Should Arsenal sign a deep midfielder?

Reports say they might, rather than an 8. Who's out there?

I haven’t had much time to publish lately, so naturally no sooner than I published my rankings for an all-phases midfielder last month, James McNicholas (of gunnerblog fame) reported Arsenal were more likely to sign a number 6 this summer, based on what the market has to offer.

Of course, that doesn’t mean that’s what they’ll end up doing, but it was a bit of a gut punch for yours truly, given the hours I’d just put in and how my ranking would have (somewhat intentionally) phased out players who can play 6 but can’t get forward.

But I’m glad to say that I’ve finally rebounded emotionally, gone back to my formula and made appropriate changes. We’ve landed here: on a ranking that prioritizes stability with the ball, good defending and good middle-third passing.

The 25 names you’ll see below are whose aggregate scores did the best, although some are definitely missing portions of what Arsenal need going forward. I’ll call that out as we get there.

But that’s enough chatter, right? Some disclaimers, which I always do:

• This list is created relying fully on statistics from this season. Players are rated using more than 40 distinct data points of varying weights.

• Minimum for inclusion was 900 league minutes, which is 10 full games, on the first cut. I did pare my list down from there to focus on players who started more games than not.

• I generally aimed toward pre-prime or early prime, so again you’ll find no 28+ players here.

• There’s a really wide variation in ideal roles in this list. I’ll call them out as we go.

• I always encourage a healthy dose of the eye test before forming a final opinion on any player, so consume responsibly.

• All scores are subject to an adjustment according to league strength, so you shouldn’t have to mentally raise or lower rankings to make it more “fair.”

And of course, let’s start with a little honorable mention:

35. Jacopo Fazzini, Empoli

34. Vitaly Janelt, Brentford

33. Vinicius Souza, Sheffield United

32. Mathias Delorge, Sint-Truiden

31. Khéphren Thuram, OGC Nice (signing for Juventus…booooooo)

30. Wouter Burger, Stoke City

29. André, Fluminense

28. Mirko Topić, Famalicão

27. Manu Koné, Borussia Monchengladbach

26. Mohamed Camara, AS Monaco