If any Arsenal supporter had an opportunity to choose one player from any team in the Premier League to join the Gunners, they would jump at that chance. Here, I will be doing that, but not just one player. I will be picking one player to join Arsenal from each of the top six finishing teams, not counting Arsenal, based on last season’s table. This means a player will be chosen from Chelsea, Manchester City, Manchester United, Tottenham, Liverpool, and Southampton.
Chelsea
Player Chosen: Eden Hazard
Honourable Mentions: Nemanja Matic, Thibaut Courtois & Cesc Fabregas
For this question, there was the easy answer, which I decided to go for. I was about to choose Matic, who would hypothetically take over for Francis Coquelin in defensive midfield, but the opportunity to watch Hazard, Mesut Ozil, Alexis Sanchez, and Santi Cazorla would be too amazing to pass on.
Hazard has drawn recent comparisons to Cristiano Ronaldo, who is arguably the best player on the planet right now, and Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho even went so far to say Hazard is better. Granted, Hazard scored 19 goals in all competitions for Chelsea last year, which is nowhere near Ronaldo’s 61. The Belgian is a smooth dribbler who can beat any defender in a one-on-one situation, and that dribbling leads him to create chances to help his team win.
Manchester City
Player Chosen: Sergio Aguero
Honourable Mentions: Yaya Toure & Raheem Sterling
Argentine Sergio Aguero has won the Premier League twice and been to a World Cup Final. He even scored the winning goal to seal Manchester City’s first Premier League title. He is a deep-lying, quick, agile forward who has a great eye for goal and finished as the top scorer in the PL last season.
He and his City side have not had great experiences in the Champions League, but in the current Arsenal team, that would potentially change rapidly.
Manchester United
Player Chosen: Wayne Rooney
Honourable Mentions: David De Gea, Memphis Depay & Morgan Schneiderlin
Wayne Rooney has had a stellar career, tearing Premier League sided apart one by one. He is a great finisher, but in recent seasons has not had the supply to fulfill his goalscoring potential that he has done many seasons ago.
With the number of quality attacking midfielders and wingers, Rooney would have more than enough supply and would hit the 30-goal mark without doubt. He has a work-rate that would make Alexis Sanchez happy and the versatility to play in central midfield just in case the usual Arsenal injury crisis occurs.
Tottenham
Player Chosen: Hugo Lloris
Honourable Mentions: Christian Eriksen, Harry Kane & Toby Alderweireld
Hugo Lloris is a proven goalkeeper, and Arsenal were heavily rumored to be on the cusp of signing him before Spurs interfered. Much younger than Petr Cech, Lloris would provide competition and a suitable, immediate replacement for the aging Czech.
Arsenal centre backs Laurent Koscielny and Per Mertesacker would help him out in the stat column, as those two are easily an upgrade on Jan Vertonghen and Toby Alderweireld.
Liverpool
Player Chosen: Daniel Sturridge
Honourable Mentions: Philippe Coutinho & Christian Benteke
Along with Luis Suarez, Sturridge led Liverpool to second place in the Premier League two seasons ago. Both players hit well into double figures in the goal column, but since Suarez left last summer, the English attacker has been short of supply and playing time due to a number of horrible injury problems.
The former issue would be solved for straight away because of the quality in Arsenal’s midfield. He would also have the chance to play in the Champions League every season, which is something that has only happened sporadically at Liverpool in recent years, and he has proven he has the quality to play with the best.
Southampton
Player Chosen: Dusan Tadic
Honourable Mentions: Jose Fonte, James Ward-Prowse & Victor Wanyama
Dusan Tadic ripped Arsenal’s defence to shreds in January, as Southampton beat Arsenal 2-0. This led to then-first-choice ‘keeper Wojciech Szczesny to smoke in the showers, and that started Arsenal’s famous “crisis”. Tadic can play both in the centre of the attacking midfield or on the wing, and like Mesut Ozil, he is very left footed, but unlike the German, he is more versatile and quicker both with and without the ball.
He would be able to cut in from the right on his favoured left foot, or run down the left flank and play crosses to 6’4 target man Olivier Giroud. Having Tadic in the team would give the Gunners a good element of versatility in midfield and he would add an attacking spark to the side.
