Chloe Kelly and Arsenal is a marriage of convenience and that’s no bad thing

In the 2021-22 season when Jonas Eidevall arrived at the club, Arsenal had Beth Mead, Caitlin Foord, Katie McCabe and Nikita Parris for the wide positions. Eidevall inherited those options and he pushed to add Tobin Heath to the mix too. As it turned out, Eidevall did not really want Parris, who was sold to Manchester United after one season in North London.

Heath’s was a semi-reluctant transfer as she waited for an NWSL club to override the fact that Racing Louisville had bought her rights from Portland Thorns in the NWSL expansion draft. With no such offer incoming, she signed with the Gunners on deadline day. But Heath endured an injury hit spell in North London and her contract was terminated by mutual consent before the end of the season.

The sale of Parris and the termination of Heath’s contract left Arsenal needing a senior winger in the summer of 2022. They tried for Geyse, I believe they had interest in Tabea Wassmuth at Wolfsburg too and Temwa Chawinga was of interest but the visa situation proved to be prohibitive. In the end, they bought Lina Hurtig from Juventus as well as Gio from Barcelona who was immediately loaned to Everton. On the face of it, Arsenal had five wingers again so sent Gio out on loan to gain experience.

Gio’s situation was not managed especially well, she was recalled from loan in January 2023 but not trusted to the extent that she was not included in the UWCL squad and then Jodie Taylor came in on loan in March. Gio couldn’t find a loan at the beginning of the following season and spent six months in purgatory as she was unregistered for the Arsenal squad.

Had her situation been managed better, Gio could be an important player now. She would certainly get her fair share of minutes. Cloe Lacasse arrived from Benfica in the summer of 2023 but never truly assimilated and wasn’t really trusted by Jonas Eidevall for significant minutes, especially as Mead’s return from an ACL injury proved to be pretty smooth.

However, Lina Hurtig’s ongoing injury issues have basically seen Arsenal down a wide player for most of the last two and a half years. In the UWCL semi-final against Wolfsburg in 2023, 17-year-old Michelle Agyemang was sent on as the Gunners needed a goal. Foord was injured for that semi-final as her hamstring finally gave in to the rigours of what was being asked of her in terms of minutes played.

When Arsenal wanted to rest Foord and Mead for a Conti Cup tie against Spurs last December, Vivianne Miedema played on the left wing because Arsenal just didn’t have a fourth winger. Fast forward 14 months and in a Subway League Cup tie at Brighton with Mariona rested and Foord’s leg muscles again creaking under the strain, central attacker Rosa Kafaji started on the wing.

Four days later, Foord was patched up and started for the trip to Stamford Bridge. Her soft tissue lasted around 40 minutes before she needed to be replaced. Alessia Russo finished that game on the wing as Arsenal chased a goal, a position Russo played again on Sunday away at Manchester City (as she did in Oslo against Valarenga in December).

The TL;DR is that Arsenal have been a wide player short for a very long time. This has not only lead to increased strain on the existing wide players (I can’t imagine there is a player the masseuse spends more time with than Caitlin Foord, who has held up to the workload incredibly well all considered) but it has hindered Arsenal’s ability to make in-game changes. They lost at Chelsea because of a lack of options from the bench.

They were able to call for Maanum and Blackstenius from the bench (both excellent options, neither of whom is a winger). While Chelsea’s cavalry included Lauren James, Guro Reiten, Mika Hamano and Aggie Beever-Jones. Arsenal could really have done with Chloe Kelly on that particular day, either to call for from the sidelines or to start the game so that Caitlin Foord did not have to exacerbate a muscular issue.

Ideally, any coach boasting a top squad, probably wants to sub out their entire front three in any given game. Maybe sometimes you might just sub out two of the front three, but freshening up your front line in game, posing different problems for defences and capitalising on tiring minds and legs are all benefits top clubs should have and Arsenal just haven’t quite had for two and a half years now. It would have been difficult to see another window go by without some kind of solution.

It’s why getting Chloe Kelly on loan was a no-brainer in the circumstances. It might only be an interim solution yet, whether or not Kelly returns to Arsenal on a more permanent basis is probably dependent on how each party feels about one another in the coming weeks and months. But Kelly undeniably transforms Arsenal’s attacking options, even if only in the short term.

Unless something goes majorly wrong, she will almost certainly feature in every game she is available for, it just remains to be seen whether she forces herself into contention as a regular starter or whether she becomes part of a more equal rotation. It probably isn’t ideal for Kelly to compete for a spot with the same player she is competing for her England spot with in Beth Mead.

However, for Chloe, it really is a better scenario than another five months on the naughty step at Manchester City. While there might be some anxiety over whether Kelly’s fallout with Gareth Taylor is repeated with Renee Slegers, Kelly has not visibly fallen out with any of her other coaches. Despite six months in purgatory, Sarina Wiegman continued to call her up for England because, in Wiegman’s words, ‘she has credit in the bank.’

If Kelly were an unrepentant troublemaker I doubt she would have remained in Wiegman’s good graces. Whether the deal becomes permanent will largely depend on Arsenal and Kelly bringing the best from one another, it also might depend on the future of remaining wide players. I believe Lina Hurtig’s contract expires in the summer and it is difficult to see it being extended.

Kelly also has the advantage that she holds the width of the field, which provides a good balance for Mariona on the left, who likes to drift inside. It is not good for the balance of the team to have two wide players who like to float in-field. I imagine that Arsenal’s wingers will end up being ‘paired.’ Foord and Kelly are your ‘hold the width’ types while Mariona and Mead like to move into more central spaces.

One of Foord or Kelly and one of Mead or Mariona looks like the best solution, on paper at least. With Kelly cuptied for the FA Cup and not available to play against City in the League Cup and the Champions League (should the teams draw one another), there is also the possibility of using her prominently in the WSL, where she will be available for all remaining games now.

Arsenal have a run of winnable league games, they don’t play Chelsea or City again in the league and have United at home on the final day of the season. Kelly has the opportunity to put some momentum together. She is already a veteran of the league (with 0.80 goal contributions per 90 across her four and a half seasons at City) and she already has an attacking relationship with Mead and Russo from playing together for the Lionesses. 

It ought to be a plug and play signing and even if Kelly only reaches the level of super sub (and that would represent an under delivery on her ceiling) that still significantly transforms Arsenal’s attacking options in-game. Chloe Kelly and Arsenal is a marriage of convenience, for now only for five months. It’s just a matter of how mutually beneficial that relationship becomes. If the answer is ‘very’ then it could very well be extended.