Quite a few people on the outside of Arsene Wenger’s inner circle were calling for Arsenal to sign up a new forward as they felt that was the Gunners weakest area.

Four games in and they’ve scored just three times in the English Premier League this term. They’ve also failed to score in two of those encounters, both of which were at the Emirates Stadium.

Arsenal goalscoring legend Thierry Henry called for the club to up their search for new recruits, mainly a new frontman:

“If you look at the game (against Liverpool) they were missing a lot of players, so maybe they should have gone for more, but they still need a holding midfielder and a striker.”

But as the transfer window slammed shut this week, the Arsenal manager stood back and decided not to bring in any outfield players to add to his current squad this summer.

Today we received news that forward Danny Welbeck won’t be back from injury until Christmas time, after he underwent knee surgery.

That leaves the Gunners quite short of options up top.

Oliver Giroud is a fine Premier League striker but can be shut out of games, especially the bigger ones. Needs more competition, in my opinion.

Then there’s English international Theo Walcott. The forward has plenty of pace but is still finding match sharpness and isn’t a natural goalscoring hitman. Still has to prove himself capable of getting fifteen or more goals in a Barclays Premier League campaign.

Chilean attacker Alexis Sanchez has immense talent and can work through the middle when needed. But seems to work better when he has the freedom to come in from the left or playing from slightly deeper positions. More of a second striker than having to be the teams focal point.

Then we have youngster Joel Campbell. But the twenty-three year old doesn’t seem to be an answer in Wenger’s eyes. The Costa Rican has been sent out on loan four times since he joined Arsenal back in 2011. His last move was at Villarreal, where he only scored one solitary goal in twenty appearances for the La Liga cracks.

I really don’t have any idea why Wenger watched on as possible targets Mario Mandzukic, Jackson Martinez, Carlos Bacca and Paulo Dybala joined other clubs this preseason.

His attempts at bringing in PSG’s Edinson Cavani and Real Madrid’s Karim Benzema were never going to be successful, if he ever truly wanted either of them.

Now Monsieur Wenger is left with a pool of outfield players that weren’t good enough to secure the league title last season. I just can’t see why they will suddenly become good enough to make a greater challenge this year!

Bringing in goalkeeper Petr Cech, from rivals Chelsea, was a step in the right direction but failing to add more depth to the squad in other areas just seems negligent in my eyes.

Again Arsenal fans have to trust Arsene Wenger but can this squad really end their long wait for their fourteenth league championship? I just can’t see it!

 

Posted on September 3rd, 2015 by scott
Filed under: Article