Mikel Arteta says he believes his players have the quality to score the goals Arsenal need this season, as the media narrative continues around the club’s need for a new number 9.
A win against West Ham this evening would put the Gunners back to the top of the Premier League table, showing that while there’s always room for improvement we’re still doing something right, and at his pre-game press conference the manager was asked about how he felt about stories insisting a player like Ivan Toney or Victor Osimhen would be the missing piece.
“I would prefer that those goals are shared,” he said, “because I think it’s more probable that this is going to be consistently maintainable and I think this is what we’ve done.
“The amount of goals that we’ve shared in the squad is really, really positive. We want more goals from our strikers, that’s for sure, and I think we’ve got them within the team.”
Pressed on the contributions so far from his wide players, and Gabriel Jesus, he continued, “I am very happy. Would I like that Gabby, Eddie, Leo, they score 50 goals each? Yes, for sure!
“Every manager would want a player that can score 50 goals, guaranteed, every season. But if you don’t have it, it means as well that they have other qualities that empower the qualities of the players next to them and that’s really important as well.
“I think there are players, and we have players, that can score and last year they did something that not many wingers or many attacking midfielders did in the league, and this is our job to try to improve them and get the best out of them.”
So far there seems little indication that Arsenal are planning any kind of attacking signing for January, with the focus on defence and potentially midfield – but even those arrivals might have to be short-term loan deals because of FFP rules.
That makes the possibility of signing the kind of striker people talk about nigh on impossible, as those kinds of forwards are very expensive, even more so in January.
So, let’s hope those goals continue to get shared around, and with a slight increase in end product from some players we already have, this conversation could be one placed quite easily on the back burner.
My manager has spoken. I believe you.😊 COYG
Your manager created an unneeded worrying situation with the goalkeepers. He can misjudge things. We’ve been waiting for 20 years to win the league again. Can we maximize our chance?
My manager has guided Arsenal to top of the league and got us a keeper who follows instructions and distributes better than anyone else in the league!
At the right price I’d say sell Nketia and dip into the academy for Jesus’ backup. If no right offer comes through, keep Nketia but still bring up an academy kid as competition.
Arteta’s tenure hasn’t been big on chances for Hale End products and that needs to change at some point.
I’d like to see city sell Alvarez and dip into the academy for Haaland backup who currently is nowhere near his country’s under 21 national team but I’d be scared if we were the ones taking that gamble.
Now look around Europe and tell me any top team with a number 9 or central defender who has made a breakthrough from the academy straight to the starting 11. That happens at teams in the Europa league and below
The kids are not ready yet but we have kids who score 10 goals in a single game, Haaland who?
I think if Haaland had played in that game, he might have scored 20.
I saw a worrying stat: we have scored only about 17 goals from open play in 18 games. And none of our players has scored more than 5 goals so far. Even Bournemouth have a striker with more than 10 goals.
While it’s GREAT to share the goals around, I still think we need a bonafide goalscorer in this team ASAP. It’s only going to make us even more of a fearsome outfit.
I saw a stat too : After 18 games we’re top and only failed to score in two of those games, so we can win without another striker. Where it all turns tragic is if Rice/Saliba/Gabriel are out for a period. Recruitments in midfield and defence are the way forward! JAWOHL MEIN HERR!
I have a stat too: Arteta won an FA Cup for Arsenal with a striker who was a prolific goal scorer.
A Bournemouth will always be running at an opposition defences with a 3 against 3 situation in most of their games. Our front 3 would score over 10 each in that situation.
We are mostly facing two lines of 5 in front of the opposing box. Bournemouth players would struggle to get 10 goals and their team would probably be last on the table.
Just some context
Best reply to all these get a striker questions…as long as goals are shared n we keep winning who cares…
Why did Guardiola get Haaland? Didn’t he have goals shared between Marhez, De Bruyne, Guindogan, Foden, Rodri? Wasn’t his team top of the league regularly before he bought Haaland?
I think you are proving the exact opposite of what you are trying to say. Between Aguero and Haaland, Man City played without a traditional number 9–the closest was Gabriel Jesus–and they did pretty well. Yes, then Guardiola got Haaland anyway. Do you think any player we could possibly get–no, do you think any player, full stop–is equivalent to Haaland? Guardiola got Haaland because he is one of a kind.
Before Haaland he bought a Spanish player who left to go Barcelona.
Haaland, arguably, hasn’t actualy improved them though. I think they scored less goals last season with him than the season before without him. Saying that, they got on alright last time out.
I think this is the exemplar of a narrative being spun by the media being repeated often enough that people take it as truth. We have goals coming from all over the pitch. Salah has either scored or assisted just about half of Liverpool’s goals, He is off at the African cup next month. It is curious that nobody in the media is asking who will score their goals/make their chances.
Exactly what I’ve been saying! 👍
I think that the key to open more goals from everyone is Emile Smith Rowe. His association and brilliance will bring a fluidity that not even Martin Odegaard can do. Maybe it is just me and my love for him, but let’s see and hope. COYG
I love the Smith and I want him to stay fit and get a good run in the team but fluidity and opening up teams have Ø written all over it
Odegard is magic, but when we talk about fluidity, I think in terms of one-two, like in Wenger era, and he is not so good in that regard. Maybe because he doesn’t need to be.
Say that again, why he is not given a chance, I don’t know. Check his cameos and he always has a shot on target of a sort, until his injury he was perhaps our best player and our highest scorer. I think he’s done enough to warrant a chance or a run,,, but again I concede I am not paid to make these decisions so I accept what the gaffer does, except I feel ESR deserve more chance.
He was getting a run, but fell injured again. Hope he manages to stay fit a longer period this time. He is great, it would be sad if he had a similar path like Jack or Abu, world beaters when they were healthy.
While I’m yet to be convinced that we need a 30 goal a season CF, games against Villa and Liverpool show that we can definitely get more out of our current front line. Against Liverpool there were at least two occasions where Saka put great passes into the box and there was no Arsenal shirt near them. Saka himself may have done better when rounding Alisson, though appeared off balance. We need to make more out of these opportunities.
I think we could do with the option, Arteta also likes uncertainty and it would give us a very different way of setting up and playing if they were all fit and firing. Eddie improves every year though so I wonder if we should just be patient and let him keep emerging. At his current growth rate he’ll be up there in two seasons anyway.
I’d prefer us to focus on midfield where we are light, one injury to Rice and we’re in deep deep trouble. I like that Arteta doesn’t rely on a striker for goals, every player is able to chip in and change there roles and tactics which gives us a chaotic dynamic that is hard to defend against. How many times when we played with Auba up top did they just mark him out of the game and we looked flat once they had figured out how to do it.
That’s fine, but some of those players we depend on for goals need to start putting the ball in the back of the net more regularly.
I don’t believe what Arteta says. Remember what he said about Ramsdale and Raya? Goalkeeper can be rotated. Now see what’s happening.
There’s no way we should be spending a whole load of money on a striker, I can’t see anyone out there who’s going to fit in straight away and improve things. I don’t want Ivan Toney because I think he’s a total dickhead and he’s admitted he’s a gambling addict, so we could end up with a Tonali situation. There’s a lot still to come from our forwards, I’d rather we reinforced our midfield or defence. It’s a crying shame about Timber and Tomi, it’s a difficult thing to do in the January market but we’re short without them and… Read more »
I do not see any Jan signings because we were already close to FFP limits before this year’s summer spending. Loan deal, maybe! We signed Odegard on loan to begin with. In terms of goal scoring I do feel something is missing this year. Our chance creation is also down compared to last year but we are defensively better. Not sure what our chance conversion ratio looks like compared to last year. Also, it was always going to be a really tough challenge to replicate last year’s performance, so the fact that we are just a few points off compared… Read more »
De Ligt to Arsenal come on
Yes it’s great sharing the goals but the shear amount of chances that are missed could be converted also, that’s what I want to see happening…then we are unstoppable.
I can see his point.
Let’s just say that, in another reality, we found the next Haaland and rebuilt our entire team around him as striker.
Now everything’s going great, we’re top of the league by a hatfull, Haaland MKII is on track for 40 goals.
Then he does his ACL in March…
What was Plan B again?
Didn’t Arsenal do this succesfully in the past? Didn’t we build a team around Henry? Didn’t we have Witord or Adebayor to replace him? Didn’t Pires, Bergkamp, Vieira, Reyes, Freddie and Cashley contribute with goals?
I’m all for spreading goals around, but I don’t think Arsenal has a person right now who you’d bet on to make a goal for himself when the cylinders are misfiring around him; I can’t help thinking AFC is going to need that at some crucial point this season.
Any competent centre forward is going to cost something ridiculous in January – someone similar to Trossard but who plays predominantly on the right wing could be very useful. Bryan Mbeumo maybe.
This is a false ideology, the idea pseudo strikers will keep scoring and getting you over the line, most are midfielders and wingers that score occasionally, it doesn’t work when it comes to the crunch and hasn’t now for several seasons. You have to have a deadly centre forward, Man City had Aguero, Madrid had Ronaldo, Barca Messi, even leicester in their famous year had Vardy, Liverpool Salah and Mane it’s proven year after year.