Who To Pick From Arsenal

Drafting from Arsenal

Arsenal top the wheel on power at 90, and they get there without a single freakish outlier. The top five read Declan Rice 93 at CDM, Bukayo Saka 93 on the right wing, William Saliba 92 at centre-back, Martin Ødegaard 92 at CAM and Viktor Gyökeres 92 through the middle: five men occupying five distinct positions, separated by a single rating point. Across the best eleven of a 24-man squad the spread is just 6, so the eleven you draft in the middle rounds looks a great deal like the one you drafted in the first.

Rice remains the pick, though not for reasons of scarcity. Sandro Tonali is an 88 CDM at Tottenham and anybody drafting that position knows it. Take Rice for what sits behind him instead. Arsenal's holding group averages 91 across two players, and the only position group in the league that averages higher is Manchester City's strikers at 96, which is Erling Haaland on his own. That is the rare case where the safety net is nearly as good as the man himself: miss on Rice and you still come away with Martín Zubimendi at 88.

The soft spots are goalkeeping and the left wing. Three keepers averaging 81 is the weakest group Arsenal have with more than one name in it, Christos Tzolis at 78 is the only left winger on the books, and no amount of squad depth turns an 81 into a starter, so shop elsewhere for both slots. Elsewhere, 18 elite players is an enormous return, more than any other club in the league, with Manchester City and Manchester United next on 15 apiece, which means very nearly everything else here is draftable.

And if the legends are in play, Thierry Henry at 99 is the biggest single upgrade this club can offer. Gyökeres at 92 is a perfectly good centre-forward, but seven rating points is seven rating points, and Henry is the highest-rated name in Arsenal's legend pool by three clear marks, ahead of Dennis Bergkamp and Patrick Vieira on 96.