There is mounting evidence to suggest that Arsenal are a better team when their recently deposed captain and most high-profile player – Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang – is not in it.
Since Mikel Arteta dropped the 32-year-old from his squad, the Gunners have won all four of their matches, scoring 14 goals in total. Granted, Arsenal haven’t exactly played Brazil’s 1970 team or Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona during that run, but their performances have been mightily impressive nonetheless.
Suddenly, Arteta has an abundance of attacking talent to pick from, particularly in the three advanced roles behind the striker.
Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli have been exceptional out wide, the classy Martin Odegaard is becoming increasingly influential in the No 10 role and Emile Smith Rowe is making goalscoring contributions off the bench.
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But while Arsenal are well-stocked in the attacking midfield department – a throwback to the Arsene Wenger days – their situation further forward is a little more uncertain. With Aubameyang’s future seemingly lying away from north London and both Alexandre Lacazette and Eddie Nketiah’s contracts expiring at the end of the season, Arteta could conceivably lose all three of his main strikers over the next few months.
Arsenal are expected to wait until the end of the campaign before deciding whether to offer Lacazette an extension to his contract, while Nketiah has so far spurned the club’s interest in extending his deal. Both players are free to discuss a pre-contract move to a club outside of England from the start of January and neither will be short of takers.
Arteta used the most recent transfer window to overhaul his defence, with three of Arsenal’s five most regular starters at the back – Aaron Ramsdale, Ben White and Takehiro Tomiyasu – signed in the summer while another newcomer, Nuno Tavares has alternated with Kieran Tierney.
Granit Xhaka and Thomas Partey have shown promise as a pair in midfield and as already touched upon, there is a nucleus of technicians in attack to pick from. Sourcing a new first-choice centre forward then appears to be the obvious top priority.
Here are a few options the club may look to explore in January or the summer.
Dusan Vlahovic (Fiorentina)
Every manager on the planet apparently holds an interest in Fiorentina hotshot Dusan Vlahovic and given his exploits in Serie A it is easy to see why he is so in demand. The 21-year-old’s goal during Sunday’s 2-2 draw against Sassuolo took him to 33 in the league this calendar year, matching a record set by Cristiano Ronaldo during his Juventus days. Only Bayern Munich’s Robert Lewandowski has scored more in Europe’s “big five” leagues in 2021.
Although Vlahovic’s contract only has 18 months to run, Fiorentina do not plan on letting him leave on the cheap and are eager to spark a bidding war next month. “I don’t know if he’s going to Juve but I want to tell them, Arsenal and the whole world that Fiorentina is the owner of Vlahovic’s contract,” owner Rocco Benito Commisso said. “I do not let anyone blackmail me.”
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Both Arsenal and Spurs were strongly linked with moves for Lautaro Martinez in the summer as Inter’s owners cashed in on a squad that had just won a first Serie A title in a decade. The big-money sales of Romelu Lukaku to Chelsea and Achraf Hakimi to PSG allowed Inter to hold on to Martinez with the Argentine emerging as the club’s new leader in attack.
The 24-year-old has been in lethal form yet again this season, combining 11 league goals with two assists in 16 matches. Although he will be difficult to prise away from San Siro after signing a new long-term contract that made him the highest-earning player in the squad, Inter’s well-documented financial issues may make a deal more feasible.
Jonathan David (Lille)
Similarly to Inter, Lille dethroned a dominant domestic rival last season before subsequently losing some of their best players and manager due largely to cashflow problems. The Ligue 1 champions are closer to 20th place Saint-Etienne in the table than leaders PSG this term, but that slump doesn’t appear to have impacted Jonathan David who has scored 11 goals in 18 league matches and three times in the Champions League.
Like Martinez, David is tied down to a long-term contract after only joining Lille in 2020, but the French club’s reputation for cashing in on their prized assets could work in Arsenal’s favour. So too could the good relationship between the clubs: Arsenal spent a club-record £72m to Nicolas Pepe from Lille in 2019 and a further £23m to recruit Gabriel Magalhaes the following year.
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Dominic Calvert-Lewin (Everton)
Arteta is building an exciting young team centred around a promising core of English talent, similarly to Mauricio Pochettino’s Tottenham side. Aaron Ramsdale, Ben White, Emile Smith Rowe and Bukayo Saka have all established themselves as key players for Arsenal and could be joined by another Englishman with Everton’s Dominic Calvert-Lewin also reported to be a target.
Despite being restricted to only three league appearances this season due to injury, Calvert-Lewin has scored 19 Premier League goals since the start of 2020-21 – a total only bettered by five players in the division and four more than any Arsenal player over that period. The Athletic report that Calvert-Lewin has admirers at Arsenal and at 24, he fits the club’s transfer model for signing young players.
Gabriel Martinelli (Arsenal)
Perhaps a solution could be found in-house? Nketiah demonstrated what he can offer by scoring a hat-trick in midweek against Sunderland, but if he departs there is no shortage of attacking talent elsewhere in Arteta’s ranks. Folarin Balogun is highly thought of at the club and ended speculation over his future by signing a new four-year deal in April before his contract was set to expire.
And then there is Gabriel Martinelli, who has offered a reminder of his finishing prowess in recent matches. The 20-year-old has scored four goals in his previous six Premier League games and is arguably the most clinical finisher in Arsenal’s squad, having converted 25 per cent of his efforts on goal. Martinelli has made a big impact from a left-wing position, but has the qualities to become a top centre-forward should Arteta look to utilise him there.
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