Arsenal supporters hope for another reason to celebrate a day of their 5-1 thrashing from Manchester City in the Emirates Stadium are disappointed. Deadline Day will come and go without the arrival of a new attacker.
It is not because of a lack of trying. Arsenal explored options through the window. Mikel Arteta said as recently as Friday that they “tried everything”. But an offer for the Ollie Watkins from Aston Villa failed and a suitable alternative did not come true.
Some accept the logic behind their decision to wait until the summer, when deals are easier to make and goals become more feasible in the long term. Arteta has been consistent to say that the club would only act in January if the right player would become available.
But there will be enough that see it differently and it is easy to understand why. The attack by Arsenal looked brief, even before the injuries to Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Jesus. The first is only expected at the end of March. The latter is out for the season.
Arsenal is confronted with a huge task to make the gap for leaders Liverpool, who continue to determine a fierce pace, and they will have done it with their all-imperfect attack exhausted. Artetas forward options At the moment there are a sharp contrast with that available for Arne Slot.
Arteta wanted to make that point after the recent draw with Aston Villa. And yet the thrashing of Sunday from Manchester City was a reminder of how dangerous they are.
Kai Havertz's first half Miss fed the story about their need for a striker, but his goal, clinically sent in the second half, was his 15th in all games this season. Arsenal will hope that the first open game Premier League target by Martin Odegaard of the campaign will lead to more.
It should be noted that Arsenal set a club record for Premier League goals that were scored with 91 last season. Even in the midst of their travails this period, their total of 49 puts them in second place on leaders Liverpool. All the while, however, there is a nagging feeling that they miss a murderer -finisher to arrange the marginal games.
In the course of the last campaign, Arteta's Kant could not score in eight games in all competitions, twice as much as any champions Manchester City. This term, they have already emptied six separate occasions. Liverpool has only done this twice.
That was of course no problem on Sunday, and it was the scorer of their fifth that demonstrably offers the most reason for optimism. The beautiful strike of Ethan Nwaneri brought him to seven for the season and also offered proof that he could be the murderer they were missing.
The goals of the 17-year-old come from a total of only 647 minutes, with an average of 0.97 per 90. It is a much superior success rate for another arsenal player. Jesus is at the next step at 0.52 per 90 minutes. Nwaneri is also on average more shots than all his teammates, gets more on goal and also converts a higher percentage.
His early goals this season met modest opposition in the Carabao Cup, but his capacity to influence matches at the highest level was summarized by his contribution on Sunday.
Nwaneri had only been on the field for nine minutes when he cut from the right and found the corner from outside the box, just a few days after an almost identical attack on his first Champions League start in the win to Girona. It quickly becomes a trademark finish.
It is remarkable that his average of 0.97 goals per 90 minutes this season provides him with every other Premier League player, including Alexander Isak from Newcastle, Liverpool's Mohamed Salah and the Erling Haaland from Manchester City, as well as the Christopher Nunku UEFA Conference League.
There is of course a reservation, because Nwaneri has played considerably fewer minutes than those players. But he shows calm and quality to his years since his academy days, while, like now, he was consistently shining against many older players.
Arteta is not the first coach to wonder about his ruthlessness in and around the opposition box and has even suggested that Nwaneri could play as an No. 9 in the future. “He has a huge capacity to stop the ball in the back of the net,” he said earlier this season.
For the time being, however, he is rather on the right, where he makes a strong thing to be considered first choice in the absence of Saka after his return from an injury, and where he is more than able to generate a high Volume of shots and goals.
Only relying on Nwaneri would of course be a very risky strategy from Arsenal, especially because his minutes still have to be managed. But the power of this side has always been in the collective.
They are the only top-day side without a double-digit player for goals in the Premier League. Havertz's total of nine lays down to Salah, Haaland and the rest. But no side has more different scorers than Arsenal this season. Myles Lewis-Skelly, graduated from the Nwaneri fellow academy, became number 14 on Sunday.
Arsenal will have to continue to share the goals in the coming weeks and months. They need Raheem Sterling to perform next to Havertz and Odegaard. But Nwaneri is perhaps the best gamble when it comes to offering the qualities they miss, even if the opportunities are against them after a frustrating transfer window.
Comments