Vinicius is entering the final year of his contract with Real Madrid and this is the right time for clubs wanting to have this striker to act. One of the big teams that is interested in the Brazilian star is Arsenal, the reigning Premier League champion and runner-up of the Champions League.
Looking at the left winger position, Arsenal owned Leandro Trossard (who has left) and Gabriel Martinelli last season. However, this pair did not meet expectations when they only had a total of 7 goals in the Premier League 2025-26.
Vinicius is a player who does not need to prove his class. He has won countless prestigious titles with Real Madrid, once finished second in the Ballon d'Or race and has always been the number 1 star in the Brazilian national team's attack for many years. The 26-year-old striker mainly plays on the left wing, where he maximizes his strength, speed and skillful ball handling ability.
Last season in La Liga, Vinicius had an average dribbling rate of 7.7 times per 90 minutes (4th in the whole league). Unlike many other wingers who only focus on speed and dribbling ability, Vinicius possesses superb finishing skills. He is also very good at assisting, the clearest proof is the seasons accompanying Karim Benzema. They together created the most fearsome attacking duo in Europe at that time to win the Champions League.
Having a player like Vinicius will help any team become significantly stronger. With Arsenal, things are even more detailed when the Brazilian striker can help Mikel Arteta solve specific tactical requirements on the field.
Arsenal is basically still an attacking team. Vinicius has a very good positioning ability before receiving the ball from the defense. The Brazilian striker always stands on par with the opponent's bottom-back. From there, he easily sneaks behind the opponent's defense to penetrate the penalty area.
This will be one of the ways for The Gunners to have more options to penetrate defensive lines playing in a "concrete-laying" style. Last season, Arsenal used a fixed card to find a way into the net of opponents with deep defenses. With Vinicius added, The Gunners will be more diverse in scoring if they have to face this situation.
Playing on the left wing and often cutting in to finish, but Vinicius does not purely shoot into the far corner of the goal like other wingers. He divides the frequency evenly in both near angles (20%) and far angles (24%). Vinicius's continuous change of shooting angle makes it difficult for the opponent's defense and goalkeeper to predict.
Last season, Arsenal invested a lot in the right wing both in terms of personnel and tactics. Martin Odegaard, Bukayo Saka or Noni Madueke were assigned more tasks, so the trend of the ball being passed to these stars is clearly felt. In contrast, at Real Madrid, 43% of the attacks in 1/3 of the opponent's field in La Liga last season originated on the left wing, where Vinicius and Mbappe appeared. This number on Arsenal's right wing is 42%.
If Vinicius comes to Arsenal, he will join Declan Rice and a left-back to become an effective ball-rotation triangle on this wing.
The most worrying point of Vinicius with Arsenal is whether the Brazilian striker will accept to retreat to support defense or not? Mikel Arteta does not like the playing style of having to accept people when the whole team retreats to defend and only 1 player does not do that. Vinicius has a tackle rate of over 1,000 minutes below the average of La Liga strikers last season (1.5), showing that he is not ready to rush when his team needs to defend.
Every player has weaknesses and Vinicius is also the same. But if his attacking ability is too overwhelming, Arteta can also consider temporarily dropping this detail to focus on bringing in one of the best attacking stars in the world.
