Arsenal have had an infatuation with Ligue 1 ever since Arsene Wenger’s appointment at the club over two decades ago. Back in Wenger’s golden period, north London became the standard destination for top-level French players looking to sample the delights of English football.
The likes of Thierry Henry, Patrick Vieira, Nicholas Anelka, Emmanuel Petit and Robert Pires gave the Gunners a French flavour during the late ‘90s that suited Wenger’s desire to play artistic football.
The 2000s saw Samir Nasri, William Gallas, Mathieu Flamini and Abou Diaby rock up at the Emirates, only to fail to match the title-winning standards of their departed compatriots.
Wenger’s remaining years at Arsenal were riddled with a bunch of disappointing Gallic arrivals – who remembers Sebastien Squillaci, Yaya Sanogo and Marouane Chamakh? – as the Strasbourg native tried desperately to rekindle the magic he fostered some 15 years earlier.
When Wenger finally left Arsenal in 2018 it seemed as though the French connection would depart as well. Laurent Koscielny, Alexandre Lacazette, French born Gabonese international Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Matteo Guendouzi were the only Frenchmen remaining in the first team, and the former swiftly left for Bordeaux a year later.
Yet Mikel Arteta – and Unai Emery before him – has continued to select gems from Ligue 1, in the hope of unearthing the next Henry or Vieira for Arsenal fans to idolise.
Nicolas Pepe, an Ivory Coast international born in France, and William Saliba arrived under Emery, while Arteta prised Brazilian Gabriel Magalhaes and Icelander Runar Alex Runarsson from Lille and Dijon respectively this summer.
The next name on Arteta’s shopping list is Houssem Aouar, the attacking midfielder from Lyon who could finally deliver the genuine French artistry Arsenal have craved since Henry and Pires departed.
Who is Houssem Aouar?
At the age of 22, Aouar has already made an impact on the game in Ligue 1. The diminutive midfielder came up from Lyon’s youth set-up and made his debut as an 18-year-old back in 2017.
He has since made over 100 appearances for the club and earned his first call-up to the France national side this August, before missing games against Sweden and Croatia by testing positive for coronavirus.
A lively player, Aouar can often be found carrying the ball with purpose and seeking to feed a forward into the box.
He was supposedly courted by Manchester City last summer and admitted he would welcome the chance to play under Pep Guardiola.
“You wouldn’t like to go to City?” he said when asked on French TV station Canal + about Guardiola’s interest.
Arsenal’s five greatest French players
- Patrick Vieira: 406 appearances, 33 goals
- Thierry Henry: 344 appearances, 230 goals
- Robert Pires: 284 appearances, 84 goals
- Mathieu Flamini: 246 appearances, 13 goals
- Laurent Koscielny: 353 appearances, 27 goals
“It is a great European club and all players have this urge to play for the biggest European clubs, which in addition is led by Guardiola, who for me is a reference as a coach.”
Where Aouar fits at Arsenal
The big question many Arsenal fans will be asking is how Aouar fits into Arteta’s side. After all, the manager is currently struggling to get Ainsley Maitland-Niles into the XI despite concerns the player could quit the club if he isn’t guaranteed game time.
Arteta seemingly has a fixed front three of Lacazette, Willian and Aubameyang, and Aouar’s position at Lyon is to sit behind two strikers and act as the attacking pendulum of the side.
Finding a position for Aouar at the Emirates could therefore be tricky – and it might cause Arteta to rejig his formation to 4-2-3-1, with Aouar effectively sitting in front of two holding midfielders, and the defence reverting to a back-four.
His arrival would certainly give Arteta options to shift things around and it would probably end any hope of Mesut Ozil being welcomed back into the fray.
Crucially, Aouar was mentored by Lacazette when the pair were at Lyon together. In an interview back in 2017, Aouar said: “[Lacazette] wrote to me a lot. He explained to me that all the great players have gone through difficult times in their careers.
“As soon as I joined the squad, Alex took me under his wing. We did not cut contact after his departure and he was there at times when it was a little more difficult to cheer me up and motivate me for the future.”
Few Arsenal players have really hit the ground running after arriving from the French league. Pires joined from Marseille and Petit from Monaco, but the likes of Henry and Vieira developed their football in Italy before making the move to north London.
Pepe was a club-record £72m buy from Lille last year, while Lacazette himself cost an initial £47m. While the latter is now Arsenal’s first-choice centre forward, Pepe is yet to fully justify his fee.
How Aouar fits in at Arsenal remains to be seen but Arteta will be hoping the youngster is of the mould of the Gunners’ French greats, and not another Ligue 1 flop.
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