Arsenal Cannot Wait For Danny Welbeck’s Return

Arsenal may or may not need a striker. If you ask Arsene Wenger, they do not. Why? Because Danny Welbeck is coming back and he is a striker. We beg to differ.

Arsene Wenger is all about faith. He puts faith in his players and in return, he is blessed with the faith of his foot soldiers. That is all well and good. That is what the plan is with Danny Welbeck. He was never given a legitimate shot at being a striker at Manchester United, despite Sir Alex Ferguson’s rave reviews of the Englishman and it culminated with Louis van Gaal doing what he does best.

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And so, Welbeck ended up at Arsenal, with the chance to become a true front man. Finally, Olivier Giroud had some competition. But not for long. Welbeck’s inability to score in club football continued at Arsenal and he was unable to establish any semblance of consistency.

He then suffered a bone bruise and has been out ever since. Not the best story ever, but it still has time to get better.

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This year, Walcott stepped into the role that Welbeck was supposed to play. However, Despite a few good outings, Walcott was called away to play a midfield role when injuries took their toll. Suddenly, Arsenal is back to just one striker.

Arsene Wenger has made it perfectly clear that this is just fine. “Ideally, I personally would prefer to have the existing players back from injury, like Welbeck. I don’t think I’d find a player on the market better than Welbeck,” Le Prof said, as quoted by the Metro.

Again, that faith is all well and good and hopefully it turns out to be repaid in full when Danny Welbeck becomes the greatest striker in England, but at the moment he is nothing near that. He is a fantastic athlete and a valuable asset on the wings but for some reason, he cannot score. Arsenal need a striker that can score. Everyone does. Welbeck isn’t even due back until mid-February and that is barring another setback. Once he does come back there is no guarantee that he will suddenly score.

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Those are not the only issues here, however. When the injured masses start filtering back, Theo Walcott will probably be given another shot at striker. His initial audition went pretty well but he still shows a tendency to disappear. It’s just a byproduct of his style. Again, Arsenal’s rise to the top of the table has been with Giroud as their spear head. That form could easily be disrupted if Walcott’s often anticlimactic play style is put into Giroud’s slot.

Instead, Arsene Wenger could opt to pursue signing an outside option, perhaps a younger one, to alleviate the stresses of Giroud turning 30 without another proven striker ready to take the reigns.

However, no such moves have been made, and statements like this from Wenger might as well be written in stone. There will be no new striker this January.

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The big problem here is that Arsenal is holding onto an ever-wavering top spot in the Premier League. If Giroud gets hurt, that is put in major jeopardy. Having someone that can reinforce the line should the worst happen, or when Giroud needs a breather or a gentle nudge, could make all the difference. All we can do is hope Giroud’s impeccable injury history remains impeccable.