Arsenal FC manager Arsene Wenger is not worried about the goals in his side, and has challenged the team as a whole to come up with the goals needed to win games.
Arsenal FC legendary striker Thierry Henry has recently been in the news again, voicing his opinion regarding the need for his former club to sign a top class forward.
He was earlier involved in a war of words with Arsenal FC’s French striker Olivier Giroud, when Henry suggested that the club needed to add a top class forward to their ranks in order to win the league.
The club have been linked with a move for Karim Benzema, and Henry was quoted saying recently that his addition would put the Gunners in much better situation to win the league.
Wenger rejects Henry’s suggestion
Arsenal FC have been, at times, accused of lacking the killer instinct to finish a team off, especially when they are lined up around their own goal, desperately defending.
However, Arsene Wenger reckons winning the league is not as mathematically simple as Henry thinks, based on which he suggested his former club to sign Benzema.
As quoted saying by ESPN FC, Wenger said: “I respect Thierry Henry’s football knowledge, but it is not as simple that you just sign a striker like Benzema and then mathematically you win the title. It doesn’t work like that.”
‘Giroud, Walcott can score 20 goals each’
Reiterating his faith in the current squad, Wenger went on to add that he is confident that Olivier Giroud and Theo Walcott can net 20 goals each and challenged other midfield players to score more.
Wenger was quoted as saying by ESPN FC:
“It is important to have a top striker, but I think Giroud will not be far from 20 goals. If he played the whole season he would have scored 20 and [Theo] Walcott as well.
“I am not concerned about the goals in our team. We look like we can score goals when we go forward and I think we have to depend less on one guy who can score. We need to develop the collective aspect.
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“A guy like [Alex] Oxlade-Chamberlain should have an ambition to score 10 goals. [Alexis] Sanchez can score more goals. I think [Mesut] Ozil has to fix himself a target of at least ten goals every year playing behind the striker.
“We can share the goals around, more so than when Thierry played. Then you knew before the game he would get you a goal, but the dynamic of this team is different and we have many attacking options in this team.”
Is Wenger right?
Arsenal FC do have a very strong midfield and indeed one that can score a lot of goals. The likes of Ramsey, Cazorla, Ozil, Walcott, Oxlade-Chamberlain alongside Sanchez do have the ability, if fit, to score, on an average, around 10 goals (60 in total).
Coupled with that, if Giroud and Welbeck can contribute around 20 goals together, it would mean a very healthy 80 goals in the side can be achieved.
The problem for Arsenal has always been that they have been unable to keep their best players fit.
Also, the other aspect about Arsenal is the lack of a top class midfield ball winner. If anything, more than goals, they need that position to be addressed. Maybe if Francis Coquelin can take the form he showed last season to another level, the Londoners might not need even that position.
Optimism at Emirates have never been this high in recent times and for good reason. This could, indeed, be Arsenal FC’s year should they be able to keep their best players fit and in form, and of course, hold their nerves.