We are only 11 games into the Premier League campaign this year, and it already feels like it’s starting to fall apart for Arsenal.
Mikel Arteta’s side have looked far from their incredible best of the last two campaigns and, without a single win in their previous four games, sit nine points off league leaders Liverpool.
One of the most significant issues for the North Londoners is their lack of goals, as there are currently six teams that have scored more than them, which just isn’t good enough for a side looking to win the whole thing.
PL’s Top Scorers | ||
|---|---|---|
# | Team | Goals |
1 | Tottenham | 23 |
2 | Man City | 22 |
= | Brentford | 22 |
3 | Liverpool | 21 |
= | Chelsea | 21 |
4 | Brighton | 19 |
5 | Arsenal | 18 |
Fortunately, recent reports have linked the Gunners to a sensationally gifted goalscorer who could help solve this problem for next season, and he’d be their best forward since Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
Arsenal transfer news
According to a recent report from TEAMtalk, Arsenal have maintained their intense interest in Newcastle United star Alexander Isak.
The report reveals that Arteta wants the board to sign a striker capable of competing with Manchester City’s goalscoring phenom Erling Haaland, and has named the 25-year-old Swede his number-one target.
Unsurprisingly, the Toon are incredibly reluctant to lose their star striker, so the report has claimed that it’ll take an offer in excess of £100m to get things moving, and even then, it’ll almost certainly have to be a summer transfer with the potential for Arsenal’s transfer record to be broken.
Signing Isak would represent an enormous investment from the Gunners, but given his incredible ability, it is one well worth making, especially as he’d be the club’s best striker since Aubameyang.
Arsenal’s best striker since Aubameyang
It might have ended poorly and in a rather underwhelming fashion, but Aubameyang’s time at Arsenal was frankly astonishing for the most part.
For example, in his 163 appearances for the club, he scored 92 goals and provided 21 assists, equating to an average of a goal involvement every 1.44 games, and also became the fastest Arsenal player to reach 50 Premier League goals in July 2020.
In comparison, Kai Havertz and Gabriel Jesus, who have since tried to replace him, have averaged a goal involvement once every 2.34 and 2.33 games, respectively.
Havertz & Jesus’ Arsenal records | ||
|---|---|---|
Player | ||
Appearances | 68 | 84 |
Goals | 21 | 20 |
Assists | 8 | 16 |
Goal Involvements per Match | 0.42 | 0.42 |
All Stats via Transfermarkt | ||
Now, while those aren’t poor averages from the Gunners’ current centre-forwards, they aren’t anywhere close to the former captain’s, which is where Isak comes in.
Since joining Newcastle in the summer of 2022, the Swedish “nightmare”, as dubbed by Alan Shearer, has scored 40 goals and provided seven assists in 78 appearances, which equates to a sensational average of a goal involvement every 1.65 games.
While this is still slightly below what the Gabonese icon achieved in North London, it is superior to Arteta’s current options.
Moreover, with players like Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard around him, there’s no reason to think the Solna-born machine won’t up his output at the Emirates.
Ultimately, Arsenal do have talented forwards in their squad today, but to finally achieve their goal of lifting major silverware, they need to find Aubameyang’s heir, and based on the last few years, that appears to be Isak.
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