119, behind a lacklustre Chelsea side (124) and a Liverpool squad (132) struggling their way through an identity crisis.
The most concerning aspect of the potential relationship is Arsenal’s reliance on retaining possession and scoring goals from prolonged passing moves.
Many pundits and analysts often accuse the Gunners of trying to walk the ball into the back of the net.
And who could blame them?
The ‘established possession’ statistic looks at how many shots a team created after maintaining control of the ball inside the opposition’s half.
Arsenal lead all Premier League sides with 133 shots, while Leicester finished dead last in the metric with just 22.
This will have a huge impact on Vardy as counter attacks leading to either goals or penalties account for 18 of his total 24 goals.
His meteoric rise to Premier League fame will never be forgotten but many still argue that his lack of consistent scoring across multiple seasons is a cause for concern for Arsenal.
In the 2014-15 season Vardy only managed five goals in 36 appearances for Leicester City in the English Championship, however all concerns are immediately dismissed when analysing the impotence of Arsenal’s incumbent strikers.
Despite strong performances for France in pre-Euro 2016 friendlies, the Frenchman largely struggled with consistency for Arsenal this season.
The 29-year-old striker impressed at the start of the season with ten goals in 17 games, however fell flat on the final stretch as Arsenal pushed for their first Premier League trophy since The Invincibles.
Giroud suffered through a 15-game goalless drought from the 13th of January to eighth of May, a period which saw Arsenal secure a meagre 26 of a potential 48 points.
This period fortunately coincided with the return of Danny Welbeck, who had been sidelined for 10-months with a chronic knee injury.
The former Manchester United striker managed four goals in ten appearances however has since undergone surgery on his knee, effectively ruling him out for at least nine months.
With Theo Walcott proving to be inadequate as a lone striker, it seems Wenger has grown impatient with his side’s lack of goal-scoring prowess.
The Frenchman is normally quite subdued in regards to transfers, having only spent £154.30million over the past three seasons.
In comparison, Manchester City have spent £249.80million in the same time frame, their cross-town rivals United spending £328.50million in three short years.
It’s been twelve long years since Arsenal last lifted the Premier League trophy and signing Jamie Vardy would be a huge step in the right direction if Wenger is to stop the drought.
The north London side have been without a prominent goal-scoring threat since Robin van Persie left back in 2012 and will be looking to capitalise on the class of Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez.
But as we saw this season, it takes more than just big money signings to win the Premier League.
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