Do Arsenal fans still think we need a top striker in January?

Arsenal came close to winning their first league title in years last season, but fell short after losing their great form near the end of the season. That being said, they’ll be hoping for a successful title run this season and, hopefully, a lift of the Premier League trophy at the end.

They appear to be stronger this season, but there are concerns about their attack; some believe they would benefit from signing a lethal striker in January.

They have Gabriel Jesus and Eddie Nketiah as their strikers for now. Jesus has been unreliable owing to injury. Nketiah has been the most frequently deployed striker this season, although he has failed to convert on numerous opportunities; he is unreliable at scoring goals. Trossard has been playing as No. 9 for Arteta in the last two games.

The Belgium international has impressed, scoring in these two games (against Sevilla and Burnley) as No. 9. Even so, ex-Chelsea striker Scott Minto believes Arsenal lacks a reliable solution to their striker difficulties in Trossard, whom he sees as a short-term solution, and Nketiah, who has improved but is still not at the level of propelling Arsenal to glory. “I think he’s not your ideal number nine, to be honest with you. You want Jesus or you want Nketiah. I think Nketiah has improved a lot, but he’s not the player to take you to a Premier League title.

“Trossard is a wide player who can be very clever; he can play that role, but I wouldn’t want him there for 10/15 games; he can dip in and dip out,” Minto said on Premier League All Access.

Reading from Minto’s words, I guess he just insinuated Arsenal needed to sign a top striker in the winter transfer window; or Jesus must return stronger and better to change the notion that Arsenal requires a top striker to click.

Eddie Nketiah, on the other hand, should just keep working hard because, who knows? He has the potential to develop into a super-striker capable of leading a title charge.

Trossard, on the other hand, should just keep doing what he’s doing since he never disappoints.

Daniel O


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Tags Leandro Trossard Nketiah Scott Minto

20 Comments

  1. It’s not so much as needing a new striker as wanting our current goal scorers to do better, and we can’t just go out and throw money at every problem even if we are clear via FFP and the Kroenke’s good will and seemingly bottomless cash vaults.

  2. Apart from Man City plainly, there is not a single other top level club that does NOT badly need a top level reliably scoring striker.
    I could accept a case being made out for Liverpool not “badly” needing one, but would still maintain they do, personally.

    VERY PLAINLY INDEED, we do too.

    The articles headline was therefore akin to asking do we need warm sunny weather in summer time.

    1. Fact that none of our players have scored even 6 goals after 12 match day is a cause for concern, so this season also we are not having any players scoring 20 goals be it striker or winger .

      1. For me, it’s far more important we score goals as a team, and it’s generally better if the goals are spread around because it means we’re less reliant on one player, and it means we’re less effected if a serious injury were to occur.
        That said, I do think we’d benefit from a different type of striker who can hold his own physically and sniff out an extra goal here and there – I wouldn’t be overly concerned if they weren’t getting 20+ goals a season, though, as long as they were contributing to the team doing well

      2. I think it’s accurate to say none of our forwards has been fit and available since the beginning of the season so it makes sense that their individual numbers would be lower. That said,it is my belief that our forwards not scoring enough has to do with our current system; it’s not like the system is creating lots of clear cut chances. Simply put,even Haaland’s goals would decline if he played in a system like ours. I think Arteta and his squad will figure out the right defense/attack eventually.

  3. Yes we need a striker but not toney,I don’t want us to buy a player who has not played in 5 months to be the solution for us,any of the strikers on form currently will do.

  4. That’s for sure although Trossard should clearly play the false 9 role ahead of Nketia playing the 9. His statistics since joining in January are only next to Saka’s and they seem to combine well.

    And I honestly think Harvertz should operate from the bench until he can prove something else in the future. He’s a lost bargain. And we can understand; human beings will not always get it right. Let’s count our losses and forget about him to enable the club move forward.

    With him, we have totally lost our smooth-flowing style. However, we have been able to keep up because the rest of the team is good especially the defense.

    The january window is a good opportunity to straighten up things. Unfortunately the club seems to be struggling with balancing of their books. That’s what possibly lead to the instability from the start of the season as they struggled to make some sales after erroneously spending heavily on a Chelsea flop.

    Let’s wait and see

    1. I agree. The purchase of Havertz was a mistake. He is not offering anything and slows down our game. Arteta would do better to bring him off the bench as an impact sub.

  5. If we are to compete effectively with the best in the world we need a consistent, lethal striker. It is quite clear that we don’t have one. It is also the case that there are very few strikers who have proven themselves at the highest levels of world football.

  6. I cannot see us finding a top striker in the January window or finding the £100m+ to sign him.

    Trossard has been excellent and brings the best out in Martinelli.

    Nketiah has never really shown that he is anything above a useful option from the bench

  7. As far as whether Arsenal “need” a top level striker, the answer is a loud YES! You could combine the best of Gabriel Jesus and Eddie Nketiah into one player and you still wouldn’t have a top striker because neither one of them are clinical in front of goal.

    I am at a COMPLETE LOSS to understand why the writer thinks Eddie has it in him to become a “super striker capable of leading a title charge”. Everything about Eddie, including his career stats, reveals a painfully average, mid-table side caliber striker.

    Unfortunately, the global lack of talent at the position means that elite strikers are few and far between. The question isn’t whether we need a top level striker, it’s where we would find one that’s actually available…..and affordable under our FFP restrictions.

  8. There is no Top Striker that can be gotten in January that can give us what we need.😕

    For me, we should Try Cody GAKPO and Tempt Liverpool with some money.🙂🙂

    He is wasted at Merseyside by Jurgen klopp!😏

  9. We MUST throw serious money at Villa for Ollie Watkins if we want to complete this project and challenge City for the PL!! I’d offer £70M, possibly £80M if push comes to shove. If they totally refuse, try for Osimhen or Isak. Whatever the case, Nketiah is not the answer and never will be. Things would have been so much easier for us this January if we had not wasted a whooping £65M on the near useless Havertz. What a disaster of a signing, far worse than Pepe. Even the ultra-lazy Ozil was 50 times the player Havertz is.

  10. We still need to but I don’t see any teams willing to part with a good striker in the middle of the season, unless we pay way over the odds. Had a better chance of doing it last summer but we chose not to and instead overpaid for Havertz and prioritized a RB over a striker. We will have to wait till next summer to sort it out

  11. I believe Arsenal need a striker in the next transfer window in order to take us to the next level. Jesus is a good team and link up player but misses quite a few chances. Nketiah is still not at the level Arsenal want and needs to work more harder. Trossard is an excellent player but will be more consistent in wide positions than as a CF. So, Arsenal need a top striker who can consistently score goals and one on whom we can rely upon. “I think Vlahovic/Toney would be good options.

  12. I’m certain that we will not buy any Premier League strikers now or in the summer. Our close top four rival, Villa, will not sell to us (why would they?), and Brentford will be asking ridiculous money for Toney. I’m not sure what our FFP situation will be (both Swiss Ramble & The Athletic said we’re close to the limit), and even then will the Kroenkes’ shell out when we’ve spent ridiculous money on underperforming player(s). Get our current forwards scoring, they did it well enough last season, do it again.

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