Arsenal midfielder, Santi Cazorla, has admitted that the club need a “true, true striker” to front a serious challenge for the Premier League.
The Spaniard has been with the club for nearly three years now, and believes that the reason the Gunners has struggled in the league is due to their situation in the final third.Speaking to ArsenalPlayer, Cazorla reassured Arsenal fans that there is a bigger target at the club than just their back-to-back FA Cup triumphs, and adding some fresh talent is the way forward.
It’s a tough decision and it’s down to Mr Wenger to make these decisions. My only hope is that whoever is chose will be somebody who can pump up the level of the team.
When it comes to a position to who in-particular we might need somebody in Theo Walcott’s area. He’s not necessarily a true, true striker so we might need somebody in his area.
Arsene Wenger had just three players this season that were capable of playing the role up-top, following the capture of Danny Welbeck last summer, a signing that was far from Gunners’ fans expectations.
Theo Walcott, Olivier Giroud and Welbeck featured heavily throughout the campaign as the solo striker, and between the three of them, they managed a less than impressive 23 goals in the Premier League this campaign.
That figure fails to reach a third of the total goals scored by Arsenal this season, managing 71 from their 38 fixtures, which was of course helped by Alexis Sanchez, who tucked away 16 goals whilst playing on the left-wing.
However, since the return of Olivier Giroud mid-way through the season, Welbeck had been forced out to cover the right and left flanks when needed, and Wenger seemed to once again have no real competition for the Frenchman.
Things changed towards the end of the season though, as Walcott picked up four goals in the final two fixtures, continuing to knock at the door of the centre forward role.
But when we consider that Wenger is reluctant to utilise Walcott as an out-and-out striker, the real question is whether Giroud really has any competition up top.
Despite the enjoyable end to the season Walcott had, he only picked up seven goals in 20 appearances for the Gunners, in a season that was plagued by long-term injuries.
During the time Walcott was still recovering from injury, Giroud went eight games without scoring, which ultimately cost his place in the FA Cup final and left Arsenal fans concerned as to whether their top striker was dipping back out of form.
Since then, the Frenchman managed to poke home a 90th minute goal as a substitute at Wembley, but it seems attention is being drawn to Wenger opening his cheque book once again.
It is heavily likely that both Lukas Podolski and Joel Campbell have no future at the club now, which is a significant boost to the wage budget to gain a world-class striker.
Cazorla’s comments will be just one of many putting pressure on the boss to make a key signature this summer, with the Gunners being linked to the likes of Karim Benzema and Gonzalo Higuain.
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