Arsenal’s only current senior striker is Olivier Giroud, who has done well when called upon, but has noticeably faded throughout the season, largely to fatigue, enforcing the general consensus that Arsenal’s priority this summer should be a complementary and challenging forward who can help and rival Giroud. The big name forwards available to Arsenal this summer are Balotelli, Benzema, and Cavani, all of which would require a large chunk from the ‘war chest’; although, it’s not as if wages and fees would worry Arsenal now. Arsenal have moved on from the bargain basket; now its big fees, big names. However, with the arrival of Alexis Sanchez, and taking into account the current squad and emerging talent, it poses the question: do Arsenal really need another striker? Do they need another big name, and even bigger character?
1. Alexis Sanchez
For now, it seems that Wenger has turned to Alexis Sanchez to solve his goals/striker problem. And why wouldn’t he? Sanchez is a monster. Fast. Strong. Lethal. All the components a ‘modern striker’ needs, as quoted by Wenger himself, further supporting the assumption that Arsenal’s striker hunt ends with the new number 17. Get a defensive midfielder and we’re in the green zone: it’d mark a perfect summer, where we haven’t seen one for quite some time. Sanchez was a lot of what was missing from Arsenal’s play last season. Year in year out, if you take Theo out, the wheels come rolling off; the squad’s two narrow, two slow, two conservative. Sanchez has already changed everything. He’s our wild card: something out of nothing. We’ve never replaced the magic Van Persie could tap into: with Sanchez, we have that escape route again. A game changer. Add Walcott into the very nice looking Sanchez solution and you have an explosive formula. Both are goal scorers, they can play anywhere along the front line, wide, central, or with Giroud. Then there’s the depth—the second string—in Podolski and hopefully Campbell. Its pace and goals again. Wenger loves his goals to flow throughout the team, that’s why he loves the versatile forward, and in the modern game, these are now the favoured types of forwards. The number nine, flat-out 30 goals a season striker is becoming almost rare—with only special minorities. You can even add Chamberlain to the mix, although, his future position remains up for debate. That’s a lot of firepower for a team heavily criticised for not having any.