Ranking the 20 biggest PL summer transfers as Gyokeres falls below Wirtz | OneFootball

Viktor Gyokeres is having a shocker and has fallen below Florian Wirtz but there are three Arsenal signings in the top six of our ranking of the top summer signings.

We toyed with the idea of including Yoane Wissa as his 17 minutes, no shots and 11 touches as a Newcastle player was almost enough to see him avoid bottom spot, but he will have to wait for the fourth version some time in the new year for this list to become the full 20.

Here’s where the players ranked three games into the Premier League season and after nine games, with their previous positions included in brackets.

19) Alexander Isak (n/a, 19)

All of his personal gripes with Newcastle and their ‘broken promises’ considered, along with the injustice surrounding the imbalance of power between clubs and players with regard to contracts, we can’t help but feel quite pleased he’s having an absolute mare at Liverpool, particularly given the consistently trotted-out reason for his struggles being his lack of fitness, which is entirely his own fault and surely, surely no longer a valid excuse.

Any hope that the floodgates might open after his first Premier League goal against West Ham – a fine finish it was too – has faded dramatically with arguably even worse performances to strengthen claims that Isak might just be the biggest flop in Premier League history.

18) Anthony Elanga (11, 17)

We all nodded in agreement with Dave Tickner’s sage assertion that while Elanga might not be worth £55m to any other team, he was to Newcastle because of their excellence in transition on the counter-attack, but are now very much distancing ourselves from that fool of a journalist/man.

In just shy of 1000 minutes he has no goals, just two assists and has spent half the time watching Jacob Murphy from the bench.

17) Benjamin Sesko (13, 11)

The abiding memories of Sesko’s contribution to English football so far are him stepping up 10th in the penalty shootout defeat to Grimsby Town having put a stoppage-time chance over the bar from roughly four yards out to ensure the game went that far, and getting injured when clean through against Tottenham.

16) Milos Kerkez (10, 18)

He’s taken to Liverpool like a duck to a frozen pond, expecting to swim but landing arse up with his face in the ice.

Signed largely on the basis of his raiding attacking quality, Kerkez has one goal and no assists in 21 appearances this season and plays like he’s constantly trying to make up for mistakes he hasn’t made yet, but then duly does make in desperation to impress. He doesn’t know where to be or what to do so tries to be everywhere and do everything, and is therefore usually nowhere, doing nothing.

15) Jamie Gittens (12, 16)

He’s done some good things – a stunner against Wolves in the League Cup, a nice assist in defeat at Leeds – but still feels nailed on to be the next young forward to drown in stagnant pool of attacking talent that Stamford Bridge has become in the BlueCo era.

He can at least take solace in Chelsea being a rung on the ladder to Arsenal, where inert young English wingers take their game to the next level.

14) Viktor Gyokeres (8, 12)

We were concerned for a while that Arsenal fans were becoming indestructible such was the way they brushed off perfectly valid criticism of Gyokeres on their seemingly inexorable path to the Premier League title.

But the return of pessimism on the back of dropped points at Sunderland and Chelsea before defeat at Aston Villa saw their lead at the top of the table cut to just two points has granted us access once more to poke at the brittle Gunners psyche and Gyokeres’ frankly shocking form is the standout pressure point.

He’s got six goals in 18 appearances for Arsenal and just one in his last 565 minutes of Premier League action.

He (23.4) and Erling Halaand (22.6) are 442nd and 443rd respectively for touches per 90 this season as strikers who fail to contribute much aside from the goals they score (or are supposed to score).

Haaland is scoring at a rate of 1.06 goals per game compared to Gyokeres’ 0.41, which begs the question as to why Arsenal didn’t sign Dominic Calvert-Lewin (0.42) when they had the chance.

13) Alejandro Garnacho (n/a, 14)

He enjoyed something of a hot streak in November, though what we’ve seen of Garnacho more recently suggests his goal against Qarabag and brace of assists against Wolves was more about the standard of opposition than any real indication of him blossoming at Stamford Bridge.

The jury’s out and frankly we don’t expect them back in session for the rest of what looks to be a predictably frustrating season of infrequent highs from a base of lows.

12) Florian Wirtz (14, 15)

Wirtz has dropped down the growing list of Liverpool problems Arne Slot has to deal with, not least because he appears to be relatively low maintenance in comparison to others (or An Other).

It’s not clear whether a slight uptick in his performances is down to Wirtz’s slow adaptation to the Premier League or if a guy with that much talent is bound to show glimpses of quality if afforded enough time on the pitch. We suspect the latter.

But him not making the starting line-up for the huge clash with Inter on Wednesday isn’t a great sign of Arne Slot’s trust in a playmaker who needs to do a helluva lot more to ease doubts over his suitability to be the face of the New Liverpool in a post-Mohamed Salah era.

11) Tijjani Reijnders (6, 9)

Who needs Kevin De Bruyne? Oh, we do. One excellent performance against Wolves has been followed by not a lot besides from Reijnders, who’s shown glimpses of his quality, but nothing like what we expected after that opening-day clinic.

10) Matheus Cunha (5, 8)

He’s proven that he at the very least has the character required to avoid cowing under the pressure at Old Trafford as so many big-money signing have done before, but if we’re to tar all Manchester United forwards with the brush Roy Keane has used to claim Mason Mount is undeserving of a place in Ruben Amorim’s team then Cunha really needs to improve on his output after one (wonderful) goal and one assist in 13 appearances for the Red Devils.

9) Xavi Simons (n/a, 13)

Thomas Frank cruelly compared the Netherlands international to Florian Wirtz in October when asked about his struggle to adapt to life in the Premier League, and Simons did indeed look similarly short of whatever that thing is required to succeed in the English top flight, with the football happening around rather than through him.

But a goal and an assist in the victory over Brentford and then a goal on Tuesday to help Tottenham see off Slavia Prague suggests that his teammates and – crucially – Frank now recognise his role and importance to Spurs being more than a second-balls outfit.

8) Joao Pedro (1, 6)

Genuine hope that Chelsea may have found a fully-formed striker to lead their attack after two goals and three assists in his opening four Premier League games has since faded into questions as to whether Pedro would even be in a Blues XI looking to challenge for major honours in future.

While Liam Delap has so far failed to prove he’s the answer as the furthest man forward, he looks more suited to that role than Pedro, who thrives in a more withdrawn role which is sure to be occupied by Cole Palmer assuming Pedro Neto continues on the right flank.

7) Hugo Ekitike (5, 7)

Started superbly with five goals and an assist in his first seven games to raise questions as to why Liverpool spent £125m on another striker, then endured a barren spell with no goals or assists in 12 games – largely off the bench – while Slot tried and failed to bed in his £125m striker, before he scored two goals against Leeds to again raise questions as to why they signed an alternative £125m striker.

Liverpool shouldn’t have signed the £125m striker.

6) Eberechi Eze (n/a, 5)

His first Arsenal goal being the winner against his former club and his next three all coming against the Gunners’ bitter north London rivals whom he was days even hours away from joining instead of them all adds to what was an already pretty clear sense that Eze’s return to his boyhood club was meant to be.

But those were his only four goals and the return of captain Martin Odegaard has put a bit of a dampener on things with Eze again forced out to the left flank where he still looks horribly uncertain of himself and ineffective in comparison to Gabriel Martinelli or Leandro Trossard.

5) Noni Madueke (7, 10)

We may may never have been more invested in an Arsenal signing doing well after the #NOTOMADUEKE petition but are now struggling with the thought of those unthinkable tw*ts lacking any sort of human decency being allowed to enjoy the football he’s playing.

Here’s hoping they hung their heads in shame as his piledriver against Club Brugge cannoned in off the underside of the crossbar in recognition that they are wholly underserving of nice things.

4) Martin Zubimendi (4, 3)

As suckers for low stress, technically brilliant defensive midfielders we suspect we will be swooning over the Spaniard for a long time yet. While so many others struggle to come to terms with the pace and power of the Premier League, his transition has been seamless. Just a hugely impressive footballer.

3) Nick Woltemade (n/a, 2)

We will forever have a soft spot for footballers who don’t look as though they should be good at football. Combine that with him being the cause of great mirth for naysayers in the summer having joined for a fee way above his market value as Newcastle’s fourth or fifth-choice striker and him having to replace £125m defector Isak and we’ve got a veritable jambalaya of joy at seeing Woltemade thriving at St James’ Park with eight goals and two assists to his name.

2) Bryan Mbeumo (9, 4)

Manchester United have needed more Brunos and Mbeumo is chief among them. He’s got six goals and an assist, and looks to have bucked a very long trend in being a high-quality footballer who arrives at Old Trafford and continues being that very same high-quality footballer.

1) Mohammed Kudus (3, 1)

Suspicions that those questioning Kudus’ price tag after a very ordinary output of five goals and three assists last season were missing the obvious ‘but he was playing for West Ham’ caveat have been confirmed through his displays for Spurs.

He was ploughing a lone furrow as Spurs’ only real attacking outlet for much of the season before Simons’ recent improvement and before Richarlison uncovered a knack of scoring goals while being pants.