This season Arsenal may have their weakest strike force EVER in their club history. Yes there is one shining light in Arsenal’s strike force – Robin van Persie, the third best player on the planet right now. However, that’s the only top quality striker Arsenal have at this moment in time.
If we look at the current strikers Arsenal have there is Marouane Chamakh, a man who started last season in great form scoring 10 goals before Christmas until poor form and the return of Robin van Persie struck. Chamakh was quickly out of the side and has never regained his starting place or form since.
If ee then look at Park Chu-Young, the striker has been in tip top form at international level, scoring in his last five games for them. However, he has yet to make an impression on English football, scoring once in a Carling Cup game against Bolton. He was then given a chance to impress against Marseille, but failed to make an impact and it was noted by many the amount of times he gave the ball away in promising positions for The Gunners. Point being that both Arsenal strikers aren’t good enough to wear the badge and will not score the goals the club need to make a title push.
Although there are other optionsto consider such as Gerviniho, has done well since arrival. However, Chamakh is away for the African Cup of Nations in January, leaving Arsenal short up front once again. Another option is Andrey Ashavin. The Russian was deployed there last season but, despite scoring a few goals, failed to impress Arsenal fans and his link up play and ability to hold up the ball were lacking.
The last option available is Theo Walcott. He’s been asking to play in the striking role since he arrived at the club, but he has been deployed on the wing. Similar to Asharvin there are doubts that his link up play and ability to keep the ball is not there, however, his pace would strike fear into most centre-backs hearts and would provide a great outlet for Arsenal.
When you compare options in the past you can see the club at least had two quality strikers, sometimes even four! When we roll back the years and look at some of the players on the list it includes, Henry, Bergkamp, Kanu and a younger Van Persie. Then theres Adebayor, Wright, Smith, the list goes on and on. The point being that whenever there was a top quality striker playing for Arsenal there was always another playing alongside him and another two on the bench.
If we then look at some of Arsenal’s rivals you will notice that they all have top quality strikers on the field and on the bench. Man United have Rooney, Hernandez ,Welbeck and the forgotten Berbatov. Chelsea have Drogba, Anelka and Torres. Finally, even their closest rivals Spurs have Adebayor, Defoe and Pavlyuchenko. Now none of these strikers may be in the same league as Van Persie, but compared to Chamakh and Park they look much better equipped for the Premier League, and its clear to see that other title contenders have better strength in depth up front than the Gunners do.
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Written by Cameron Makeman
It’s plain stupidity to write off Park after just one game against Marseille. Marseille are no mucks. They are excellent defensively with one beast of a goalkeeper. Park played ten times better than Chamakh in the limited time he has had on the pitch. Let’s wait for him to make his debut in the PL and play a few games in a row before reaching a conclusive judgement.
I’d like to know how old you are. If you go back to the days of Paul Mariner, Tony Woodcock and Niall Quinn and compare them to Walcott, RvP, Gervinho and Arshavin (who all count as forwards) the current players are much much better. What a ridiculous statement. Are you one of the whiners who, now that the team are doing well, just can’t stop themselves from complaining even when everybody has stopped listening ?
van Persie may be the cherry on top, but cake’s top quality
How can you write Chamach and Park so soon? Chamach did not get regular first team chance since the return of Van Persie. Both players are regular scorers for their national teams. They need chance to shine.
It depends also on the system you use. Our style was always perfect for Van Persie. I live in Holland and it is funny to hear the media always asking where to play Van Persie. They are asking his efficiency?!!!!!! He was the most criticized player in the world cup. The heros were Roben, Snijder and Vabn der vaart. It sometimes seems that Im the only one in Holland who knew what Van Persie is capable of, because Im an Arsenal fan od course.