Mikel Arteta told £74m transfer target experiencing ‘temporary blip’ but Arsenal should be wary

The idea of Arsenal spending Nicolas Pepe levels of money on a player seems mad when the last time it was tried, the result has not been an equal payoff from the investment.

It was therefore perhaps unsurprising that Arsenal decided not to pay the 90m (£74m) release clause in Alexander Isak’s contract in January when the club was looking at possible alternative striker options after their attempts to sign Dusan Vlahovic failed.

There was much debate amongst supporters whether or not Isak was the right player to pursue considering the Swede had scored just four La Liga goals so far this season.

It has been evident since the close of the January window that Mikel Arteta and Edu made the right decision in holding off from signing the 22-year-old, at least for now.

Isak has scored just once in the league since the start of November and Real Sociedad have made the decision to rotate him with Alexander Sorloth.

Curious if this is more of a dip in form rather than the last two seasons being a false dawn, reached out to Football Espana writer and La Real supporter Phil Ball.

“He's starting most of the time when he's fit. He's had some injury problems, but we were in 3 competitions, so he was part of the rotations,” Phil said.

“He's playing ok, but not scoring - but that's a general problem in the side this season, not so much a specific one. He's not a classic striker and prefers to get behind defences in space to use his speed, but teams have sussed him out a bit - in the same way as they've nullified Iñaki Williams (who is similar).

“Also his service has dropped off - Silva has been less effective this season. But it's a blip for me. He's very good. I'm told he's slightly stubborn, well-mannered and intelligent but doesn't