At the time of writing, our resident Arsenal fans in the Football Transfer Tavern were very nervous heading into their second Premier League game of the season away to Crystal Palace.
Having suffered an absolute nightmare on the opening weekend against West Ham United, Arsene Wenger’s men put unnecessary pressure on themselves to achieve a positive result at Selhurst Park and these slow starts to the season are starting to become a bad habit.
Having lost against Aston Villa at home on the opening day of the 2012/13 campaign and only just squeezed past Palace at home last, the mentality of Arsene Wenger’s team is often brought into question.
Over the past week or so, it would’ve been nice for the Gunners to avert their attention away from the West Ham loss into a new signing or something along those lines but while the rumours continued to swirl around, nothing concrete has surfaced of yet.
While Arsenal fans aren’t holding their breath, Metro reported today that Real Madrid’s Karim Benzema will be joining the Gunners as early as next week – that is according to Italian journalist Emanuele Giulianelli.
While you can expect this story to be incredibly premature, if Arsene Wenger does end up getting his man this summer, what other players could supplement his signing as a perfect partner for not only Benzema but for Arsenal’s attacking ranks?
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Click on the image below to reveal the 5 players who could partner Karim Benzema up front at Arsenal.
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Eduardo Vargas
While it seems everybody is struggling to get hold of Napoli’s Gonzalo Higuain this summer with the Italian club reportedly demanding a ridiculous £60 million plus fee, one Azzurri squad member that is more available is Chilean forward Eduardo Vargas.
Currently in limbo at the Stadio San Paolo, Vargas spent last season on loan at QPR and in all honesty, he was rather disappointing.
One of these players that is far more lethal for their national side like in the case of Danny Welbeck, Vargas has grown used to playing with Alexis Sanchez in Chile’s frontline and with a player such as this, you’d imagine he wouldn’t cost the earth.
Back in July, Metro claimed Arsenal were in talks with Napoli over Vargas’ potential £11.3 million signing and with the Chilean still at the Italian club in the cold, perhaps this is a left-field option Arsene Wenger could consider.
Mario Gotze
While it would be incredible and probably unrealistic to think that Arsenal could add not only Karim Benzema but Bayern Munich’s Mario Gotze to their squad before September 1st, The Express are still crediting the Gunners with an interest in the German.
Urged to make his mind up in the near future, it appears Bayern may be willing to sell if they receive a huge offer this summer but given Arsenal boast an abundance of attacking midfielders in their armoury already, Gotze would have to be considered a forward at Emirates Stadium you feel.
Much more likely to be sold than Thomas Muller, Gotze is not an indispensible presence in Pep Guardiola’s squad and the man that scored the goal to win Germany the World Cup is often an expensive substitute.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang
While the article references perfect partners for Karim Benzema, The Telegraph have gone with the tact that if Arsenal miss out on the Real Madrid man, they’ll earmark a move for Borussia Dortmund’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang instead.
These reports confirmed what we all knew in respect of the Gabon international having only signed a new deal a few weeks back but as we’ve seen with clubs in the past, this can sometimes be concluded just so the club receive a higher transfer fee.
While you’d imagine that Thomas Tuchel would be in no mood to sell so close to the start of the season, Aubameyang does seem to fit the category of a striker Arsene Wenger likes given not only his versatility but also his pace.
Julian Draxler
One day Arsenal will no longer be linked with a swoop for Schalke’s Julian Draxler.
But for the time being, both the Gunners and Manchester United are still being linked with the German international despite Schalke sporting director Horst Heldt claiming that the Gelsenkirchen-based club have received no new offers for their star player.
Arsenal came close to landing Draxler back in the January transfer window of 2014 but Arsene Wenger deemed his asking price to be too high and the monologue this summer has been that the German internationals fee has now been reduced somewhat.
Suffering bad injuries in recent times, Draxler’s stock has fallen as a result but if Arsene wenger truly had designs on converting the winger into a centre forward, perhaps he could yet do that for more of a bargain fee this summer.
Jose Callejon
While the talk of Arsenal landing Napoli’s Jose Callejon has died down of late, the Spaniard remains a player who was linked with a Gunners switch not so long ago.
Like Eduardo Vargas, Callejon has been another of Napoli’s players that have reportedly had their eye elsewhere this summer and while you’d imagine that the Italian club would love to keep Gonzalo Higuain at all costs, perhaps their stance on Callejon would be far more relaxed.
A forward but not an out-and-out striker, you would struggle to see where Callejon could fit in at Arsenal right now given their abundance of players who can play out wide or as the number 10 but with his future at the Stadio San Paolo still not totally secure, he could yet prove a viable option.
