Arsenal: How seriously should the search for a striker be taken?

Arsenal may or may not need a new striker in the coming transfer window, so if it proves too difficult, or too expensive… how hard should the club fight for it?

Among the very short list of positions that Mikel Arteta feels Arsenal needs was a rather ambiguous one—”attacker.” Most rumors seem to count this as a creative attacker, someone like Willian or Orkun Kokcu, or Jack Grealish, or any number of guys linked to the club.

But it could also mean a striker. The thing is, in the rankings of “what do we need more,” it’s creativity that wins more than a striker. Though that also depends on who we keep between Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette, if either.

As of right now, it looks like Aubameyang is for sure leaving, and while Lacazette has shot down rumors, it wouldn’t be surprising to see him leave too. He has struggled to acclimate since arriving from Ligue 1, as so many before (and after) him, and the price could still be good.

Does Arsenal need a striker, or is the need contrived?

If we lose both, then the search for a striker obviously needs to be taken a bit more seriously. Eddie Nketiah is great and exciting, but is he everything we need? Certainly not.

If we have the choice, though, of keeping Lacazette and Nketiah as our predominant strikers, is that enough? I’m of the opinion that it is. The problem for Arsenal isn’t having someone to put the goals away, it’s having someone to get the ball to the point that it needs putting away. We have a lot of wingers who can score goals too, don’t forget. Nicolas Pepe, Gabriel Martinelli, and Bukayo Saka have all shown a propensity for it.

Give them a semi-decent striker, which I do believe that Nketiah and Lacazette can both uphold, and we’ll be just fine, and that semi-decent striker will be made all the better because of what’s around him.

Unfortunately, this comes down to pricing. I would love to have Jovic or Edouard, and if we really can get them for the price of (or less than) what we can get for selling Lacazette, then there’s no reason not to. Unless, of course, that money can be spent better elsewhere.

Which is the big question. If we can spend the money better elsewhere, do we really need a new striker now? It’s not an easy answer. But right now, the interest and the determination to get a better striker should be about a 5/10. Until something changes, anyways.