Viktor Gyokeres
Viktor Gyokeres failed to impress in Sporting's 5-1 defeat to interested suitors Arsenal
After smashing five past Sporting Lisbon to make it eight goals scored in two games, the clamour for a striker may have died down.
But in the Premier League this season, Arsenal have scored fewer goals, conceded more and have not won as many games as at the same stage last year. So, what has changed? They have had injuries and suspensions but so has everyone else. Yet Arsenal are nine points behind leaders Liverpool whereas last season only two points separated the top three after 12 games.
If you ask most fans, they will say Arsenal need a No.9. Or at least they will when they fail to score. But of course it does not seem so much of an issue when they are smashing goals in for fun.
Kai Havertz has done a great job up front for Arsenal and, in my opinion, they should have gone for a top quality left winger in the summer rather than a centre forward. Did everyone suddenly forget how good Havertz was? But they needed more creativity and a supply line.
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And that issue still remains. So, will they address that in January? At this point it seems unlikely. After Edu’s departure as sporting director, the highly respected Jason Ayto has stepped up and already looks very comfortable rubbing shoulders with the club hierarchy.
They do have the idea of signing a striker in the long term but Arsenal always prefer to do business in the summer because January can be seen as a reactive window rather than proactive. It can be the window for panic buys, basically. To cover injuries.
The one striker Arsenal were very, very keen on last summer was RB Leipzig forward Benjamin Sesko. There was a strong feeling they would get their man but it fell down. RB Leipzig began to push for a bigger price and also Sesko wanted to play now while Arsenal wanted to blend in a young striker because Havertz was doing so well. The goalposts had shifted a bit.
That still remains the case to a degree. If you buy big, what about Havertz? The Sesko interest is still there while they are watching developments on Sporting Lisbon No.9 Viktor Gyokeres (but aren’t the rest of Europe’s top clubs). He did not exactly blow everyone away in Arsenal’s 5-1 win at Sporting this week.
It is fair to say Arsenal would NOT be interested in getting involved in a bidding war for Alexander Isak and the notion they would pay £120m for the Sweden striker seems very far-fetched and driven by Newcastle. They clearly like him because they scouted him before he went to Newcastle.
But rather like Gyokeres (who went to Sporting from Coventry for £15m), can you really justify spending crazy £100m money on a player you could have had for a fraction of the price? It’s a hard sell. Arsenal could have spent more last summer and they were not maxed out on PSR.
Arsenal held talks over signing Barcelona winger Raphinha in the summer
But at some point the owners do want to see a return and value for money. They offloaded some players but couldn’t break the bank again after their mega summer in 2023. That is understandable because the owners have backed Mikel Arteta to the absolute hilt.
I would be so surprised if they did a mega deal in January for a game-changing striker. But it’s easy to forget they were creative in the summer. They did a loan for Raheem Sterling. They had talks over Raphinha as the Brazil winger admitted himself Barcelona wanted him out the door. Could you imagine if that had happened? But he was always keen to stay and fight for his place - and must be so happy he did.
But they clearly need a bit more quality in attack and a striker may well be on the list. But that is unlikely to be in January.
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