Arsenal column: Special night at PSV, Andrea Berta latest, Victor Osimhen links & more | OneFootball

A special night for exceptional Arsenal

It was a special night for Arsenal in Eindhoven on Tuesday.

No-one would have predicted a scoreline like that before the game given the issues Mikel Arteta’s side have been struggling with in attack in recent weeks.

But Arsenal were exceptional. They tore PSV to shreds and in truth the scoreline could have been even greater than it was.

You could see encouraging signs in the game against Forest, but nothing to suggest something like this was coming.

It was really encouraging because the performance showed that the players are now getting to grips with what they have to do in the absence of the squad’s main attackers.

It was very apparent that Arsenal were looking to get more players into the penalty area on Tuesday night than they have been doing of late. The full-backs were constantly in and around the 18-yard box, as were Declan Rice and Martin Odegaard.

I counted seven Arsenal players in the penalty area when Jurrien Timber scored and there were six when Ethan Nwaneri netted. They swamped the penalty area and PSV couldn’t deal with it.

I thought Martin Odegaard was excellent, especially in the second half, but Declan Rice and Jurrien Timber were exceptional, as were Leandro Trossard and Ethan Nwaneri.

A win like that has to give the team confidence. It shows they can score goals even with the players they have missing and you would hope that would send them into Sunday’s game at Old Trafford full of optimism.

It’s too late in terms of the title. That ship has sailed, but hopefully Arsenal can at least now finish the season strongly and give themselves a chance in the Champions League.

Experienced Andrea Berta looks a strong choice for new Arsenal director

We are still waiting for confirmation on who Arsenal’s next sporting director will be, but as it stands Andrea Berta is understood to be at the top of the list of the remaining candidates.

My understanding is that an official offer has yet to be made to Berta, or anyone else, but Arsenal do want their preferred choice in place imminently with the club well aware of how important the upcoming summer window is.

At the moment all signs point to Edu’s replacement being the 53-year-old Italian, but until an appointment is made it’s impossible to say with total certainty who it will be.

Berta does look like a good option for Arsenal, however. He does tick a lot of boxes in terms of what the club needs right now.

He’s very experienced and he’s done a very good job during his time at Atletico.

Berta’s track record when it comes to transfers is pretty strong. Yes, there have been some deals that haven’t quite worked out but that is always going to happen. As long as you get more hits than misses in the market then your record will stack up well and his record does exactly that.

He’s done lots of big money deals and has worked with top clubs across the world, so his contact list will be strong. He will have the respect of everyone he looks to deal with and that is very important.

Jason Ayto, who has been working as Arsenal’s sporting director in an interim role since Edu’s departure, is well thought of at the club and is on the final shortlist for the permanent position.

But my big concern with him is his lack of experience in the field. It feels a bit too soon for him to get the top job at a club like Arsenal. I’ve always had my concerns over how easy it will be for him to get big deals over the line. I wouldn’t have that concern with someone like Berta, who has been there and done it numerous times over the years and is a well known face across European football.

Berta has also had the experience of working alongside a hugely demanding manager in Diego Simeone.

It can’t be easy for anyone to work alongside someone like Simeone, but Berta appears to have handled it expertly and should he get that Arsenal job, that bodes well for his potential relationship with Mike Arteta.

Like Simeone, Arteta has a very specific way of playing and players identified by a sporting director need to be able to deal with that. He’s also known to be a demanding character.

So the club’s sporting director needs to have a strong personality. He needs to be someone who can maintain a good relationship with Arteta, but also has to be able to stand up to him and challenge when needed.

You would think that Berta’s time alongside Simeone at Atletico will have left him well equipped to be able to do that.

What I’m hearing about Arsenal’s striker search amid new Victor Osimhen links

Victor Osimhen warming up for Galatasaray (Photo by Ahmad Mora/Getty Images)

I’m always a bit sceptical when I hear of links between Victor Osimhen and Arsenal.

There was some interest in him a few years ago, but I’ve not heard anything since then to suggest the constant speculation linking the Nigerian striker with a move to North London has much merit to it.

He’s a top striker, there’s no doubt about that, but Arsenal have others who are well ahead of him in their list of potential summer targets, if he is even on their list of targets at all.

We know Mikel Arteta would love to sign Alexander Isak, but I just struggle to see how that is realistic this summer.

I don’t see a way that Newcastle let him go for a price that Arsenal could realistically hit. Benjamin Sesko still feels like the most likely option to me when it comes to Arsenal signing an out and out No.9.

The interest they had in Sesko last summer still remains. His decision to stay with Leipzig for another season did not burn any bridges with Arsenal and the money it would take to get him out of Germany means he is a far more realistic option than Isak.

Don’t get me wrong. If it was a straight choice between the two and money wasn’t a factor, then of course it would be Isak all day long. But unfortunately football doesn’t work like that.

Newcastle are in an incredibly strong position with Isak. They don’t need to sell for financial reasons and he still has a long-term contract.

Even if they miss out on Europe next season, I struggle to see them agreeing to let their prized asset go.

So that’s why right now I still see Sesko as the most realistic option for Arsenal. He might not be the finished article yet, like an Isak or an Osimhen, but his potential is there for all to see.

Leandro Trossard sale makes more sense than Gabriel Martinelli

It wouldn’t surprise me if we see one big sale at Arsenal this summer.

There will be plenty of departures, but by ‘big sale’ I mean one of the established first-team players who have been key under Mikel Arteta over the past two seasons.

It’s been suggested that one of Leandro Trossard or Gabriel Martinelli could be let go to help boost the summer funds and I would say Trossard would be the more likely of the two, should a good offer arrive.

There is interest in the winger from Saudi Arabia. Arsenal rejected an offer that arrived late last summer, but could be open to a sale this summer, depending on how talks go over a new contract.

Trossard will only have a year remaining on his deal at the end of the season and if an agreement on an extension has not been reached by then it could be that Arsenal would let him go, should a good bid come in.

The attacker will be 31 in December, so you would think an offer of anything between £15m and £20m this summer would be reasonable given his contract situation.

Martinelli is a different situation altogether. He’s still just 23 and has two years left on his current deal, with an option of a further 12 months after that.

So Arsenal are in a strong position with him and it would take a big offer for them to consider letting him go – something probably around the £70 million mark in today’s market.

Martinelli may not have had the best of times of things over the past couple of seasons, but he is still an excellent player.

I do think he’s been a victim of the unsettled nature for Arsenal’s left hand side during the past couple of years. He’s constantly been playing with different left-backs behind him and different players operating closest to him in the left eight role.

So I don’t think that has helped him at all when it comes to trying to replicating the form we saw him produce during the 2022/23 season.

But he still has plenty to give and even if Arsenal do still end up spending big on another left sided option this summer, which could be the case, I still think Martinelli has a big part to play in the squad going forward.