Arsenal are aiming to bolster their attack this month, but the Gunners should use the January transfer window to strengthen their suffering defence too.
It seems Arsenal are prioritising their attack this month. It certainly makes sense to do so. Alexis Sanchez could be leaving, while Danny Welbeck, Alex Iwobi and Theo Walcott are hardly in the most inspiring form at the moment.
That leaves Mesut Ozil, who has struggled with injuries this season, and Alexandre Lacazette, who is without a goal in eight games, as our only two quality attackers. It’s a bit of a sorry situation at the moment.
The problem is, the same could be said of the defence as well. Arsenal’s collective defending has been awful this season, especially away from home. It hasn’t been helped by a high number of individual mistakes.
Shkodran Mustafi is inconsistent, while Rob Holding and Calum Chambers are both young defenders prone to errors. Laurent Koscielny and Nacho Monreal are our two most reliable defenders, but the paid are in their 30s.
At full back, we’re one or two injuries away from really having to dig deep for options. The situation is such that Ainsley Maitland-Niles, a talented player but fledgling defender, is having to play left-back.
If Hector Bellerin gets injured, we could end up with another 30-something player operating there – one who has been injured for a long time and wants out of the club.
Arsene Wenger may look at his defence and see that he has 11 options to fit into five spots. On the surface, he has two players for each position, plus the super-versatile Maitland-Niles for extra cover.
The problem is that our best defenders are ageing, and the quality beyond them isn’t enough to get us back into the top four. The numbers cannot make up for that deficit in ability.
Signing a new defender, one who can genuinely improve the back line wherever he plays, will benefit us in the short-term and long-term. We wouldn’t have to scramble around in the summer looking for one.
As it is, we best hope that whatever attackers we bring in can deliver, because clean sheets will be in short supply.