Ray Parlour has spoken about our loss to West Ham and how we should go forward, including who he thinks we should buy in the transfer window.
The former Arsenal man believes buying a striker is a must for the Gunners, who failed to find the net against West Ham on Sunday and ended up losing 2-0.
“[Striker] is a position they’ve got to look at,” he said. “Everyone is going to jump on the bandwagon now but it’s a long, hard season and there’s a long way to go.”
He continued, “If you look at Man City, you know Sergio Aguero is their main man, for Manchester United it’s Wayne Rooney and at Chelsea, it’s Diego Costa. Who is it at Arsenal?
“I didn’t know who would start for Arsenal on Sunday because Theo Walcott started the Community Shield. I don’t think they have someone who you can say ‘he’s definitely going to play and he will score us goals’.”
He went on, “Walcott will run in behind and has more pace and Giroud brings the midfield in a bit more – I think he (Giroud) is ahead of Theo at the moment.
“(Karim) Benzema has been well linked and if they could get a proven goalscorer like that then it would be fantastic. They can afford to get him and start competing in the transfer market whereas before they couldn’t because of the stadium.”
Before finally adding“”He (Wenger) has proved in the past few years he will go and get those big players and Benzema would undoubtedly strengthen their side.”
Benzema is a player we’ve been linked with persistently over this transfer window, despite both Benitez and Wenger claiming that the forward is going nowhere. However, the constant rumours surrounding a move for the Frenchman are now beginning to turn the heads of people who believe there’s no smoke without fire.
On the match itself, the Sky Sports pundit believes both goals were partly new goalkeeper, Petr Cech’s, fault, and partly down to the team.
“It was a mistake, certainly, he (Cech) made a decision to come and he’s got to take everyone out,” he said. “The decision he made was the wrong one and he’ll hold his hands up to that.
“On the second one, they need to close him down, run to the ball and make it difficult for him. The team performance wasn’t good enough for Arsenal.
“There were poor decisions all round. I think it’s concentration sometimes. They showed that bit of resilience against Chelsea in the Community Shield but it wasn’t there on Sunday.”
Although it’s easy to point fingers and put the blame at the feet of someone who really should have known better, the whole team also should have recovered and no one was really on top, top form on Sunday.