If there is one thing that the Gooners will be critical of this season, it will be their efficiency in front of goal. Despite it being a glaring transfer need, the team failed to sign a top goal-scoring striker.
Failing to overcome Brighton, one could say that the North Londoners lost due to Declan Rice’s red card, but what about the several opportunities they squandered in the first half? Arsenal, with a clinical striker, should have led comfortably at halftime against the Seagulls.
While we hope that even without a striker, the Gunners can still win the league, there is something about their main rival City that should worry them. Yes, City has maintained a flawless start to this season after four games, but that is not the issue; the problem is their man, Erling Haaland.
When some argued that Arsenal needed a top striker, some were eager to point out that they already had Kai Havertz. In a game against Aston Villa, the German failed to make a significant impact.
On Saturday evening against Brentford, Haaland demonstrated why a talented goal scorer like him makes the manager’s job easier. City didn’t start well against the Bees, surrendering right away, but Haaland stepped up and registered a first-half brace to set up the defending champions’ 2-1 victory.
Yes, Havertz is excellent, but does he possess the degree of game-changing skill, the sense of inevitability to convert chances into goals when it matters most? In four games, City’s talisman has now scored nine goals; how can Arsenal compete?
Of course, Arsenal can still push City and win the league, but it would be easier with Haaland’s goals. Some will criticise me in the comments section, but Arsenal must do everything possible in the next 12 months to bring Viktor Gyokeres on board.
The Swedish international comes closest to Haaland’s ruthlessness and efficiency. Last season, we observed the Sporting CP star and were convinced he was a hit; we didn’t need to watch him for another season to be convinced of his ruthlessness in front of goal (he’s already got 8 goals in the Portuguese league in 5 games).
Darren N
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there is no striker like him
will be looked back as the greatest striker ever
simple as that
not about ‘oh well we better one too’
Haaland is unique
That’s what I always think. There is not even a Haaland-Lite out there.
I’m not sure he’ll be looked at as the greatest ever – maybe – but he’s definitely unique. I’m not convinced city would have gone for a pure goalscorer if he wasn’t such an anomaly – they’d probably have decided the negatives outweigh the positives and gotten behind the more rounded alvarez.
The benefit of haaland is that he makes so many of the “easy” games genuinely easy. We don’t really have that. As you say, there isn’t another one like him we could buy even if we wanted to.
Yes, but we mustn’t let a false “comparison argument” (there’s no Haaland MkII, therefore there’s no point is getting a striker) prevail.
There were strikers available in the last window. Yes, some were expensive, others were reportedly demanding huge wages etc. That said, Arsenal didn’t seem to be looking too hard for any that weren’t excluded by those drawbacks – assuming that they were drawbacks.
Too late now so we’ll have to go with what we’ve got and hope (a) Havertz doesn’t get injured/fatigued, but if so (b) Jesus stays fit long enough to try and surpass the 4 EPL goals he scored last season.
Correct.
The writer of this article makes it sound as if buying a top striker is as easy as going to Tesco’s and buying a tin of baked beans.
Well, not that it matters now because we can’t get any striker until January, and possibly not even then.
That said, there were several strikers available over the ten weeks of the transfer window, weren’t there. Now, there may be good reasons why most weren’t suitable – transfer fee, wages, not a good fit for the team etc. – but it’s difficult to imagine that there were no suitable options available. But we are where we are.
Remember we have Gooners who said Havertz will score more lol
It was obvious that we need one ,problem was we didn’t have the funds .
Haaland might be on the market soon, along with a few team mates.
Possibly, but unfortunately Arsenal wouldn’t be able to afford him. It’s virtually certain that he’ll be wearing the white of Real Madrid if or when he leaves City. If so, what a side they’ll have.
For about 500 mil🤣🤣
Although I did read a report not long ago about future contract negotiations between City and Haaland which suggested that any contract extension would contain a clause that Haaland could join Real Madrid for a fixed fee (which wasn’t specified but would be under his open market value to any other club – PSG for example). Apparently, this would be inserted at the insistence of Haaland’s “people”.
Obviously, we won’t know until/unless it happens, but RM have had him on their “to do” transfer list for a while now and they often get what they want in the end.
Guess Haaland doesn’t disrupt City’s attack too much, scoring all those goals.
Seems to be a narrative about us and strikers, that they would be disruptive to our attack.
I’d happily take an elite striker scoring 25+ goals in PL, don’t think that’s as disruptive as some make out.
With Haaland’s 9 goals this so far, Arsenal is just 3 GD behind Man City, despite difficult fixtures compared to City.
We are competing against a club; our players are not competing against their players. It doesn’t matter where the goals come from as long as they are coming. And more goalscoring players, the more unpredictable it is for the teams to defend against. Also, Haaland is breaking all the records individually, he isn’t breaking any City records. City were scoring way more even without Haaland.
So, we have to look at it with a different perspective. Player wise, we don’t have any Haaland type player, but we get goals, and with our defense, we might be able to get over the line by scoring less actually.
The talks have started already, “Once Arsenal Score, it’s actually game over”.
But I agree, we need a different option upfront to make it easier for ourselves in “easier fixtures”. There aren’t much easier fixtures, but there are certainly teams with poor defense in the league. We need to capitalize on those games with less effort, even by resting our key players.