Emmanuel Petit urges Arsenal to sign £126m pair to replace ‘struggling’ Gunners duo
Emmanuel Petit has urged Arsenal to sign a £126m duo to replace players currently “struggling” under Mikel Arteta.
The Gunners’ 1-0 loss to Inter at the San Siro on Wednesday made it two defeats in two games after Newcastle beat them by the same scoreline on Saturday.
Arteta’s side dominated the ball but couldn’t make that dominance pay against a stubborn Inter defence ahead of another huge game against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Sunday.
Arsenal are currently seven points behind leaders Liverpool in the Premier League and club legend Thierry Henry believes another defeat would all but end their title chances.
Former teammate Petit believes Arsenal need “a real striker” if they’re to challenge for the Premier League, claiming Kai Havertz is now “struggling” after his fine start to the season, while Gabriel Martinelli is also in the doldrums.
Petit told Instant Casino: “Of course, Arsenal can score goals but when I look at the attacking players, Kai Havertz has been amazing from the start of the season, but he’s struggling for the last few games because of what happened in his team.
“When you look at Martinelli, he is also struggling. Only Saka and Havertz have scored and created goals regularly for Arsenal so far this season. Martinelli has two goals and two assists. I’m not talking about Gabriel Jesus because he’s not playing and in his best season, he scored 14 Premier League goals.
“Manchester City are the only team that has won the title in the Premier League with five or six midfield players scoring between 10 and 15 goals. Arsenal don’t have the players in midfield to do that.
“Arsenal needs a striker that can finish off the moves. Havertz is not a typical striker but he has been scoring goals from the start of the season. Can you imagine if Arsenal played with a real striker that’s fighting to score goals in every single game? Arsenal would be a totally different team.”
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Petit then picked out Sporting’s Viktor Gyokeres and AC Milan’s Rafael Leao as the two players he would sign for Arsenal, both of whom are valued at £63m.
He added: “If I could sign one player for Arsenal, I would probably go for Viktor Gyokeres from Sporting Lisbon as a striker. He’s the players I would take, because Nico Williams won’t come to the Premier League.
“I would probably take Leao from AC Milan, the left winger. I would take an attacking midfielder.
“If you want to win games, you need to score goals, and who is in the best position to score goals? It’s a striker. You can see that every single season, the Premier League champions normally have the best strikers.”
