Arsenal returned to Premier League action on the 20th of January with a convincing 5-0 home win over Crystal Palace.
It was a much needed victory for The Gunners having lost their previous 3 fixtures in all competitions. The win keeps Arsenal in the title race but is there a key ingredient missing from their bid to win the Premier League this season?
🚨⚪️🔴 Ivan Toney on his future: “It's obvious I want to play for a top club and fight for titles, yes”.“If a club was to pay the right money… then, who knows. January or whenever is right time, I’ll be ready”.“I want to enjoy and play now”, told Sky Sports. pic.twitter.com/41lCzeePla— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) January 17, 2024
🚨⚪️🔴 Ivan Toney on his future: “It's obvious I want to play for a top club and fight for titles, yes”.“If a club was to pay the right money… then, who knows. January or whenever is right time, I’ll be ready”.“I want to enjoy and play now”, told Sky Sports. pic.twitter.com/41lCzeePla
If we look at the top goal scorers in the Premier League this season, names including Erling Haaland, Mohamed Salah, Dominic Solanke, Son Heung-Min, Hwang Hee-Chan, Alexander Isak, Ollie Watkins, and Chris Wood are all inside the top ten.
You must go down to joint 17th place to find the first Arsenal player in the list and that’s Bukayo Saka, who has 6 league goals to his name this season.
We come to the first Arsenal striker in joint 27th place, who is Eddie Nketiah with 5 goals. That is the same number of goals as John McGinn, Scott McTominay, and Tomás Soucek, three players who operate from central midfield.
Gabriel Jesus, who was brought in from Manchester City to be the main goal scorer in this Arsenal team, has been out with injury for a period this season but has scored only 3 goals in the Premier League despite making 16 appearances.
Arsenal share their goals around the team, with six players having scored 4 or more goals in the Premier League this season. The win over a poor Crystal Palace team does not take away from the issues they faced in the defeats against Liverpool in the FA Cup and West Ham in the Premier League.
Arsenal had plenty of chances to win both matches but failed to take their goal scoring chances, sometimes failing to have a shot when it seemed the most obvious option.
There has been more of an emphasis on the defensive side of Arsenal’s game this season, which has improved but they are still creating chances in matches. When playing the better teams in the Premier League, being clinical in-front of goal is what makes the difference.
In the recent 2-0 Premier League defeat at home against West Ham, Arsenal had 30 shots in the game, 8 of which were on target, and they failed to score. In the FA Cup third round defeat at home to Liverpool, Arsenal had 18 shots, 5 of which were on target but lost 2-0 to a team that had only 3 shots on target.
Jesus and Nketiah have their strengths but they have yet to convince as a top Premier League striker. With Ivan Toney back from his suspension and scoring against Nottingham Forest, will Mikel Arteta be tempted to bid for the Brentford striker.
Toney scored 20 goals in the Premier League last season, something Jesus and Nketiah have never come close to doing. If Arteta does not make a move in the transfer market in January, could it cost Arsenal the title?