I know that neither of the options for Arsenal in the centre forward position has quite done it for us yet this season, but with Danny Welbeck out for a long time and Alexis Sanchez seeming to prefer to play in a wide forward or number 10 role, Theo Walcott and Olivier Giroud are what we will have to make do with.
That may well dismay some Arsenal fans, especially those who were adamant that Arsene Wenger needed to spend big money on a striker in the summer, but there are good reasons for us to feel reasonably confident that our front men will fire.
There are a few stats around at the minute concerning Walcott which will come as a big surprise; such as the one that shows the England international has scored 11 goals in the last 11 Premier League games that he started. Pretty impressive but that has to be tempered by the fact that he has not been a regular starter and a lot of his games have been as a sub.
Okay how about this one Gooners. Walcott´s finishing is a problem right? Well a Metro report reveals that his chance conversion in the EPL over the last four seasons is 20 percent. That is higher than Giroud´s (17%), just less than Serio Aguero´s (21%) and exactly the same as Thierry Henry´s in his last four years with Arsenal. Surprised? Me too.
So I thought I would one of those stat comparisons on Squawka.com and for this I used Theo´s numbers from 2012-13 which was the last time he had a fairly injury free season.
I compared those to Giroud´s in the same season as well as from last season and put in Diego Costa and Aguero from last year as well. The Arsenal strikers came out pretty well and they certainly suggest that people are writing them off too soon.
When you factor in Alexis and compare our forward options to those of our rivals, can you see why Wenger did not feel obliged to sign a new striker?