The former Manchester City star has been little more than a spare part at the Emirates Stadium, and his career is now in real danger of fizzling out
"It’s a perfect fit for myself to be at a football club like this," Raheem Sterling said after joining Arsenal on loan from Chelsea on the final day of the 2024 summer transfer window. At the time, it wasn't easy to disagree. After all, Sterling was reuniting with former Manchester City assistant Mikel Arteta, who helped Pep Guardiola bring the very best out of the winger at the Etihad Stadium between 2017 and 2019.
Arteta has also followed a similar tactical blueprint to Guardiola since his appointment as Arsenal head coach, so it felt like the ideal move for Sterling to rediscover his best form after two largely frustrating seasons at Chelsea. To quote the infamous Gary Neville meme: "This was the no-brainer. This was the banker, this was the one that couldn't fail."
But fail it has, and spectacularly so. We are now past the midway point of the 2024-25 season, and Sterling has been restricted to just seven starts for Arsenal. He's only scored once, in a Carabao Cup third-round win over Bolton Wanderers, and has a solitary goal contribution to his name in the Premier League.
As such, it's already safe to say that Sterling has no future at Arsenal, or indeed Chelsea. Sterling's days in the English top flight could well be numbered, too, because, in his current state, the 30-year-old is simply not good enough to mix it at the very highest level.
Getty/GOALPremature praise
Sterling was, unsurprisingly, omitted from Lee Carsley's first England squad in early September, which was actually a good thing. The international break afforded him two weeks to get up to speed at Arsenal's London Colney training base, and Arteta was impressed by his application.
"He looks great. He's got a lot of energy, a smile on his face and he's at it. He wants to prove a point, and when someone's got that in his belly you sense it straight away," Arteta said at a press conference before Arsenal's short trip to Tottenham for the north London derby.
"Obviously I don't need to know anything else about his quality and what he can bring to the team. In his personal life a lot of things have changed, but with the player I was really surprised. The first call I had with him I knew in the first 10 seconds we have to bring him because he really wanted it. That was my only question mark: 'what stage is he at in his career?' [But] after 10 seconds, I knew already before the next questions that we needed him here.
"What I see is hunger. He's a player that wants to play every minute of every game. When that's not the case, he's not happy. He wants to play every single day and I see that. His commitment and the level of energy that he's bringing to the team is a big boost. You can feel it walking through the door. We are better with him. He's going to make us better."
Arteta really should have listened to his initial gut feeling. A lot had changed for Sterling, and not for the better. A few encouraging training performances should not have prompted such a glowing appraisal, and the Arsenal boss was soon made to regret it.
AdvertisementGetty Images Sport'Stunk the place out'
Despite Arteta's big billing, Sterling was only given brief cameos in Arsenal's 1-0 win at Tottenham and their subsequent draw with Atalanta in the Champions League, before being left on the bench for the duration of a 2-2 draw with Manchester City. The Chelsea loanee's full debut finally came in the Carabao Cup on September 25 – an occasion he marked with a goal and an assist as the Gunners thrashed Bolton 5-1 at the Emirates Stadium.
But that performance against a mediocre League One club counted for little. He subsequently had to make do with a 16-minute run-out in Arsenal's 4-2 win over Leicester three days later, and was an unused substitute again as Arteta's side kick-started their Champions League campaign with a 2-0 home victory against Paris Saint-Germain.
It wasn't until October 5 that Sterling got his first Premier League start, but that was against a newly-promoted Southampton team still looking for their first win. Sterling squandered his chance to stake a claim for a regular role, too, losing possession 10 times before being taken off on the hour mark with the scoreline locked at 1-1. Gabriel Martinelli gave Arsenal much more impetus in attack after replacing him, and the hosts ended up winning 3-1.
Things got even worse for Sterling after that. Between October 19 and December 14, he would only see 60 minutes of Premier League action, leading Stan Collymore to label him a "massive disappointment". The former Liverpool striker added to : "He’s stunk the place out so far. He’s an experienced player who has won everything there is to win, he was expected to push the dressing room up another level and he hasn’t done that."
AFPPermanent decline
Before Arsenal's 0-0 draw at home to Everton last month, Arteta attempted to explain Sterling's lack of game time, insisting it wasn't down to "tactical reasons". He instead suggested that Sterling was an indirect victim of a defensive injury crisis that had seen the likes of Takehiro Tomiyasu, Ben White, Oleksandr Zinchenko and Riccardo Calafiori sidelined.
"It's been tough and very difficult for me as well to accept that I haven't given him more," Arteta said. "When he hasn't started the games, 90 percent of the subs that I make is related to saving minutes or because of injuries or avoiding injuries. I would like him to play much more as I think he can impact the team in a very good way."
The Spaniard added on Sterling's mindset: "He's very good in the dressing room and is absolutely desperate to play. He had this very important role [at Man City], impacting every game, and suddenly you are in this position for a while. Not just here but at Chelsea as well. So it's always very difficult and I feel a lot of sympathy for players when they are in this moment. Hopefully we can change it."
And therein lies the rub. This is not the same Sterling who posted over 20 goal contributions in all competitions across six successive seasons for City, a bona fide match-winner capable of embarrassing even the best defenders in the world. We only saw glimpses of those qualities at Chelsea, where he had similar issues holding down a place in the team, and now he appears to be in a permanent decline.
AFPState of play
Arteta has done his best to shield Sterling from criticism, but there is no escaping the truth. He hasn't played much because Arsenal have a host of better wingers to call upon, it's as simple as that.
Bukayo Saka is the Gunners' first-choice man on the right flank, while Martinelli and Leandro Trossard have been preferred on the left. Sterling also operated as a false nine at times for City, to great effect, but he has not had a look-in through the middle either because of Kai Havertz's reinvention as a No.9.
When Arteta has a full-strength attack available, there is no room for Sterling. The former Liverpool and City star is no longer equipped to match the explosiveness of Saka, the unpredictability of Martinelli, or the guile of Trossard, and that has been painfully evident whenever he has stepped in for the Gunners.
However, all is not lost quite yet. Saka suffered a serious hamstring injury at the end of December, and back-up centre-forward Gabriel Jesus underwent surgery on a ruptured ACL earlier this week. It has been reported that both men could be out until at least the end of March, which means Sterling is likely to get more opportunities.
Sterling recovered from his own knee problem in time for Arsenal's third-round FA Cup tie against Manchester United on January 12, and ended up playing 80 minutes from the bench as the game went to extra-time. The Gunners eventually lost on penalties, but Sterling's display was a major positive; he caused the United backline some real problems and had a spring in his step for the first time since his summer move.
