It’s official, the saga over the future of defender Riccardo Calafiori ended, and Arsenal confirmed the transfer after the season full of impressive performances of the 22-year-old Italian international.
His preferred foot is left, and from this aspect, it seems that Arsenal may finally cover the left side, and the big expectations are that Calafiori will play as a left-back at the Premier League side.
Reminder: Isak started the last season with a clinical finish against Aston Villa
Pre-season: Barco (£4.0m) gave us one more reason to pick him, and… Adingra is back?
In the last 50 matches, the Italian has made 30 appearances as a central defender, 15 as a left-back, just 4 as a right-back, and he even has 1 match played as a center midfielder. The last one means a lot, he has a more than solid ability to carry the ball and start attacks from deep. Well… many would say: Did Arsenal have their own John Stones now?
According to some stats, Calafiori has very strong strengths at ball interception and strong at aerial duels, passing, and also tackling. We would also add that he likes to dribble and to play short passes.
It’s important to note that Calafiori last season scored 2 goals and also provided 5 assists for Bologna in their great season, where for the first time in 60 years they secured Champions League football.
Of course, let’s not forget that the intensity of the game playing in Premier League and Serie A is a little different, and here’s some interesting stats about minutes played by Calafiori last season (total of 2608) compared to the regular Arsenal defenders: William Saliba (3420), Gabriel Magalhaes (3044), and Ben White (2995). Yes, Saliba has played exactly 812 minutes more than Calafiori last season, and that maybe tells us a lot about the intensity, but we will see how Calafiori will adapt to that.
And yes, we are waiting for the price of the Italian at Fantasy Premier League, so what is your prediction? Go to our official ‘X’ and tell us your thoughts about it.
