Arsenal FC boss Arsene Wenger has admitted that his side has faltered in January, with no wins in last four games and the gap to leaders Leicester City now up to 5 points.
Arsenal FC were held to a 0-0 draw in the midweek tie against Southampton, making it four games since they last won in the Premier League.
The form has prompted experts and fans to once again question Arsene Wenger’s side to win the league for the first time since 2002-03 season.
Wenger admits his side is faltering
The veteran French manager was on hand to admit his side were faltering, but vowed to arrest the downward slide with a run of keys games coming up.
When asked if he was worried about Arsenal’s dip in form, Wenger was quoted as saying by the Daily Mail: “We’ll see at the end of the season. It’s too early to say that
“It’s true that we’ve had a stuttering start in 2016. Our January was bad, starting from the last minute at Liverpool, and then at Stoke. Where we especially have a big deficit is in our two home games.
“We have to catch that back and we have a difficult programme, especially away from home. We need to respond quickly away from home now.”
Laments lack of availability of world class forwards
Wenger has been urged to sign a top class forward since last summer. Having signed just a solitary player in the window in the form of Egyptian midfielder El Neny from FC Basel, Wenger was quick to attribute the failure to sign a top class forward in the window due to the lack of availability of one.
He said: “If you knew a world-class striker who could have strengthened our team, you should have told me before the transfer deadline was over.
“They do not walk in the street and say ‘please, here is a world-class striker, can you take me?’ They are all at big clubs and are under contract.
“There were none available. If tonight we think a miracle man could have scored the goal for us, I think it’s better we think how can we score the goals with the players we have. We can score goals, we have shown that before.”
Is Wenger right about the lack of options?
Liverpool FC have been another club in the market looking for a forward. They pulled out in the pursuit of Shakhtar Donetsk’s forward Alex Teixeira when the Ukraine outfit asked for an exorbitant amount for his services.
Chelsea FC did sign Alexander Pato, but he hardly features in the world class league with his injury troubles stunting his growth since he moved from Milan.
Lewadowski, Aguero, Suarez, Messi, Ronaldo, Diego Costa, Rooney, Benzema, Alexis Sanchez are probably the only world class forwards at this moment in time, and they all already play for top clubs.
The dearth of quality players in the forward areas is alarming, but what Wenger should consider is if he could have signed someone like Gonzalo Higuain in the window. While he is not really world class, he has proven over the years that he can get goals (while he will also miss a few).
Higuain has currently been scoring goals for fun, with 23 in 23 goals in the Serie A, miles ahead of 2nd placed Carlos Bacca (12) and Paolo Dybala (12).
Having said that, surely Napoli, who are at the top of the table in Serie A right now, would have been highly reluctant to let him go. One must concede then that Wenger does have a valid point in his defence.
