Chelsea help Arsenal win the league by signing Mudryk over Trossard

Robin Bairner

• Updated: 13 Mar 2023 10:43 GMT
• 3 min read

Chelsea did Arsenal a huge favour during the January transfer window, when they moved to hijack the Gunners’ move for Mykhailo Mudryk.

The Blues spent an initial €70 million on the Ukraine international, forcing Mikel Arteta’s side to look for options elsewhere. Priced out of signing Mudryk, they instead swooped for Leandro Trossard.

The players have experienced very different fortunes at their current clubs.

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Mudryk might have got his first Chelsea assist at the weekend – he is still waiting on his first goal – but prior to that, he had been an unused substitute in successive games, raising questions over just how much manager Graham Potter appreciates him.

On the other hand, the 28-year-old Trossard has continued the electrifying form that he showed with Brighton in the first half of the season. He wanted his shot at playing for a big club and has been making the most of it. Nine outings for the Gunners have yielded one goal – and one unfortunately ruled out by VAR – and five assists. His hat-trick of assists against Fulham at the weekend was the first time in the Premier League that any player has created three first-half goals away from home.

Where Mudryk has been laborious for Chelsea, Trossard has been decisive for Arsenal. Already the Belgium international has won his side five points with match-defining actions, whether it be a goal or an assist. The former Shakhtar Donetsk player has yet to contribute one for the Blues.

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Trossard competing with Jesus

Indeed, it is increasingly looking like Chelsea have done Arsenal a turn in moving for Mudryk. Perhaps he will one day look like a €70m player, but he currently looks far from that standard, and as the Gunners chase down a first Premier League title in nearly 20 years, they could ill-afford such baggage.

Trossard, meanwhile, has come into the team and has slotted in seamlessly at a time there might have been a wobble due to Gabriel Jesus’ absence through injury. Arsenal have won all five Premier League matches that Trossard has started, four of them as a makeshift centre-forward.

Such has been his form, Arteta has no apparent need to rush Jesus back. Instead, the Brazil international can be integrated in a patient manner. If Trossard had not been firing, the ex-Man City player would surely have been under more pressure to return.

As the matches tick away, Chelsea’s decision to pave the way for Trossard’s January transfer to Arsenal looks increasingly likely to be decisive in the Premier League title race.