Sterling fled Chelsea at the last moment, Arsenal threw him a lifeline

Raheem Sterling has joined Arsenal on a one-year loan, with Chelsea still paying most of his wages.

To put it mildly, it cannot be said that Chelsea have come out well from the transfer of Raheem Sterling. The attacker of the English national team went through a serious ordeal in the summer after the new coach, Enzo Maresca, left him out of the squad and could only prepare individually. Maresca has stated several times that he doesn’t count on him at all in the future, so the management couldn’t really negotiate about him.

For a long time it was rumored that Manchester United was interested in him, but in the end, Sterling stated that he was only interested in Arsenal, as they previously achieved great success together at Manchester City.

Earlier, Mikel Arteta had this to say about Sterling:

“We spent a great time together at City, we developed a close relationship.”

This loan is clearly a good move for Sterling, not only because of football, but also because his family was able to stay in London. And for Arsenal, his acquisition carried practically no risk, since there is no purchase obligation in the loan contract, and more than half of his salary is still paid by Chelsea.

And it cannot be neglected that, in the person of Sterling, Mikel Arteta has at his disposal a universal striker who can be deployed on both sides, with serious winning experience.

Sterling would soon forget his unsuccessful performance at Chelsea, and Arteta’s style can be a guarantee of that. He achieved the most successful period of his career when Arteta was Manchester City’s second coach. Coming in from the wing, he was able to take advantage of the fact that many times City pulled the ball back into the penalty area. Now Arsenal is also among the best in this statistic, which Sterling can take advantage of again.

It is more likely that Sterling can play on the left side, where neither Martinelli nor Trossard have been able to maintain their good form for a long time. At the same time, it should not be forgotten that Bukayo Saka played almost the entire last season, so it would be important to reduce his minutes as well.

Arsenal sold their home-grown duo this summer, with Reiss Nelson on loan and Emile Smith-Rowe joining Fulham permanently. Sterling should now primarily fill their minutes.

Against Brighton, Sterling could not yet be there as part of Arsenal, as players could be registered for this round until noon on Friday, but he was already sitting in the stands of the Emirates Stadium. In the end, Arsenal took the lead in vain, but could not keep it after Rice was sent off, the final score was 1-1.