Joe Cole: Arsenal would already be champions if they signed one Liverpool player last summer

Arsenal’s hopes of succeeding Liverpool as Premier League champions were heavily dented by a 2-1 defeat to nearest pursuers Manchester City on Sunday, with the latter now just three points behind and boasting a game in hand on the leaders.

Cole suggests Ekitike would’ve already won Arsenal the league

Speaking on The Dressing Room Podcast, Cole claimed that the Gunners would already be celebrating a first top-flight title since 2004 if they’d signed Ekitike rather than Gyokeres, who only came on as an 84th-minute substitute at the Etihad Stadium despite his team trailing well before then.

The former Reds winger said: “Gyokeres was the big signing. If Arsenal don’t win anything, they have got that signing wrong. You’re coming to the biggest game of the season and you’ve gone with two No10s, Havertz and Odegaard, and not with a number nine.

“Havertz was brilliant, but let’s just imagine Ekitike was signed instead of Gyokeres. I think Arsenal would have won the league by now. I do. Ekitike is a proper player.”

(Photo by Jan Kruger/Getty Images)

Want more Empire of the Kop coverage? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list for news you can trust

Ekitike v Gyokeres: How do the numbers compare?

When assessing the numbers posted by the respective centre-forwards that Cole mentioned, their returns from this season are broadly similar.

Gyokeres has the marginally higher goal tally, and their scoring ratio per minutes played is practically identical, but Ekitike has three times as many assists as his Arsenal counterpart (via FBref).

In a hypothetial scenario whereby Liverpool were facing Man City in a potential title decider last Sunday and the Frenchman was fit, it’s hard to imagine him not starting, and he’d surely have played more than the token minutes that Mikel Arteta handed to the Gunners’ number 14.

We wouldn’t necessarily agree with Cole’s claim that the Premier League trophy would be bound for north London if Ekitike had gone to the Emirates Stadium rather than Anfield last summer, but we certainly wouldn’t swap the two players.

All things considered, we’re grateful that the 23-year-old signed for the Reds and not Arsenal.