Although Mikel Arteta, the manager of Arsenal, has confidence in the team’s current crop of attackers, he conceded that the Gunners have struggled to score goals this season.
In the recent North London derby stalemate with Tottenham Hotspur, both Eddie Nketiah and Gabriel Jesus received criticism for their lacklustre performances. However, top scorer Bukayo Saka ultimately delivered yet again.
Nketiah has scored twice so far this season while normal starter Jesus has only scored once, and Arteta acknowledged that his team hasn’t performed at their best.
“There’s various ways to score goals and we are scoring goals,” he said. “But we should have scored many more with the chances we have created.”
As part of their effort to win the Premier League, Arsenal is reportedly open to getting a new striker. Ivan Toney of Brentford is being pursued by a number of teams, including the Gunners and Chelsea.
This year, Arsenal officials have also kept an eye on Santiago Gimenez of Feyenoord due to his explosive Eredivisie debut.
Arteta, however, did his best to back Jesus and Nketiah and insisted a new signing is not currently under consideration.
“We’re not thinking at all about that,” Arteta continued. “We have really good players up front. It’s true that right now we have some injuries. We will continue with the players we have.”
Asked whether the idea of a traditional striker was disappearing from football, Arteta did namecheck Toney as proof that out-and-out goalscorers still succeed in the modern game.
“It’s coming back,” Arteta exclaimed. “There are a few players, when you look at Harry Kane, [Erling] Halaand, Ivan Toney, [Aleksandar] Mitrovic. You have examples of players who score a lot of goals.”