Arsenal could be scary next season if Edu listens to Jamie Redknapp

Arsenal director Edu could be poised to give Mikel Arteta the missing piece to his puzzle at the Emirates Stadium if he listens to Jamie Carragher’s advice when the transfer window re-opens at the end of the season. The Gunners have successfully maintained their surprise Premier League title challenge over the course of the entire campaign to date but will be looking to improve between now and the start of next season as they prepare for a return to the Champions League after a six-year absence.

Arsenal undoubtedly have one of the division’s strongest sides at present but are still lacking an out-and-out goalscorer, with the likes of Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli and Martin Odegaard leading the attacking charge for the north Londoners in recent months. They tried for weeks to sign Mykhaylo Mudryk in January before losing out to Chelsea in the race to secure his services and settling for the capture of Leandro Trossard, although Redknapp believes that Arsenal would benefit from targeting a natural striker in the summer rather than going back into the market for another wide player.

“Obviously they invested so much in trying to get Mudryk, long-term I’m sure he’s going to be a great signing [for Chelsea], but that might be in two or three years,” Redknapp told Sky Sports during Arsenal’s routine win over Fulham on Sunday afternoon.

“Right now the priority is to win the Premier League, you’ve got a player [Trossard] that understands it, scores goals, and I was a huge fan of his at Brighton where he’d pop up and score hat-tricks at Anfield, so comfortable on the ball, work ethic, everything about him. He’s ready-made.

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“Jimmy [Floyd-Hasselbaink] and I were talking earlier that maybe they haven’t got that out-and-out goalscorer but they’ve got goals in the team. Saka can get goals, Jesus can get goals but maybe not [an Erling] Haaland if you like. He just adds to that quality and has ice in his veins in front of goal.”

Arsenal would certainly be a different beast with a Haaland-like figure leading the line for them next season, although it remains to be seen which direction they will go in to improve their squad when the bidding opens later this year. They were previously urged to round off their January business by adding a proven striker to their ranks by former West Ham ace Frank McAvennie, who told Football Insider that such a move would help to propel the Gunners to the very highest level.

“I think if Arsenal get a brilliant out-and-out striker, that is what they need,” said McAvennie. “[Gabriel] Jesus could play off any decent striker. That would be a match made in heaven. Jesus is a good player. I get that he is not an out and out striker but he is not doing too bad.

“If they got a striker in, Arsenal would be scoring more goals, and they are already scoring quite a few without an out-and-out striker.”

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