Every day, a new insight regarding Arsenal’s attack emerges. The most recent comes from Stuart Pearce, the ex-England and former Nottingham Forest defender.
Pearce believes Arsenal don’t have enough options up front and believes the Gunners need at least one more striker if they are to succeed. He believes that, in addition to Gabriel Jesus, Eddie Nketiah, and Kaia Havertz (who can play as a No. 9), Arsenal needs to get a top striker capable of scoring 20 goals every season.
“You look at some of the high-flying teams around the world; they might have four options up front,” Pearce told the Express. “There are still slight question marks about Nketiah and Jesus. Maybe even if Havertz plays up top, there’s a question mark there.
“If an out-and-out goalscorer that guarantees 20-odd goals-a-season [becomes available], that would push Arsenal’s credentials even further.”
If there is one thing that is evident, it is that Arsenal has to buy a striker in January. They will be masters of their own downfall if they do not sign one.
Ivan Toney, Benjamin Sesko, Ollie Watkins, Santiago Gimenez, Solanke and even Viktor Gyokeres have all been linked.
Arteta’s attack is in severe need of an upgrade, so hopefully whoever they recruit is an instant hit.
The Premier League title race has become more competitive, and small margins, such as not scoring enough goals, may ultimately cost the Gunners the crown. Last season, Arsenal’s failure to outscore Southampton and Newcastle in those two April draws cost them the title. They would have won the league by a point if they had won those games.
Daniel O
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The absence of Havertz yesterday robbed the team of the option of using him in a false nine position. That would have been a good B option
Odegaard, Saka, Martinelli, Zinchenko and White could’ve directed their long crosses to Havertz’s head
As for the new CF, Toney would be the safest bet, because he used to bully White and Saliba with his physical abilities. Unfortunately, his public image and age might’ve put Arsenal off
Gai, you kept saying Bully Saliba how? Can you mention the game where he actually bullied Saliba. I understand White can be Bully. Saliba in weight is bigger than Toney even Halaand could Bully him. He is only pacey than Saliba.
#Even Halaand couldnt
When they last met, Saliba struggled to hold Toney off
@GAI, “Toney would be the safest bet”, I see what you did there!
I think he could be ‘odds on’ to join us, a safe ‘each way bet’ to score a lot of goals and we could win the league by ‘a head’. He’s possibly the ‘favourite’ of all the names being linked with us.
I don’t think he’ll score plenty of goals for us, but he’ll surely win many aerial duels and hold the CBs off
When did Toney ever bully White and Saliba?
agreed, Toney not kicked a ball for 6 months and some on hear think £80m guarantees us the title – it quite simply doesn’t, strikers are expensive gambles that risk the areas of greater need, e.g. DM and Saliba back-up
a guaranteed 30 goal a season striker of course, but no names mentioned so far are any where close to that – learn from others, e.g. Nunez £89m and 3 years later…Holberg £72m per goal
Toney won many aerial duels against White a couple of years ago in an opening EPL match that Brentford won and Saliba struggled to hold Toney off when they last met
Arguably trossard has been as good as anyone when played up front. That does make 4 options, though none of them is a specialist lone cf imo – Eddie and jesus would be more suited to play as strikers in an old fashioned 4-4-2 system.
Thierry Henry made the point pre match yesterday that Jesus would be far more successful scoring goals by being positioned on the left as he has been most of his career, so another goal scorer centrally along with him might bring more success, and perhaps in the event of us not getting a new striker this coming window even use Martinelli or Havertz there.
I do not disagree, but it’s all patch work. Which would be fine from time to time if we had a top striker who was say injured occasionally. But we really need to accept neither Jesus or Nketiah are lethal weapons. Jesus IMO is OK to play second striker. or out left, but we need a player who will score goals regularly. January is not an ideal time to buy a striker, is it?
Very few, if any could possibly disagree with this spot on piece.
But wishing is one thing, getting is quite another, this realist feels compelled to add!
What striker worth having is available in January without a question mark against their name?
none
but £80m or more is not in question
IVAN freaking TONEY!!!
So who does guarantee 20-odd goals-a-season?
Kane, Haaland and Salah
Actually Salah slacked last season and only got nineteen but I would let him off if he becomes available. He won’t be any time soon for us and neither will the other two.
exactly – the whole striker = guaranteed title is nonsense
Nunez £89m
Holberg £72m
titles = zero
no better than what we have
and Salah is not a striker
valid points made – the mysterious 30 goal a season striker we ‘must have’ is a fantasy
That is the job of Edu, Arteta and team to find the potential players who can provide 20+ goals per season, may be after 1 season integration time with team. You can’t buy all established stars, you have to make some of those.
Amidst the reaction to the surprise defeat at the hands of a workman like West Ham side, no one on JA to my knowledge, has put forward a practical solution to our striker woes from our existing player pool when we may well be restricted by FFP parameters from buying another striker in the January window..On the assumption that his hands are tied, will Arteta show some imagination and finally change his front three which has become stale and predictable ?Against Arsenal opposition teams are able to set out in training their plans to curb our inverted wingers in the knowledge that they will remain on their respective flanks and rarely venture afar.Compare this with Man City against Everton where, in the second half in particular, Foden, and Silva were popping up all over the pitch to make space for others to exploit.In essence,Arsenal have become very easy to read and despite the prodigious efforts of Odegaard last night we were unable to break through.Before it’s too late, Arteta needs to change the make up of his front three to at least create more doubts in the minds of opposition defenders.More interchanging, would help and when we are faced with a deep defensive set up, our defenders should be given some license to play a long ball from deep in our half, instead of working our way slowly through midfield which is playing into the hands of sides such as West Ham and Everton .Unfortunately I doubt if Arteta will change his set up against Fulham despite the poor performance last night so I am expecting more of the same on the banks of the Thames.Finally despite the clamour for a new striker, our defenders also let us down last night by conceding two soft goals.I think this is the fourth time this season when we have lost a headed goal direct from a corner and while Raya was not culpable on this occasion, his lack of presence in his box will ensure our opponents test him in the air whenever possible.He just does not fit the bill as far as I am concerned and when you compare him to the keepers paraded by Man City and Liverpool we lose out big time.
Sound sense Grandad. We are, in general, far too predictably static, esp our two wingers who seem terrified to stray far from their MA given wing , even though it is the WROING wing for their stronger foot!
MA seems incapable of innovation in tactics and badly needs to let the brakes off our far too rigid system. All clubs know, as you CORRECTLY STATE, our constantly static formation , with a far too slow ponderous build up from th back, where a real long ball is seemingly “forbidden ” by our tactically unbending manager.
I am losing faith in MA as a tactical man of talent of late, meaning most of this eason and much of late last season too. He seems unwilling and/or incapable of seeing the vital need for throwing off the tactical straitjacket our team are INTRUCTED, almost on pain of death, to play in- or else!
If this goes on much longer in such rigid unchangeable shape , I can forsee him falling out wirth a great many fans who til now have stayed largely true to him.
Change means evolving , not throwing the baby out with the bathwater . But SOME tactical change is VERY NECESSARY, nevertheless. It is blindingly obvious , I suggest to many of us, even if not to MA.
When we lose a game and don’t score goals the focus is on the striker situation. Yes, we would be better with a prolific goal scorer, but there are problems across the whole forward line. We are lacking the speed and sharpness of last season. Neither Odegaard, Martinelli or Saka are firing at the moment. It’s somewhat ironic that some fans all of sudden believed we would have been better with KH in the team. What a fickle bunch we are at times.
Martinelli and Saka are lacking support, especially Martinelli who is very isolated on the left. It’s unrealistic to expect them to get the better of their markers when teams are more prepared to double team them this season.
Seeing Martinelli and Saka nullified by double teaming is an all too familiar sight during games this season. I often wonder where are the overlapping runners to take a defender off them and stretch the opposition, only to see our fullbacks hanging around midfield to keep it safe.
Odegaard tries to help Saka on the right, but Martinelli is often left on his own with Havertz playing more centrally and making runs into the box for tap ins. It’s no wonder our wingers are having problems
Well said Grandad.
Due to FFP we are not likely to get a striker in unless it is a loan swap.
MA has not learnt how to rotate his squad in 4 years as manager. Until he does so I cannot see us taking the next step (ie PL title).
With his current tactics he might win a cup or two.
It’s precisely because of FFP that we should have spent wisely. We spent 208M last summer, but got our priorities wrong. One of the main reasons I was upset with Arteta early this season.
At the end of last season when we blew our 8 point lead, we knew we needed a more clinical striker after some wasteful finishing made matters worse when our defense without Saliba became leaky and Partey was off form.
With Xhaka’s departure and Partey’s injury problems, we desperately needed Rice even at 105M. With 103M left to spend, we somehow failed to prioritize a striker over Havertz and Timber.
It was absolutely unnecessary overspending 65M on Havertz. Timber seems like a good signing, but shouldn’t we prioritize a much needed striker before a fullback, a position that we had adequate cover and is perhaps easier to fix in the January than signing a good striker.
Spending 103M like that, plus the loan fee for Raya, another rather unnecessary signing, before addressing our need for a more clinical striker was piss poor decision making. It still reeks of negligence as I think of it now
Probably not what people want to hear but….
Playing within the confines of the mirage that is ffP, we know $h*ttY and co. will find a work around as will chavs, manure, and castle, but nonetheless, AFC will mind it’s p and q’s because we are that club.
Slippery slope this.
We have not won a title in 20+ years, and we do not look close as of now.
However, unchain the pack, let them play with at least a little bit of positional interplay, and freedom.
Get another defender, and buy a damn finisher, even if it means selling the perceived jewels or better yet play some YOUTH, like damn play them!
Who can we sell in January to reduce our expenditures, Ramsdale, Eddie, Tomi, Partey, Zinc, Jesus, ESR, Tross, and or anyone else who can’t either play regularly or at a high level.
Mikel could be inspired to play some of our youth players, no matter what age, just play them, take some microdoses and change they way we play, like faster, everyone say it with me FASTER.
Place Jesus out left as a winger because that what he eff’n is, put Martin in the center or better yet Toney, a real cf.
There are options, but we are approaching the echo chamber levels of yes again and nothing is changing, players will break because of overuse and with 10 games to go AFC will implode due to the demands of the CL and the EPL.
Doing nothing is not an option….
We can consider a loan Option for Victor Osimhen
Osimhen’s just signed a new contact with Napoli so why would they send him out on loan? Anyway he’ll be off to the Africa Cup soon.
I also fall into the category of those that believe, just maybe rushing in to sign any striker this January may not be to our advantage.
I don’t think there’s any top striker out there that will be willing to leave his current club this January (please don’t mention Ivan Toney as he hasn’t kicked a ball in more than seven months).
I think we should look sign an attacking midfielder and a winger to ensure more goals from the midfield.
A midfielder that can give what Partey and Xhaka gave us last season in terms of goals, assists and chances created (what we lacked so far this season). And also a fast skillful winger to deputize effectively for Saka.
To wrap things up, we need a back up for Saliba before the inevitable happens again.
I pray Tomiyasu and Timber come back quick enough to put both Zinchenko and White out of there misery for good.
never thought I would say it = we missed Havertz
it becoming increasingly clear, and vindicated, Arteta decision
Havertz physicality and positional intelligence offers so much more in defence, off the ball and attack than I ever appreciated
as we messed around the box ging nowhere yesterday, predictable and worked out by the opposition, you could just see Havertz providing that something else we needed
Hasn’t kicked a ball in seven months?
So you think Brentford would let him collect his salary and do nothing?
They would want him match fit at the very least and will ensure he is ready to go… whether that is playing for them or being ready for a big buck transfer.
He would make one hell of a difference to our scoring capabilities.
As for your point that no top striker would be willing to leave his club in January, what makes you think any top winger or attacking midfielder would either?
Well maybe he’s been training consistently since all these while you’re implying?
Well, even if that’s the case, training is one thing, actually featuring in matches is another (which we have no evidence for by the way).
As for a top striker joining, I feel there’s a better chance of getting a midfielder and a winger that a striker due to the fact not so many available at the moment.
The big question is will Ivan Toney be able to come in and have the immediate impact we need?
Juventus seem willing to sell vlahovic, buy just pay their asking price surely he’s an upgrade to what we have.
Toney is just a plan b and if fit and on form we shall enjoy.
Arteta should stop this unnecessary experiment and give our attacking players an actual midfielder who understands when and how to pass to unleash them. Martinelli has 2 PL goals, and Saka has three open-play goals. Ordegaard and Jesus are equally struggling in front of the goal. These were our major goal outlets last season.
How are all our attacking players from last season this poor, and some of us don’t understand why it is a system problem. The worst is that they are now facing a confidence crisis, which we shouldn’t be having in the first place. Havertz should be providing our attacking players with good chances and not the other way around. If Arteta is very obsessed with Havertz’s aerial prowess, he can play him as a CF. His dropball to Martinelli gave us a goal against Man City, a goal which wouldn’t have been possible without Partey. We can utilize that more if we have someone to make the first pass like Partey. This can only be possible with Havertz as a CF and not a LCM
MA has stated he has full confidence in Eddie, why would we need another striker then?
Simple….take one EPL ready, strong and scary striker, who knows the EPL well and ‘hey presto’ we have a plan B, a genuine plan be. Against West Ham’s low block we looked naive and had no way of changing the script and looked totally unimaginative and impotent. If FFP can be sorted, a certain Mr Ivan Toney would be like medicine and a real and defacto way to change and vary our game.
Our biggest challenge is that we have 2 strikers who are very similar in the way they play. Sometimes your plan B must have a player with a different dimension. Players like Antonio and Toney are big and they really cause different problems to defenders if they are brought on as substitutes. Antonio may not be in the class of Jesus but despite playing for a midtable team his statistics (goals and assists( are not much worse than those of our strikers.
Arteta has messed up the team instead of improving it this season. Why did we buy Timber (when we lareqdy got White and Tomiyasu). He is a very good player but I feel it was better to address the strikers situation first. He has loaned Tierney yet the only left back left is not a natural defender. People are talking about Timber and Tomiyasu forgetting that these guys are right footed. Raya was not necessary also. Arteta and Edu must stop shifti ngplayers and replacing them with inferior quality.
My opinion is that although Odegaard is very good but he is not influential enough is key games or when the chips are down. He might have a few flicks, back heels and dummies but what wins the league from your playmaker are key goals and assists. An example is KDB who is always a different animal in key games, Lampard, Iniesta, and Modric are examples. I would give ESR more minutes to compete with Odegaard.
We don’t need another winger but to make use of Riess Nelson more a d more. A good coach would sometimes shift Saka and Martinelli to the other wings and let them cross balls for the strikers as it is easier if your are on your favoured foot.
Why can’t we also try Martinelli as a striker and with Nelson replacing him on the wing.
The coach can do a lot without going into the market but it seems he doesn’t trust players on the bench.