Why Arsenal need a Top, Top striker

With Arsenal failing to qualify for the Champions League for the first time in Arsene Wenger’s tenure at the club, there are understandably a lot of question marks in regards to the futures of some key players at the club. But one key player who looks likely to stay despite a lack of Champions League football is Mesut Ozil, who is widely expected to sign a new contract that will keep him at the Emirates for the foreseeable future.

Judging by various media reports and what the player himself has said in regards to his future, it is no secret that Ozil is loving life in the English capital and relishes his role as Arsenal’s ‘creator-in-chief’ and while nothing is a certainty when it comes to the futures of Arsenal’s star players, the German international is probably the player most likely to extend his stay in North London.

But over the course of the past four years, I feel as though Arsenal have let the playmaker down in regards to who he plays behind. Make no mistake about it, Mesut Ozil is too good to play behind the likes of Olivier Giroud, Danny Welbeck and Theo Walcott. Now while these players are certainly not deadwood in the team, it has to be understood that all of them lack consistency, the ability to stay fit for extended periods of time and are not of the world-class pedigree of the German international.

Now although Ozil hasn’t been the most consistent of players himself and has the reputation of not showing up on the big occasions, I believe that a lack of support is a big factor in that as well. To take things into perspective, the former Real Madrid man plays almost every game, maintains high levels of fitness throughout the campaign and has the ability to unlock any defence in world football.

So with that being said, I think Arsenal should bring in a striker who can provide a guaranteed return of at least 25 goals a season. Apart from bringing the best out of Ozil, a move of that kind will be a statement of intent from a club who has always been questioned in terms of ambition. Despite missing out on Champions League football, Arsenal is still a big club with financial stability and can surely sign strikers who are better than the likes of Giroud, Welbeck and Walcott.

AT

41 Comments

  1. There are only 3 proven PEA, lewandoski and Mbappe

    Almost there Kane and possible 30yo Lukaku

    1. Mbappe; Not proven yet, 1 outstanding season.

      Kane; Is there, not almost, he has the last two Golden Boots and is pretty much the complete striker, just needs to improve his heading, which isn’t bad at the moment.

      Lukaku: Has just turned 24, can go missing if things don’t go his way, most of his goals have come in clusters.

      If I had the choice of any of those named, it would be Kane first, then Mbappe, then Lewendowski, followed by PEA and Lukaku.

      I put Mbappe 2nd all though he’s only had one fantastic season, I really like the look of him.

      1. I should have added, we won’t get any of these of course, we’ll probably end up with Troy Deeney.

  2. We need no-one. We have Danny Wellbeck with his amazing ability to repel an oncoming football

      1. Funny because you know it’s true muff!

        He is a polar opposite magnet in man form.

  3. If we signed one when we were still playing the ECL, may be we could have lifted the EPL on the process, but now who would want to leave UCL to play on Thursdays?

    We needed top striker and a strong no none sense DM but we only got Flamini and then the short time savior in the Coq, and Welbeck for a striker who scored 3 goals in 2 years. why would people think this old man will buy anyone when ambition have gone from to UCL participation to EL? And the EPL have gone out of hands with the presence of ambitious young managers?

  4. Do any Arsenal fan think Le Prof will yield to any insinuation from any quarters suggesting to him to sign a top top 25-30 per season consistent goalscorer to consequently make one of Giroud, Walcott and Welbeck to leave Arsenal? NO! Le Prof will not entertain such an insinuation insinuating to him to sell one of his less consistent in goalscoring striker who is Welbeck. A 5 or 6 goalscorer per season striker. This is the kind of conservative beliefs being held onto by Le Prof which had held Arsenal back in their PL and CL title charges for 13 consecutive seasons. A break from this his conservative beliefs to embrace the contemporary beliefs in football management that places emphasis on winning titles instead of to be playing good entertaining football without winning the PL and the CL titles which amounted to playing to the gallery will be most welcomed next season if Le Prof will change from his conservative thinking to contemporary thinking..

    1. Liverpool played the whole season without a recognisez CF. Sturridge played only a few games. Origi and Firminho have been playing CF even though it is not the main position. It can be done like this, if you have enough midfielders scoring.

      You can forget about Arsenal signing any top striker this summer. The best we can hope for is someone just a level or two above Walcott, Giroud and Welbeck. That is the truth.

    2. Stop calling him “le Prof”
      It is so f**king annoying.
      He’s got a degree in economics and boy does it show
      The man has screwed up this season much like he has screwed up the previous 12 seasons before that.
      He is going to do exactly what we all know he will do this summer – sit on his back side all summer then make some panic buys that turn out to be donkeys and this season will be repeated until the point where he is finally driven out of the club – precisely when it is too late.
      As for Arsenal needing a top, top striker its true we do.
      But the problem is Arsenal are not a top, top team and we have a manager and owner who have not one molecule of ambition between them.
      And besides, what “top, top” striker would want to sign for us anyway..

      1. That summary is spot on Red Dawn. I find nothing more mind boggling that fans who have observed our club for the last 10 years speculating about players like Lukaku, Lewandowski, Lacazette, Aubamayang all players who would never want to come to Monaco and players out of our price bracket.

        We might as well start writing and debating if we should go for Suarez or Messi.

  5. Arsenal have wasted Ozil and Alexis by not signing a top striker in the last 3 seasons. We miss so many clear chances every games which has cost us many points before. Giroud and Theo miss so many chances every season. We need to go all out and sign someone like Aubameyang/Mbappe/Icardi who can guarentee 20-25 league goals every season. We have too much creativity but no end product. We play with 3-4-2-1 formation but we lack goals from midfield and upfront. Alexis is the only goal scorer we have. Ox, Kolasinac, Xhaka, Ozil and Cazorla don’t score too many goals and Giroud/Welbeck/Theo are not good enough. We need to sign one world class striker and another winger/midfielder that can score goals like James Rodriguez.

    1. That first sentence is enough, you didnt need to say anymore after to explain it. It’s so simple one wonders why Wenger didn’t buy top striker. He is so deluded he is still thinking about moulding Walcott into next Henry 11 years later.

      Walcott and Giroud have killed Arsenal offensive potential in the last 3 seasons. For the wages they get, they offer so little in a game probably only 10 minutes of good play per match.

  6. We should sign Pepe next season his contract expires this season. He has the experience and easily replace Mertesaker/Gabriel next season. We need 4 world class players. Pepe and Kolasinac on free would be great signings. We can then sign a top class striker, CM and another winger.

  7. A top top striker to sit on the bench while Wenger’s continues in his belief that Giroud is the best thing since Wu Tang Forever

    1. Yeah I’m really looking forward to next season Walcott-Giroud-Onyekuru. They’ll score 90 goals combined, better than MSN, BBC, or so we will be lead to believe.

      When Ozil sees this he too will want to leave.

  8. This summer Arsenal will make money from the transfer window, sell £100M+ worth of players and buy players with a less total than that. Only the losers stay at Arsenal. They’re the easiest to keep as well, since there is no one looking to buy them, and with Arsenal offering them big wages why would they leave?

    1. Well this is the first season we will actually need all our deadwood with our Thursday night games. We need a big squad and we need WC players or at least players with that potential. But chances are we will only get one more player at the end of august, a AM from a second division.

  9. We absolutely need a strikes that can score 30 goals a season. Even if Sanchez stays. van Persie left a long time ago and nobody stepped up. Wellbeck is close to scoring more goals but we can’t rely on him. I like Giroud but after all these years I know what he can and can not do. I think the Euros was a good example of his shortcomings. If Benzema played France would have won the tournament no doubt.

  10. If Sanchez does decide to leave, Wenger will be begging Perez to stay so not to spend on other players, offering him starting 11 spot, and Europa games. I wouldn’t mind seeing him leave either with the way he has been treated.

    If sufficient players with quality aren’t bought in, expect us to finish below 7th next season. Everton will be better, so will Manu.

  11. Prediction for summer transfer.

    Arsenal sign 3-4 players early > get renewed season tickets. Before window closes Sanchez will play 2 league games for Arsenal in August before making a big money move to another club. Arsenal end up with profit in the transfer window.

  12. This article is absolutely right.

    Imagine if we’d got somebody like Higuaín playing in front of Ozil.

    With a quality-DM and somebody as good as Cazorla (But not injured all the time) playing behind him?

    Sounds like a title-challenging team.

    But Wenger won’t buy the right players, and keeps insisting that he can “Make” them from bargain-basement signings. He will never learn.

    1. Imagine there’s no Wenger,
      It’s easy if you try
      No Stan Kroenke with us,
      Above us Only sky
      Imagine all the fans
      Living for today

      Oooh hoo yoo hoo

      You may say I’m a dreamer
      But I’m not the only one
      I hope some day Usmanov joins us
      And Arsenal, will be as one

      1. Usmanov supports Wenger, kinda feel Usmanov would keep Wenger and try get Dein working his magic again as that appeared to have been their plan all those years back when Dein sold his shares to Usmanov and Usmanov created Red and White holdings, Dein only left that as he thought he was part of the reason why Usmanov wasn’t on the board.

        Usmanov has said Wenger should pick his replacement.

        I dunno… hoping Usmanov joins us but imagining no Wenger…

        1. I think that’s all a smoke-screen. When companies make take-overs they always say things like “Well keep the same staff/etc” so there is less opposition to the take-over. Then once they have their feet under-the-table in the board room, it’s all change. And that’s exactly what we need!

    2. Do you watch Arsenal?
      Since the formation swap, Xhaka has started to look like that top DM player who can use his strength to muscle players off the ball and not dive in as much, watch Arsenal and you would know that already.

      Xhaka was bought and Wenger is encouraging him not to dive into tackles but to stay on his feet which has worked.

      Imagining a player like Higuain in front of Ozil is soo good but wasn’t Ozil bought and also our record transfer?

      Someone as good as Cazorla… but Cazorla was bought.

      Our Keeper was… bought.
      Our CBs was… bought.
      Alexis was bought.

      Shame we have bought average players along the way like Welbeck…. Oh yeah, a BOARD signing… Or panic buy with Perez who was never contacted by Wenger like Alexis and Ozil and Xhaka and Cech…

      Wenger has been instrumental in some of our better signings and even if he isn’t good enough to manage us, to slander him by saying he doesn’t buy quality when he has been so instrumental in us getting quality… PMSL, you are showing your ignorance. I will not claim every signing Wenger has made has been perfect but he hasn’t been wasting decent money on Welbeck and Perez… you know if we had saved the money from Welbeck and had it to spend at the beginning of the season then we would have had near £50 mil to bid for Lacazette, instead we bid just over £30mil and failed. It doesn’t look like we had more money to spend after Xhaka and Mustafi. We panic bought Perez and Wenger has never appeared to show him any faith, doesn’t look like Wenger wanted him… but we got him.

      1. I agree that Xhaka is improving and will come good. He’s not really a proper DMF though, but I think he has the potential and could get there. Only time will tell.

        Yes, Ozil was a record transfer. But everyone in the world knows that Arsenal have been crying out for a top-quality striker to finish the job, and there have been plenty of transfer windows to resolve this since Ozil joined. The problem is that Arsene is in love with Giroud, and refuses to make sensible attempts to replace him as No.1 striker.

        Cazorla hasn’t played for ages and is always injured. Yes he was bought, but now it’s time to buy his replacement. If fact it was time quite a while ago. Or maybe we should wait for Jack Wilshere for a few more years?

        See, the problem with Arsene is that it’s always “In the future” and “Next season” and it always will be.

  13. Optimistic view (for a change)-

    Xaka has been poor most of season, not the midfield warrior we wanted. More midfield liability with so many Yellow and Red cards. But he has definitely grown and improved. And now always in 1st team.

    Apart from Carzola- no major injuries this season.

    Giroud has proved himself a potent threat from the bench when used.

    Iwobi – continues to impress, although wasn’t making team sheet for few matches. But did well as sub in last game.

    Walcott scored a good number of goals, for games played.

    Holding – looks an absolute bargain. Look forward to him becoming Arsenal legend over next 10 years I hope.

    Bellerine had great game, and good goal – after losing some form.

    Gabriel had great game before injury. Thought we’d lose him this summer, but that performance earns his spot in the wider team.

    Oxlade – his best season by far. Looks quality player at last converting potential into action and goals. And can finally cross a ball.

    Cech – returned to amazing form in recent games – and saved us a few times. Think he deserves more credit than his getting.

    Everton is never a guaranteed 3 points for any team. But we beat them convingly with 10 players.

    Honestly fans, even though we hurting now – we are not a bad team. We showed great courage and determination and dedication in last match – when would be easy to conserve energy for Cup Final-

    With a couple of critical signings, and without demands of Champ League next season we can get back to very top again!

    #COYG!

    Let’s pick our team up, support and love them all the way to the FA Cup final!!!

  14. We’ve needed a really world class striker ever since we sold Van Persie but have had to make do with average strikers, just think what we could have done with a world class scorer.

  15. We don’t need a striker but a new manager..

    Give AW Real Madrid He will not win the league in Spain.
    Give AW Beyern Leipzig would have won The league Just as Leicester Last year.
    Give Him Juve And Napoli or Roma would have been 10 pts clear.
    Give AW Monaco again PSG will still be champs..

    Give AW Antonne Messi and Cristiano the league will still be difficult.

    Hmmmmmmmmmmmm God Help US.

  16. lequipe has published that Tiémoué Bakayoko is heading to Chealsea for 40 millions . here we go, this is Conte a man with ambition to regain his title and compete in UCL. We? Bosnian free and Nigerian Wonder from Belgium to replace Alexis. What a Joke! Go and outbid Atletico 50 millions for Lacazette’s signature as they are fighting a transfer embargo. he’s the only option we got as Mbappe and Abu are miles away from our spending then go for Bernardo Silva 40 millions to replace Santi. Job done with 4 top players in the same team..Sorry, i’m just dreaming. will never happen and we will end up with OG, Theo, Wellbeck and Onkeruyu as strikers next season. Stoke get ready, the Arsenal is coming.

    1. That free player was wanted by other top teams from the reports, if we failed to have gotten him then you would prob just moan about how Wenger can’t even get a freebie.

      Go back to football manager, you say bid more for Lacazette but the player himself has said he wants CL football and he appears keen on AM, he will prob wait to find out if they can get him and if they can then that is where he will go. We will have to circle like a vulture and risk a last min deal if we are to go for him and it can all backfire leaving us with a panic buy.

      I would like Lacazette, I am a fan of his ability to find the goal so often, we do not have CL football though which is what he wants.

      What would you do?

      As for the nigerian, think of him as a SoNoGoals replacement, sometimes bargains happen and we have to give that player a chance to prove us right or wrong. Kolo Toure, the CB who was part of the invincibles, he was a big name before we got him right? Ooops, he was a unknown bargain.

      Heh, Kolo has been part of 2 invincible teams now, Arsenal and Celtic. Shows that a player from nowhere can actually be worth taking a gamble on.

      Oh and people are saying Wenger should have signed MBappe when he went to his house, when he was an unknown to all of you… Even if Wenger did, he would have had fickle fans like you moaning about it as he is a unknown.

  17. Hahahaha it doesn’t matter who you have in front of Ozil, he is still overrated. He is a Real Madrid flop. The four teams in front of us on the table have better players than him in his position. Hazard, Eriksen, De Bruyne and Coutinho. Please, can people stop saying he is “world class” or that we have to keep him. He isn’t that good and the days of players like him that don’t defend is over.

  18. News from Marca:
    Mourinho, a por Bernardo SilvaEl Mónaco puede ser el vivero de muchos equipos europeos. France Football informa de la posible salida de Bernardo Silva, uno de los grandes objetivos del Manchester United para la próxima temporada. Según el medio francés, en una información que también recoge el portugués Récord, su valor de mercado ronda los 25 millones de euros.

    Mourinho wants Bernardo Silva for UTD just 25 million euros ( 22 million pounds ). He would not suit in a team parking the bus. We should go for the fella and pay 30-35 he;’s amazing and great cover for Santi .Wenger, do not let him of the grip.

    1. I agree and think his price isn’t too overinflated with what clubs pay for these days… quality player if you watch Monaco a lot.

  19. Likerpool news ; Klopp wants to spend 120 millions in four players this summer transfer Virgil van Dijk, Mohamed Salah, Naby Keita y Christian Pulisic. Do Arsenal fans realistically think Wenger will get us at least 2 top players? the top 4 will be even stronger next season. Anyone guess?
    If Mr Wenger is really thinking to turn things around after 13 years then sits with Kroenke and demand 150 millions to get us the top players we need then he will gain my support again at the meantime signing the Belgium top striker will not do him any favours.

  20. The news keep coming frmo UTD; Mourinho wants Renato Sanches y Douglas Costa too. OMG , these guys should not go to the horrible team but If they win Europa league then any player will want to join them. THEY DO NOT WAIT UNTIL THE LAST MINUTE OF DEADLINE DAY.

  21. I would like to see Lukaku personally and would just point to his EPL goal tally the past few years. We want a TOP striker? Then we should buy one that has already proven he can score consistently in a TOP league.

    Lukaku
    Lewandowski (Not for sale I imagine)
    Mbappe ??
    Lacazette ??

    At this point everyone is in love with Mbappe I bet his price will be near Lukaku’s or higher. We should’ve signed him when Wenger “visited his house”. I like Lacazette and think he’d score in the EPL but not 20 + goals a year.

    Just my two cents on our *yawn* ongoing ST search.

  22. I am gutted that Lacazette now appears out of reach 🙁

    Dembele from Celtic shouldn’t be overlooked, 32 goals in 46 games and Celtic just went unbeaten, he might be tempted top come to us and as other CF are more headline news we may be able to pinch him.

    Only 20 as well…

  23. Let’s be Fair Wenger is buying a TOP TOP Class Striker well in his deluded eyes he is.
    Forward Henry Onyekuru for £1 or something like that and if you think Wenger is looking to buy Top Top class players you are as deluded as he is. In the meantime Chelsea, Liverpool Man Utd and Man City are all looking for some real players.

Comments are closed

Top Blog Sponsors