Crystal Palace seemed to have found their perfect player when they signed Christian Benteke over the summer, leading the Eagles in the Transfer Tavern into a huge celebration one fateful in August.

Alan Pardew splashed a club record £27m on the big Belgian in the hope of sorting out his side’s problems in front of goal.

Palace haven’t had a consistent goalscorer at a top level for a long time, but Benteke seemed to be the missing piece of the puzzle.

‘Pardiola’ has often opted to use the wings to create chances, with Jason Puncheon and Wilfried Zaha laying on plenty of chances.

The problem the Eagles have is that Benteke is often the sole focus of opposition defenders and can therefore, be man-marked.

It seems as though Pardew was planning on using two strikers this year, with Loic Remy signed not long after the Belgian and Connor Wickham starting alongside him earlier in the season.

Should Pardew wish to arrest the club’s slump (they’ve failed to win in five games) he may do well to look at these FOUR strikers in January.

DIAFRA SAKHO

If he can put his discipline and injury problems behind him, Diafra Sakho could become the perfect foil for Benteke.

The West Ham striker is quick and strong enough to cause problems on his own, and many defences would struggle to cope with both him and the Belgian attacking crosses.

Sakho announced himself with a bang in his first Premier League season, scoring in six consecutive Premier League games before injuring himself in the new year.

The 26-year-old doesn’t come without his baggage but Pardew has showed before with Hatem Ben Arfa that he can get the best out of players for a short time at least.

MARTIN BRAITHWAITE

Should Pardew wish to compliment Benteke’s strength with pure pace, he may well have to look no further than Martin Braithwaite.

Pardew is no stranger to Ligue 1 signings and could do a lot worse than signing in the Dane to give the Palace attack an edge of unpredictability.

The 25-year-old would leave a lot of Premier League defenders in his dust with his speed and is no stranger to the back of the net either, having already bagged seven goals in nine games this term.

ABEL HERNANDEZ

With Hull City finally beginning to show signs of the struggling side we all expected to see, Abel Hernandez may well be looking for a way out.

The rapid Uruguayan is good on the ball and able to pull some very special goals outside the bag, but doesn’t get the service he requires at Mike Phelan’s side.

When he does, the goals flow easily as his 20-goal haul for the Tigers in the Championship showed last season. He would struggle to get that in the Premier League but could certainly hit double figures with the right service.

JORDAN AYEW

Jordan Ayew showed glimpses of being a decent goalscorer in a hapless Aston Villa side last season. Despite playing less games than some of his counterparts he was their top scorer – albeit with seven goals.

This year he has been in decent form in the Championship but found himself playing on the wing, limiting his goalscoring potential.

Blessed with a good turn of pace and fairly agile, Ayew has skills that would work well alongside Benteke’s strength and heading and would also act as a creative outlet for the Belgian.