Our Arsenal supporters feel like they have hit rock bottom of late in the Football Transfer Tavern having watched their side lose yet another game away at Chelsea this past Saturday lunchtime.
Now forever what will be remembered as the game in which it was Diego Costa versus Gabriel Paulista rather than Jose Mourinho versus Arsene Wenger this time, our resident Gooners are absolutely pig sick at the fact that their man got lured into the trap of Costa trying his level best to try and get him sent off – which he succeeded at as the story goes.
With our Arsenal fans not knowing who to vent at first, namely referee Mike Dean, Diego Costa or Gabriel himself for failing to walk away from the situation, it has taken quite a while for our Gooners to settle down and who can blame them?
Coming on the back of a Champions League defeat to Dinamo Zagreb to boot, the #WengerOut brigade are bubbling under the surface yet again and in credence to their beliefs, it does seem incredibly unlikely that Arsenal will be able to successfully challenge for the major honours this term when they so heavily rely on the exploits of a few, namely Francis Coquelin and Theo Walcott right now.
Given Olivier Giroud couldn’t temper his anger, like Gabriel of course, he too is walking a tightrope in regards to Arsenal supporters growing fed up of him for good so all in all, everything is not well at the club at the minute.
A Capital One Cup victory over North London rivals Tottenham would be just the tonic this week but with Arsene Wenger expected to tinker again, this should prove to be a difficult game to win also.
While our Arsenal supporters are sick of transfer windows, knowing full well that their club usually fails to become that active within them, we’ve overruled Gunners fans’ rolled eyes this time by listing five strikers that Wenger must target in January in order to get his team over the line and into a top four place yet again.
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Click on the image below to reveal the 5 strikers Arsenal must sign in January to get in the top four.
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Michy Batshuayi
While talk of transfer targets has naturally been sparse since the closure of the summer window, one man who has continued to find a place in the speculation headlines is Marseille striker Michy Batshuayi.
A target for Tottenham Hotspur this past summer before Spurs signed both Clinton N’Jie and Son Heung-Min, Metro are today reporting that Arsene Wenger has instructed his board to go out and seal the Belgian international’s signature for January – which seems incredibly unlikely for Arsenal fans to believe right now.
Reportedly available for a fee of £22 million, Batshuayi – pictured in his Standard Liege days above – has been involved in more Ligue 1 goals this season than any other player, either through scoring or assisting.
More of a bit-part player in his first season with Marseille last term, the Mediterranean giants have of course lost the likes of Andre-Pierre Gignac, Florian Thauvin, Andre Ayew and Dimitri Payet this past summer so the Belgian plays much more of a regular role nowadays.
That might not be for too long however if Metro’s reports are accurate however and as we’ve seen with the instant impact of Anthony Martial at Manchester United, signings from the French top flight shouldn’t always be sniffed at.
Moussa Konate
We saw in the summer transfer window how many of the sought-after strikers around Europe such as Edinson Cavani and Karim Benzema simply weren’t available so the likes of Manchester United had to go after left-field options such as Anthony Martial.
Arsenal didn’t get involved for an outfield player at all as the story goes but with the likes of Swansea City moving early to sign Andre Ayew, you do get the sense that Arsene Wenger and his scouts just don’t look hard or long enough when trying to add real quality.
Top strikers are incredibly difficult to sign in January, let alone in the summer so a left-field option might be called for in a few months’ time and one man who fits this category, while being linked of late is FC Sion’s Moussa Konate.
A Senegalese international, aged just 22-year-old yet appearing in the London 2012 Olympics (as pictured) at an early age, Konate boasts a record of 21 goals in just 35 appearances for his current Swiss Super League side.
Arsenal fans will naturally question whether he has the quality to make such a step up from an inferior division but Konate has proved he can get goals and lets face it, the current Gunners strikeforce has been incredibly wasteful in front of goal so far this season.
Jonathan Calleri
Argentina aren’t half bad at producing a seemingly endless conveyor belt of top quality strikers are they? First came Gabriel Batistuta then the likes of Carlos Tevez, Sergio Aguero and now Paulo Dybala.
But the latest Argentine striking whizzkid to break onto the scene, even after Dybala is Boca Juniors’ Jonathan Calleri who has already struck 14 goals in 37 league appearances for Xeneizes despite only being 21-years-old.
Described as being in contention to sign Calleri in January by Metro this week, Arsenal wouldn’t have the problem of the player being cup tied from the Champions League if they reached the latter stages given he hails from outside Europe right now.
With Serie A clubs Palermo and Napoli also monitoring Calleri’s situation closely, Arsenal will have to prove they can be decisive in the market although as we’ve seen in the past, it can be hard to prise young players away from South America, what with work permit issues and other bureaucratic complications.
Riyad Mahrez
Okay, we’re cheating a bit on this one given the fact everybody knows Riyad Mahrez is a winger and not a striker but given the fact he’s the Premier League’s top scorer with five goals right now, the Algerian international’s haul has been representative of a forward.
Late in the summer transfer window when Mahrez was wowing everybody in the opening gameweek’s of the season – which he is continuing right now – the likes of the London Evening Standard linked Arsenal with a surprise swoop for the Leicester City man but the winger stayed put at the King Power Stadium.
More recently, The Express have reported claims from Mahrez’s agent Kamel Bengougam which suggest the player isn’t interested in a move to Arsenal or even Barcelona but we find this hard to believe.
We’ve seen in modern day football that a specific players’ stock can rise rapidly nowadays much like the case of Anthony Martial and with Mahrez seemingly adding around £5 million to his price tag each week in the top flight right now, surely the big boys and the likes of Arsenal should be thinking of a big money bid this January?
Mahrez is somebody who wouldn’t be cup tied for the Champions League if Arsenal progressed and represents an option that most Gooners would claim would start ahead of Aaron Ramsey on the right now as well as the inconsistent Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.
Saido Berahino
The man who claimed he’d never play for West Bromwich Albion again for as long as Jeremy Peace was in charge anyway, scored in the big West Midlands derby against Aston Villa on the weekend.
Representing for the umpteenth time that modern day football is incredibly fickle, the complication is the fact that Berahino is actually a very good footballer, if a tad temperamental.
Everybody knows the England Under-21 international was pining for a move to a bigger club in Tottenham on deadline day but we can’t work out why the likes of Arsenal weren’t ever interested in his signature.
Young, hungry and capable of bagging a lot of goals in a league season, Berahino boasts all the qualities to play for a club like Arsenal, except for his attitude which you’d imagine would be at odds with the discipline Arsene Wenger likes to enforce at Emirates Stadium.
But nevertheless, when did Arsenal become so complex to the extent that they couldn’t work with a player such as Berahino while transforming him into their next superstar?
While the Baggies would of course like to keep him for as long as possible, perhaps Tony Pulis knows he’s done well to get another six months out of Berahino by staying ahead of finally granting him the big move he desires in January?
If this proves to be the case, Arsenal would be foolish to remain dormant like they usually do.
