Know your links: Mykhaylo Mudryk

What to know about Arsenal's apparent top January priority

It’s truly difficult to know where to start with Mykhaylo Mudryk, the 21-year-old speed demon that Arsenal have reportedly prioritized for the January window.

At the end of the day, Mudryk is just like all of us: a poster. He’s not really afraid to post about himself online, and he’s not afraid of an interview, either. He’s a vocal kid and he clearly wants out of the Ukraine, and who could blame him.

Mudryk is now in his fifth year of Ukrainian senior ball, but his actual involvement makes an already difficult evaluation just a little tougher. In all that time, he’s only appeared in 61 games, with 26 goal involvements.

That’s a good number, and to be getting called on by English clubs, it’d better be. Ukraine ranks 16th on UEFA’s country coefficient list, behind such football power factories as Norway, Turkey and Serbia. The last time someone other than Shakhtar Donetsk or Dynamo Kyiv won the league, Mudryk hadn’t even been born.

So it’s natural then to turn to his Champions League tape, where this year he turned in 3 goals (two against Celtic, one RB Leipzig) and 2 assists (both against Leipzig) in five games. But even a novice could tell you there’s a common thread in his comps: He’s got a ton of space to run into, and he’s almost always at top speed.

So, does that work for Arsenal? What speed bumps could he face in his adaptation? I know you signed up for CannonStats and not CannonScouts, but bear with me for a bit of a film study on the youngster called the Ukrainian Neymar.