Arsenal just needs to do everything to get a striker on board in the winter; at least that now is clearer than ever.
Yes, the argument that Arsenal weren’t creative in the final third made sense after the Newcastle game. However, the argument about Kai Havertz being everywhere instead of where he should be to exert pressure on the defenders also held validity. That only hinted at the fact that the Gunners needed a different striking profile from what they currently had.
Against Inter Milan, it became evident that Arsenal could perform better if they had a more effective striker.
Arsenal’s general perfomance against the Italian side was impressive. But their lack of creativity in the final third and lack of a clinical 9 really held them back.
While watching that game, I couldn’t help but think, “Inter Milan, with these three big defenders, we just need a strong and active striker like Viktor Gyokeres to stress those guys.”
In the lead-up to the Inter Milan versus Arsenal game, Lukas Podolski rightly admitted that Arsenal lacked a top striker in Kai Havertz, unlike Inter Milan, who had Marcus Thuram.
Havertz’s impact as an all-action leader of the Arsenal attack is undeniable, but we urgently need a striker. This false 9 era we are living in now is simply not sustainable, and it won’t take us anywhere.
I recall a time when some of us Gooners asserted that Harvetz was the best striker and that there was no one better in the market — a claim we made to rationalise the failure of Arteta and Edu to secure a top striker. You can’t convince me that someone like Victor Osimhen wouldn’t have jumped at the chance to come to Arsenal on a loan deal.
It’s great that Martin Odegaard is making a comeback; at least it will provide a clear picture of what the Arsenal attack is yearning for. However, even if Havertz returns to his goal-scoring form, what if he isn’t available?
Undoubtedly, Arteta still requires a superior substitute for him.
Daniel O
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The answer is; Arteta
I read a comment in the Times that made me chuckle. “Arteta has started managing like David Moyes”
There is a very good article in ” The Independent” written by M.Delaney witch describe the Arsenal crisis at the moment.
Brilliant. I only hope he wins a European trophy as Moyes did. The Cl is coming to the Emirates!
Havertz is not ,and will never be a striker .
Hes a mid player and for 65 million you would expect more .
Best position is probably a 10 but he’s not mobile enough to play that position weekly.
Edus jumped ship hopefully Arteta follows if we once again end up being also rans .
How any team wanting to challenge for the title goes 2-3 years without a proper striker is beyond comprehension.
The blokes put up on a pedestal by his fan club ,just hope they do one when he does .
Havertz is not even good enough to start at 10 for a mid table side.
He lacks all needed qualities of a 10.
So, the less worst option is to play him in front.
Whilst I would agree that Arsenal would benefit from having a striker the comparison with Inter is rather dubious. Inter did not win because they had better strikers. They won because of a highly controversial penalty decision.
They won and got 3 points. May is not that far. No EPL or CL and Arteta is a goner. Unfortunately Arteta fans excuses are just that, excuses. They don’t win us points or trophies and will not prevent the inevitable when the time comes.
1 point out of possible 12. Why don’t you give another excuse for the other 8 points? Or are you going to be one of those who said it’s not a big deal because Aston Villa and Madrid lost too? As if that is going to help us win anything.
Your comments lack coherence. This was about the game against Inter Milan and I have made no comparisons with Aston Villa or Real Madrid.
We have 7 points out of 12 in the CL so we are still reasonably placed to make the next stage.
Coherence, perspective, insight or any fancy words doesn’t change the results when he lose do they?
You are very fond of the word perspective yet I have yet to read a single post from you that has it.
Even if Havertz starts scoring goals on a regular basis, Arsenal still needs a good back up striker. GJ isn’t it and Eddie Nketiah has not been replaced since leaving for Crystal Palace.
If Havertz is Arsenal’s best striker, then they’re in serious trouble.
And to think we have those other superstars, Jesus, Sterling, Trossard, and not forgetting Martinelli.
What a comforting thought, sleep well fellow Arsenal fans.
You say in the article that Osimhen would jump at the chance of joining The Arsenal, so can you explain why other strikers have decided to stay with their clubs when our club showed interest in them?
Ken, as far as I am aware, we were only ever interested in Osimhen but when it was clear, it was going to cost far too much money, we shifted to Sesko. Again for different reasons both became unattainable.
But Reggie, it’s a fact isn’t it that our 2 other targets decided to stay at their clubs?
I decided to read an in depth and interesting article about Osimhen to satisfy my curiosity which focused on his stats compared to EH/HK amongst 2 others. This took on board injuries, goals per season and playing for the national team
Overall, his standout season has not been replicated, his injury record has hampered him and the level of international duty was deemed detrimental to the club he played for. He was middling but not outstanding and not a Haaland or Kane. Perhaps this and the release clause was just too much?
Sue,
I read a comment from you the other day regarding the two strikers that decided to stay with their respective clubs instead of coming to Arsenal. And while I agree with you saying that Arsenal tried to sign a striker in the summer.
But my gripe with both Arteta and Edu, was that the fans have known for three years now that we need an out and out striker. Maybe that could have made a difference in us winning the league on the past two seasons, but unfortunately we’ll never know now will we.
You may think that I’m continually targeting Arteta, and yes your right I’ve got no time for him now. And I also realize that it’s not all down to him, because there’s no doubt about it there are some players in that squad who are stealing a living, of that there’s no doubt.
But I don’t care what anyone says, Arteta is a big part of the problem at the club. He also tells untruths.
Let me give you an example: Against Newcastle when asked why he played Partey at right back, he said because he didn’t have a right back, a blatant lie. Firstly White was on the bench, and before you say he was not fit enough to complete 90 Minutes, then he shouldn’t have been in the squad then, if your on the bench or in the team your fit to play end of story.
Then you’ve got Timber at left back who could have played at right back.
We had options on the bench concerning left back, ie: Zinchenko, Kiwior, or Skelly. And that leads to another of Arteta’s untruths, he’s always going on about how good the squad is and the quality of the players, which he clearly doesn’t believe himself.
Because the fact that the three player’s mentioned didn’t start, tells me that he doesn’t have confidence in those players. (I don’t include Skelly in that to be fair, as him being an academy player has something to do with that).
So, as I said earlier, yes I do give Arteta a lot of stick on these pages, but I believe a lot of it is justified. Arteta needs to be accountable for what’s going on.
And while I am all for being positive when possible, to see some fans being blindly positive when he’s clearly not doing his job, just baffles me to be honest.
Sorry I went on there, but I thought it worth saying.
A very thorough insight into your thoughts on Arteta, Derek.
I genuinely don’t think that those who support Arteta are his loveys or are blind to the possibility that he isn’t perfect.
What I can’t see the point of doing is sacking the bloke on the basis of a sticky patch. Now, if that persists for a significant time and there is a recurrence of what happened to Emery regarding player power and clear disenchantment from the fans, then I’ll be joining you on your soap box calling for him to go.
From my perspective, I think it takes a lot longer to rebuild than we all thought after Wenger left and I see similarities between us and Utd. Such a dominant time under one man has caused hiccups. Even the most famous of managers didn’t win the league at Utd ie Mourinho plus other names too. Emery- who had a great CV lost the players- so the club was in a sorry state by the time MA came.
Now that’s not to say that a more prominent manager wouldn’t have made a better job of it – and more quickly- but we were starting at a low base anyway and with an ownership that didn’t appear to be robust enough at the executive level with their structure.
Much of that has changed but don’t you think the FFP etc has had an effect on almost every club? City were able to buy who they wanted and whilst they won the league after a few years of building, it took Guardiola to take them to another level.
Employing Klopp was a great move by Liverpool. We stuck with top4 on a relatively modest budget, so with the Coutinho money Liverpool rebuilt and spent wisely winning the league and the CL too – but not straight away.
I get fed up with reading about how much we have spent. We had to. Doing a Leicester is nigh on impossible nowadays – notwithstanding the sheer brilliance of Pep who has coached the best and brought out the best in his signings and can spend a £100m here and there to top up the squad. Im interested in seeing if City continue to struggle as a result of injuries. We did.
I’m stopping here as I’ve got mobile phone cramp in my thumb 😂
Sue,
First of all, please except my apologies for your repetitive injury suffered in answering my earlier comment. That wasn’t my intention, I hope you recover soon.
I read your piece, and I must say it was both enlightening and a well written piece. And I have to say that I agree with some of your points.
The one thing I would like your opinion on though is Arteta’s clear and blatant untruths concerning the Newcastle game which I mentioned in my earlier piece. Because as far as I’m concerned when Arteta comes out with these statements, he’s insulting the fans intelligence, doe’s he really think that were that gullible and stupid.
I to am going to stop now, as I don’t want to suffer the same fate you did😂
Well I disagree with your incessant and dishonorable rants. It is ridiculous to say that a player should not be on the bench if they cannot start a match. This is by no means unusual for players returning to fitness.
There is no one here who is blindly positive and most of those who support Arteta have criticised certain decisions. There is a world of difference between balanced and sensible criticism and the kind of pretentious uninformed tirades put out by certain fans whenever we have setbacks.
Well David,
While I’ll agree with you that there are fans out there who do criticize as well as praising him.
But don’t tell me that there aren’t any fans out there who won’t have a negative word said about both Arsenal or Arteta, because there is, I’ve read plenty where that’s the case.
Although I hear what your saying about players returning to fitness being on the bench, I still stand by my comment’s regarding the Newcastle game. I don’t care what you say, Arteta blatantly lied when asked the question about Partey being at right back.
I’ll be honest I’m no longer a fan of Arteta, yes he’s done a good job in the last two seasons.
But not addressing the clear need for an out and out striker in the last three years, plus Arsenal’s underwhelming transfer windows overall, despite a load of fans bigging up players that have been brought.
I’m here to tell you that while Arteta is at the club, we won’t win any major silverware.
If I’m wrong I’ll gladly do that, but that just ain’t going to happen.
Derek
I’m at a disadvantage as I didn’t see the game and MOTD was just a few clips. However, reading your comments I don’t really have a valid answer. He has been accused of fibbing over Ozil too.
Generally speaking, I take a lot of it with a large pinch of salt. Saving face for a plan that went t*ts up? Can’t be seen to be weak.
OT
Listening to Liverpool v Villa. Not an entirely surprising score.
Because Havertz had to replace the injured Odegaard
Maybe Arteta thinks that Nwaneri is still too inexperienced for the right-sided AM role and Merino’s/ Zinchenko’s stamina are too low to lead our high-press
The result of next game will show us a dramatic “Photo” of our situation. Will swing or will sink.
If we will be in the later situation we still have time to to do something in the next transfer window not matter how costly could be, otherwise well probably lose the CL place in the next season.
I recall a time when some fans said Havertz was the best and that there was no better striker on the market? I never once heard or read anyone saying that. Sure we thought we were buying a midfielder to replace Xhaka
Havertz is not, and never has been, a prolific scorer. His best tally is 17 goals back in his Bundesliga days. He did well to get 14 in the EPL last season but that’s on the high side for him.
Fans are talking about who was available in the last transfer window. Clearly, it was possible to sign a striker in the ten weeks Arsenal had. The question is, how much did Arsenal actually want to sign one? I don’t think they did because Arteta didn’t believe he needed one. He thought that Havertz, Trossard, Jesus etc. would be sufficient even though it was pretty clear then that it was a potentially risky assumption. We’re stuck with it now and I don’t think they’ll bring in anyone until next summer.
This isn’t a Havertz issue this is an Arteta issue. Our form towards the end of last season was magnificent and Havertz was scoring and assisting for fun. In the summer it was pretty clear we needed and attacking midfielder and a winger to compliment the team. With Havertz now at nine we needed a creative left 8 and in my opinion a left winger better than Martinelli. We went and bought Merino, Spanish Rice, and Calafouri whom for me weren’t required and to and extent good enough. When the season started Havertz was in good form and we find ourselves 1-0 against Brighton and that’s where it all started to crumble. Since the red fiasco and Odegaard injuries I think he’s played very position apart from cf. Without Odegaard the whole thing has become stale and predictable and it’s embarrassing because this is all it has taken to foil Arteta. Yes a striker like Gykores would be good in game likes inter Milan when he can play off the last shoulder and offfer and outlet when we are playing defensive but let’s be honest the chances of the players we had available finding him are slim to none. For me the season fell apart when we went in with Martinelli as our starting left winger, letting both Viera and ESR leave and not signing a creative player. Eze would have filled ticked more boxes for me than the merino and calaflouri deals together