"SOON ARTETA WILL BE CONSIDERED ONE OF THE BEST MANAGERS IN THE WORLD,,
Yoga with Adriene. Borgen on Netflix. A varied list of plausible excuses why we can’t attend Zoom quizzes. FourFourTwo has stretched the limits of what can be achieved in an hour over the last year – but not everyone has been quite so ineffective.
In September, Willian didn’t even need a full hour to endear himself to millions of new fans. Within 57 minutes of Arsenal’s opening-day battering of Fulham at Craven Cottage, the fuzzy-haired forward had helped to create all three of the Gunners’ goals in a 3-0 win, and come within a post’s width of adding another himself from a free-kick.
It shouldn’t have come as a huge surprise: despite departing Chelsea on a free transfer last summer, the 32-year-old did so on the back of Premier League-best numbers at Stamford Bridge in 2019-20 – nine goals and seven assists making him the Blues’ primary creative presence. He was also an unlikely record-setter: in a pandemic-affected season, the Brazilian became the first player to score a Premier League goal in every month of the calendar year. “I don’t see anyone taking that record from me,” he chuckles now, reflecting on the curiosity.
As Willian explains to FFT a few months on, however, extending his seven-year stint in west London was always a remote possibility given the doomed contractual wrangling that was – or more specifically, wasn’t – going on behind the scenes.
Yet he isn’t one for rueing what might have been. The affable forward looks back on his time at Chelsea with blue-tinted glasses, but now it’s the city’s north where his loyalties lie – and the early signs are encouraging. After being tempted by boss Mikel Arteta, general manager Edu and long-time pal David Luiz to join Arsenal, the Brazilian hasn’t regretted his hop across the capital since.
Realistically, a move of such proximity was always going to be relatively straightforward for a player who thrived after leaving Brazil aged 19 for the alien climes of Ukraine. He starred at Shakhtar Donetsk
