Arsenal: Why is the need for a winger suddenly so urgent?

Arsenal have needed a winger for awhile, but why is it all of a sudden so pressing that it’s seemingly our only priority? Not that I’m complaining…

All last summer, and all the season before, the one thing, or at least the main thing, that Arsenal fans were clamoring about was the need for a winger. Not necessarily because we couldn’t live without one, but because we literally had none. Some youth players were coming up the ranks, but no one was ready.

Last summer, the club addressed so many of the dire needs – central midfield, keeper, defense. And for the most part, they addressed these needs incredibly well, and in a friendly budget that only Arsenal has to operate within.

They didn’t address the problem on the wing. Rather, they loaned out Reiss Nelson, a potential solution, and he has since proven to be right on the cusp of being exactly that – a solution. We just have to wait.

Regardless, the attack was so supercharged that I think it was easy enough to overlook the lack of a winger, at least for the time being. But after seeing how well wingbacks enhanced this attack, it became apparent that wingers would be a nice thing to have.

Nice, but again, not dire. There were much bigger problems, namely the defense, where nothing ever seems to work.

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And yet, here we are in January, a transfer window that historically underwhelms, a transfer window that, in the present day, is not likely to be fruitful, as the club can only afford to bring players in on loan, and yet the only names being bantered about are wingers.

Denis Suarez, while a midfielder, was touted as a winger by Unai Emery and he has arrived, but more are still being linked. Ivan Perisic is the latest craze, a winger through and through with central attacking capabilities. Malcom has reappeared as a target.

The only position being linked to the club are wingers, yet if you look at the strengths and weaknesses of the club, finding a longterm solution on the wings can certainly wait until the summer, right?

Maybe that’s the point though. Maybe Emery wants to get a winger in now, to see how it feels, to see how the fix goes, and adjust from there. After all, in the summer, we are going to need defensive help. There’s no reason to try that out. We are going to get Reiss Nelson back, there’s no need to try him out.

This can be a trial and error period, with hopefully less error than trial, because there’s already enough error to go around.