Why Ben Is the White Move for Arsenal

After weeks of speculation, it has finally been confirmed that Ben White is Arsenal’s third signing of the summer. He joins the Gunners for a fee in the region of £50m. Nuno Tavares and Albert Sambi Lokonga joined the North London club earlier this summer.

White, at just a few cm under 6ft, is a right footed, modern centre back. He excels as much going forward as he does defensively. One of best traits is his ability to play out from the back, which is something that Arsenal have struggled with in previous seasons.

An example of this came in Wednesday’s friendly against Watford when Mohamed Elneny was pressured by three Watford players before coughing up the ball in his own box. The error led directly to a goal and was a perfect example of Arsenal’s clear deficiency. It was reminiscent of Arsenal’s away match at Watford in September of 2019. David Luiz gave the ball straight to Tom Cleverly after receiving it from Leno. Cleverly quickly slotted it away from six yards out.

An inflated price is expected with young English talents these days. Even if the £50m fee is a large sum of money. The necessity for homegrown players in your squad normally allows clubs to add around a 20% increase in asking price when selling to another Premier league club. This is why we’ve seen in recent years why you can buy players like Virgil Van Dijk, the best centre back in the world, for £5m cheaper than Harry Maguire.

Arsenal’s Current Centre Backs

Arsenal’s centre-back situation is in a weird place with Shkodran Mustafi and David Luiz both departing the club permanently. William Saliba, Arsenal’s promising young CB, is also undergoing a third consecutive loan spell. At the moment, Arsenal only have 4 senior centre backs (including White) and 5 if you include Calum Chambers’ ability to play centrally. This means a starting caliber centre-back was an absolute necessity for the Gunners this summer.

White, at only 23, has a good combination of youth as well as experience that he will bring to North London. White has already amassed 200 career appearances at club level across all levels of England from League 2 with Newport County to most recently the Premier League with Brighton and Hove Albion. He also just returned from a full Euro’s campaign that saw England go all the way to the final. While he didn’t get the playing time he likely wanted, he did gain some valuable international experience.

The Proof Is In The Statistics

Last season in the Premier League, White completed 1477 passes at a success rate of 83%. A lot of these passes were advancing passes whilst playing out from the back, something Arteta has been trying to implement within the squad since his arrival. A quick check on FBRef reveals Ben White’s ability to play out from the back. White is:

• Within the 68th percentile of progressive passes compared to other centre-backs in Europe’s top 5 leagues.
• In the 88th percentile of progressive passes received, showing that he is very comfortable working in a defence which plays out from the back.
• Within the 93rd percentile of dribbles completed when compared to centre-backs within the top 5 leagues.
• In the 78th percentile of shot creating actions per/90 and in the 70th percentile of xA (expected assists).

At £50m Ben White will be Arsenal’s 3rd most expensive player of all time. While the fee is steep, it’s clear White is a perfect fit for the type of football Mikel Arteta wants to play. In today’s market with inflated prices, taking this chance on White could prove to pay dividends.