Ian Wright says Arsenal must dip into the transfer market after their 2-0 home defeat against West Ham (Picture: Getty)
Ian Wright has implored Arsenal to sign a ‘top level’ striker in January after last night’s damaging 2-0 defeat against West Ham.
The Gunners missed the opportunity to regain top spot in the Premier League table, despite dominating the overwhelming majority of last night’s London derby at the Emirates.
After a bright start, Mikel Arteta’s men were rocked by Tomas Soucek’s controversial goal against the run of play in the 13th minute.
Arsenal responded by peppering the visitor’s goal but, other than a Bukayo Saka shot that hit the post, failed to overly exert Alphonse Areola and were further rocked when their former player, Konstantinos Mavropanos, headed home his first goal in English football 10 minutes after the restart.
The home side continued to dominate possession and territory, recording a Premier League record 77 touches in the opposition penalty box, but couldn’t register the goal that would’ve halved the deficit.
Arsenal’s shortcomings in front of goal are fast becoming a major issue in their bid to win the title and Wright believes only a player of the calibre of Napoli’s Victor Osimhen can cure their problems in the second half of the campaign.
He told Premier League Productions: ‘The calibre of player Arsenal need right now i somebody who hits the ground running, a top end striker, like the Osimhens of this world… that level of striker.
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‘If Arsenal want to do it now they’re going to need that level of goalscorer who will slot in straight away.
‘That’s what they probably need now. I don’t think any Arsenal fan will look at the game and not see that we need a killer in front of goal.’
Asked in his post-match press conference whether he intended to buy reinforcements when the transfer window opens next week, Arteta remained coy and offered his support to the players he currently has at his disposal.
He said: ‘What we have is the players that we have, it’s the players that I love the most.
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‘What we have to do is try to get better situations, and more training, put them there and raise their confidence and that’s it because they have done it.
‘If we don’t score goals in thirty shots, we have to do fifty or sixty to try to score, it’s the only thing.
‘I cannot imagine a game that you have more dominance, more touches in the box, less situations of the opponents against a really good West Ham side, but today wasn’t enough to win the game.’
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The Gunners slipped to a damaging 2-0 defeat.