Since August 1, 10 of the site’s weekly columns have been about Arsenal’s attack. That doesn’t include last week’s column that discussed the ’rounding up’ type of column on offense and the possibility of Ethan Nwaneri becoming a forward. This has been the concern of almost everyone connected to Arsenal for quite some time, long before the forward line was deprived of a star turn in Bukayo Saka.
As I love to repeat, Arsenal’s first move in the summer transfer window was to sign Benjamin Cesco from RB Leipzig. I spoke about Arsenal’s summer business and whether they could have done more to strengthen their attack here. Of course, whether they could have been is open to debate and speculation.
There is no debate that the club must do everything in its power to add to its forward line in January, and there is consensus on this among the fan base and pundits. Mikel Arteta himself has made some comments recently and to my ears it sounds like he is ‘managing upwards/sending a message’.
‘We started the season with one of the thinnest squads in the Premier League’ was his hyperbolic assessment two weeks ago, and it was certainly very accurate. His assessment of Alexander Isak’s match-winning performance at the Emirates Stadium on Tuesday was also: ‘This is what you have. Real quality is out there and they can make a difference. They are very clinical.’
Unusually, the manager also dipped his toes into the wider issue earlier this week, suggesting Arsenal should look at adopting the multi-club model used by the likes of Manchester City and Chelsea. Again, it felt like a comment aimed at a specific audience. Of course, none of this needs to be dramatic. This happens all the time in football clubs and companies, where managers and executives have competing interests.
With Edu now tending to his own garden, Arteta may have lost a close friend, and someone who could carry the right level of charm and assertiveness to get the message across to the club’s upper echelons for him. Vinai Venkateshem also left the club this summer. Many reports from the summer transfer window suggested a sort of ‘one-for-one’ policy was imposed on Arteta and Edu. Players such as Nketiah, Smith Rowe and Reiss Nelson had to find new homes before replacements could be supplied.
There were reports that Arteta had to spend a lot of energy persuading the club to loosen their purse strings to sign Ricardo Calafiori, which they did when Real Madrid’s interest became clear. I guess the club’s management wanted Zinchenko out before spending money on another left-back, but that’s pure speculation on my part.
Nonetheless, I think it’s certainly fair to question whether Calafiori and Merino have put their funds to good use when the offense is so desperately needed. I still think the market is more of a problem in this scenario. Few elite clubs are buying strikers this summer, perhaps because they have no interest in doing so. Kylian Mbappe’s move to Madrid could have caused a chain reaction in the market if not for the Bosman deal.
Arsenal are still in a situation where the 18-year-old has started several games at left-back and with Havertz now established as a centre-forward and the departures of Smith Rowe and Vieira, they also need a left-central midfielder. confident. I understand the criticism that Arsenal tend to punt more to defenders and midfielders than attackers, but I also think it is determined by the market.
Defenders and midfielders are less risky because they are cheaper, and the market for them is not very competitive. The attacking versions of Gabriel, Calafiori, Timber and White would probably cost twice what Arsenal paid for the defenders. Ditto Merino, despite being 28 years old, would have been much more expensive had he played 20 yards further forward.
The problem for Arsenal is that they need to throw absolutely everything they can to increase their firepower. Without Saka, it is no longer a question of raising the ceiling but of raising the floor. The ‘good news’, if you can call it that, is that Arsenal need at least two strikers anyway. The futures of Gabriel Jesus and Leo Trossard (given the latter’s age) are in doubt. Raheem Sterling’s loan spell will end this summer and if his first half is delayed he will not be leaving with a carriage watch and a warm handshake from his manager.
If Arsenal can do something in January, there will be nothing stopping them from adding to their attack again in the summer. But just because you want something doesn’t mean you can get it. Even in the short term, I’m not sure that another floor-raiser in attack will really give Arsenal what they need. They are not desperately lacking in numbers. Only one of the senior attackers was injured.
Havertz, Jesus, Martinelli, Trossard and Sterling are all still there. It’s one less than desired, but Saka’s injury period will be factored into squad planning. The problem now is not numbers. That’s star quality. None of the available attackers are bad players by any stretch of the imagination. But none of them are reliable or win matches on a regular basis. It’s a supporting role that cuts off the lead.
And make no mistake. Building a squad at a level above 90 is difficult. When Salah returned from AFCON last season with a tight hamstring, Liverpool’s season hovered around Juvend and they fell apart. Look at Manchester City without Rodri. If we step away from the emotions for a moment and look at it objectively, Arsenal are handling the situations thrown at them this season much better than City, and much better than Liverpool usually handle when big players are injured.
Since battling City for the title for the first time in 2018-19, Liverpool’s league finishes have been 2nd, 1st, 3rd, 2nd, 5th and 3rd. It’s very easy to figure out which season you’re injured. They didn’t do everything right either (because Arsenal didn’t attack). They have recently had to rebuild their midfield once and for all after allowing Henderson, Fabinho and Milner to age simultaneously. They now face a situation where three of their arguably best players are all out of contract this summer. This stuff is difficult.
Arsenal will certainly have to gamble, they will certainly have to overpay and we shouldn’t beat ourselves up too much about the potential outcome of that. The failures of the trio of Pepe, Lacazette and Aubameyang have dwarfed Arsenal for years, with none of those players receiving a fee in return. If you gamble badly, you will be trapped in bad gambling. In the summer of 2022, it was ruled that Alexander Isak’s six La Liga goals did not justify his lofty release clause during his time at Real Sociedad.
These gambles are incredibly difficult to get right. January will be incredibly difficult for Arsenal as the supply and demand of strikers are completely out of sync and the club has a key executive vacancy in Edu. But they simply have to try to find a way. Otherwise, your season could be in danger of taking a nosedive.
The post A Rock and a Hard Place first appeared on Arsenal blog Arseblog.
