John Hartson appears to be the only person on the planet who doesn’t think Arsene Wenger should have signed a new striker during the transfer window.

Speaking to Talk Sport, the former Arsenal forward appeared to feel very strongly that Wenger had absolutely no need to sign a striker and in fact lambasted rivals Liverpool for doing so.

“Why would he just add numbers to give himself a problem and put players on the bench and pay them astronomical wages?

“I totally understand why Wenger has not bought,” Hartson said. “The Danny Welbeck situation is unfortunate now he has to go in for a knee operation. You look at Liverpool, and how much did they need Danny Ings? They signed him for a free, but what’s the point, Danny Ings has hardly kicked a ball for Liverpool. 

“That’s not the way Wenger works,” he continued. “He protects the club’s money, he doesn’t just go out and buy bang-average players. If you’re going to get into his team, you’ve got to improve it and you’ve got to be better than what he’s got.”

Wenger has come under fire from several sources for failing to acquire a new goalscorer after it emerged that Danny Welbeck was more seriously injured than we were previously led to believe.

“We’ve all criticised Arsenal and would like to see them be a bit more active in the transfer market – he hasn’t been,” Hartson continued. “He’s won two FA Cups on the bounce and they keep finishing in the top four. They’re not as strong as Man City or Chelsea, but Arsene Wenger keeps producing and keeps building teams. 

“He’s not going to buy players just to add the group. You’ve got to bring in players that are going to enhance the team.”  

Welbeck recently underwent knee surgery to fix a problem, which was initially said to be keeping him sidelined for three weeks. Now, it’s looking as if we face three months without reinforcements. Should Olivier Giroud get injured, although we’ve got Theo Walcott and Alexis Sanchez, we could be left in a bit of a pickle.