Would NOT signing a top striker be a significant risk to Arsenal’s title chances? It almost certainly will be, as evidenced by the victory over Nottingham Forest.
Arsenal secured their 14th Premier League victory on Tuesday night, defeating Nottingham Forest 2-1. This season, the Gunners have played 22 league games, 14 of which they have won, with the remaining four drawn and four lost.
Before today’s games, Arsenal were second in the Premier League with 46 points, but Manchester City, with 43 points, might leapfrog them again if they beat Burnley tonight, as the Citizens have more goals.
Arsenal is having a decent season, but the high level of competition in the Premier League has made it appear poor.
Before Christmas, Arsenal had the opportunity to go to the top of the league with a win, but they lost twice and ended up where they are now. Arsenal would need to maintain their winning streak if they wish to return to the top, as Manchester City and Liverpool are also in excellent form right now.
Gabriel Jesus was named man of the match against Forest on Tuesday night. He scored one goal and assisted Bukayo Saka, who has been struggling in front of goal in recent weeks.
Despite Arsenal’s victory over Nottingham Forest, the match stats and even the scoreline indicate that the club still needs a top striker. Arsenal thoroughly controlled possession in this game. They were taking 3–5 passes in the box; it is a corner or a missed opportunity; or a defensive clearance. Imagine if the Gunners had capitalized on their chances in the first half; the game would have been over by half-time. Against Forest, they had 73% possession and 19 shots, but only three of them were on target.
The Gunners definitely had enough chances to score more than the two goals they scored against Nottingham Forest and secure a comfortable victory, but their blunt attack resulted in only two goals. Arsenal’s reluctance to capitalize on goal-scoring opportunities has already cost them points this season, and if they fail to address their attacking woes now that they will not be purchasing a new striker, they may be unable to sustain the title chase.
Darren N
CALLING ALL ARSENAL FANS! Anyone who would like to contribute an Article or Video opinion piece on JustArsenal, please contact us through this link…
No we just need to overcome a low block.
That’s a BIG YES. No Question.
Now this is a strange article with a title that is more strange. Beating Nottingham Forrest is not something to sniff at. They are strong home and away and if you are in doubt ask Man Utd. I will concur that We need a striker but let’s not talk nonsense by belittling our beloved club.
Why ask Man utd? They are a mid table team this season. They have lost to 9 clubs already!
Shows we need new tactics, nobody that is sane could deny how we were slow and predictable for the majority of the game.
MA has zero plan against a low block, looks like he’s trying to put the opponents to sleep.
Luckily for the 2 errors we got the goals.
Completely dominating an away game from start to finish was unacceptable! Definitely need some new tactics 😂
And never creating anything on goal.
If it hadn’t been for another poor signing of ours Turner messing up, we’d have struggled.
That was the only reason we got the 2nd goal because Forest had to chase the game.
We were against an extremely low block, so space was at a premium. Created more second half, but I’ll repeat, we dominated the entire game.
If fans can’t be happy with a dominant away win, they’ll never be happy!
Dominating possession and being dominant are 2 different things, don’t think you’ll ever understand that but the technical side of the game is not for everyone
We could win the league, and I bet you still wouldn’t be happy or some nonsense like Arteta got lucky.
Crazy how negative you can be, even when playing well, and winning an away game. You’re not Lee Gunner in disguise by any chance?
Narrow win over NForest doesn’t outline Arsenal need for a striker, the need for a striker has always been obvious before the game.
The Boys did well and 3 points in the bag. Since their return from Dubai they have scored 7 goals in two games conceeding just 1 that’s not a bad stats by all standard. I hope they keep getting better
Good point jen
Since their return from dubai they have played a league record of 2 games
We continue to create chances, but lack a clinical finisher to put the ball in the net. This is nothing new, it has been a factor for a couple years now. Even Jesus himself said he is not a clinical goal scorer; some matches require that clinical finisher.
Some matches we may only create a few chances to score, and you need to capitalize to get the points. I like what Jesus brings, but if we only had 3 chances/shots on goal, I would not choose him to take those chances.
There are 3 players who have been relatively poor this season, Martinelli, Odergaard and Saka, yet we are still in touching distance of the leader. It’s still all to play for in the EPL we just have to keep our nerve. February will prove decisive in my view because of the start of the UCL knockout matches adding extra stress.
Of course we do.
No plan B.
Get to the final third and it’s like hitting a brick wall.
Tippy tappy football isn’t the answer.
Odegaard hasn’t a clue what to do. He could have shot a couple of times last night. But no he just taps it on and we lose possession.
By the way you Odegaard lovers, he isn’t that good.
What did you expect or hope to achieve by your unkind comment about Odegaard ?
i don’t remember too many, if any, missed chances a clinical prolific striker would have buried
would a clinical prolific striker benefit Arsenal, yes, the same as every other team would benefit from a clinical prolific striker
the truth is they are very very rare
there is only one in the whole Premier League, and that is the ‘freak of nature’ Haarland
Liverpool don’t have one, Darwin Nunez the archetypical wasteful striker
Man U don’t have one, Holjund shows us everything that is wrong with the big money striker equals titles
Newcastle don’t have one, Isak is OK but a long way from clinical prolific
Spurs had one, Kane arguably the best in a decade for a decade, and Holjund proves one thing then Kane proves the other that even the absolute best strikers guarantees nothing, which fittingly is exactly what Spurs won
Ivan Toney with only 14 non-pen goals in the Prem last season most definitely is not a clinical prolific striker, Solanke and Watkins even further still
so this whole Arsenal fan obsession with a clinical striker is flawed for two (at least) reasons;
1) consistent clinical prolific strikers are incredibly rare, and none of names linked with us convince me they fit the bill
2) even if you get incredibly lucky and do have one it may still mean an empty trophy cabinet
the truth is Arsenal are not buying any new striker in January, and definitely not a proven clinical prolific one
so please all just get over it, stop whining, and support the squad we have for the second half of the season
Very predictable and slow build up. No vertical passing it is always from one side rotate the ball to the other and in all honesty these are pro footballers
so taking 4 short passes to rotate the ball and change the point of attack is getting ridiculous to watch. City pay a lot of diagonal passes to the wings early and longer passes to unbalance defenses. Same with Spurs and Pool. We are the only top 4 side that takes a lot longer to get int o attacking areas or critical space except when we on the counter which is one of our strong points.
Aside from that Martinelli can’t cross a ball anymore and dancing around undecided as to what he wants to do is infuriating. Maybe he should watch Mitoma play to get some ideas.
A win is a win but nothing positive in terms of title credentials.
We have a right footer on the left wing who cannot cross with his left foot and a left footer on the right wing who cannot cross with his right foot.There is a simple solution to this problem but unfortunately our Manager is reluctant to use our wingers in a conventional way and that is one reason why we are unable to disrupt deep lying defences and why we do not create enough clear cut chances.
What are people going on about. Low Block, mr armpit. If low block stands for, slow deliberate build up, slow deliberate backwards and sideways passing, little 5 and 10 yard passes, no 30 or 40 yard passes, playing safe, instead of decisive forward quick passes. Then yes we struggle against a low block. Because all the time we are playing this way, it allows Forest and whoever to all funnel back into an orderly formation and suck the life out of us. The way teams end up playing against us, is all our style of plays fault and we are to blame. We keep possession by playing nothing balls that the opposition dont mind, allow us to do it. The minute, we either score, or scored against, our passing is dreadful and not controlled, like when we are just playing keep ball and little grubber passes. If we keep playing like this, we will win absolutely NOTHING. It has to change. Im disappointed so far, what i have seen, since the jolly in Dubai.
Low block, MY armpit, in first line.
Lino Sousa to Aston villa. Bad news for me.
That’s a shocker, and a bit ominous as Emery would surely know how good he is.
Hi The way we play, lots of passing ,ery little chance of counter, we dont need a out and out striker. we need a back-up for Another Rice
The narrow win against NForest was six points better than last year. Yes, we could need a prolific striker, but clubs with prolific strikers don’t make much more goals than us. COYG