Henry inclusion in ranking of Arsenal’s last nine No.9 signings illustrates Sesko desperation

We’ve ranked Arsenal’s last nine striker signings – and Mikel Arteta has only signed one of them!

In fact, Arsenal have signed just one recognised striker in seven-and-a-half years. Seriously, what the f**k? They really need Viktor Gyokeres…or Benjamin Sesko.

We are not counting Kai Havertz, who was signed as a midfielder, not a striker – just like Mikel Merino.

9) Yaya Sanogo
Football Manager icon Sanogo failed to replicate his virtual potential in real life, though Arsenal fans who played the game were understandably excited when the club landed him for nothing in July 2013.

He failed to score in 21 Premier League matches but did net against Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League to give the Gunners the lead inside two minutes.

Injuries hampered Sanogo, but he didn’t do enough when fit to prove he belonged in Our League. He had loan spells at Crystal Palace, Ajax and Charlton Athletic before joining Toulouse on another free in 2017. Since then, he’s played for Huddersfield Town, Armenian outfit FC Urartu, Chinese side QD Red Lions, and now lines up for Amazonas in the Brazilian second tier, aged 32.

Yaya, your four goals against Benfica in the Emirates Cup will never be forgotten.

8) Lucas Perez
You can be forgiven for forgetting this guy exists. Perez cost Arsenal around £18m on deadline day in the 2016 summer window and only managed 21 appearances, scoring a decent seven goals, a tally that is slightly bloated by a hat-trick against FC Basel in the Champions League.

Arsenal sold Perez to London rivals West Ham for pennies two years later. He only spent one full season at the Emirates before being loaned back to Deportivo La Coruna, a club he’s now represented four separate times.

7) Thierry Henry
Arsenal’s ninth most recent striker signing is Thierry Henry – on loan in January 2012. Again, we ask: what the f**k? Since this transfer, Chelsea have signed 20 strikers – including Joao Felix twice.

Back when mid-season MLS loans were still a thing (we’d love a return), Arsenal brought back their greatest ever player from New York Red Bulls for five weeks. He made a decent impact, scoring that goal against Leeds United in the FA Cup and a crucial last-gasp winner at Sunderland to help the Gunners qualify for the Champions League.

6) Danny Welbeck
Welbeck popped up with some humungous goals, like the dramatic winner against Leicester City that ultimately meant nothing, and a strike against former club Manchester United in the 2015 FA Cup-winning campaign.

When Arsenal paid £16m to sign a 23-year-old with 26 England caps from Manchester United, it blew people’s minds. Now, signing such a player for £16m would blow minds for the complete opposite reason.

Injuries were a constant burden for Welbeck at Arsenal, which is especially frustrating given his surprising durability since joining Brighton in 2020. He spent five years at the Emirates before a one-year stint at Watford. Amazingly, he has just hit 10 Premier League goals in a single campaign for the first time in his career – at 34. For Arsenal, his league tallies were: 4 (2014/15), 4 (2015/16), 2 (2016/17), 5 (2017/18), and 1 (2018/19).

5) Lukas Podolski
This guy knew how to get Arsenal fans on side from day one: chat s**t about Tottenham. After a year at the Emirates, he responded to rumours of a £10m move to Spurs with a tweet: ‘Hell will freeze over before this transfer would happen.’ He also said he’d rather retire than join them. Good lad.

On the pitch, Podolski was decent. Nothing more, nothing less. He scored the occasional banger – as you’d expect from that left foot – but him and the man at number two on this list had the impossible task of replacing Robin van Persie.

Now playing in Poland and making a fortune from doner kebabs, Podolski scored a respectable 31 goals in 82 matches for Arsenal, winning the FA Cup in 2014.

4) Gabriel Jesus
While the goals and assists haven’t flowed, Jesus helped shift things at Arsenal after his £45m move from Manchester City in 2022. The mentality going into the 2022/23 season was totally different after the previous year’s collapse, and the Gunners became title contenders – in part thanks to the leadership of Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko.

Jesus started brightly at Arsenal but suffered a serious knee injury and hasn’t looked the same since. If he were fully fit, Arsenal would likely be actively trying to sell him this summer amid reports of interest from Brazil and Saudi Arabia. A January move could happen, but 2025/26 will surely be his final season at the club.

3) Alexandre Lacazette
Lacazette was never the goal machine Arsenal thought they were signing from Lyon in 2017, but he was consistent under Wenger, Emery and Arteta. His role evolved…in his final season under Arteta, he was basically a false nine, linking play and helping the likes of Emile Smith Rowe, Martinelli and Saka shine. Think Roberto Firmino bought from Wish.

He scored 71 goals and racked up 35 assists in 206 matches for Arsenal – but never played a single Champions League game for them. His highest Premier League goal tally was 14 in his first season. He was always good for double figures, but failing to break 15 even once is a bitterly disappointing return from a £50m striker.

2) Olivier Giroud
No striker divided the Arsenal fanbase like Giroud. World-class one minute, anonymous the next. He cost them trophies and helped win them too.

The Gunners thought they were signing a player in his prime, but arguably ended up with the worst version of Giroud of his entire career. Yes, he scored a literal scorpion kick and a handful of lovely goals, but his best years came at AC Milan and Chelsea – after he’d already won a World Cup without registering a single shot on target.

Any lingering fondness Arsenal fans had for him died the night he scored in the 2019 Europa League final and laughed about it on Chelsea’s team bus after a 4-1 drubbing in Baku.

1) Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang
Hands down the best Arsenal striker signing since Robin van Persie.

Aubameyang’s Arsenal exit was messy, but he remains the only genuine world-class striker the club have signed since Van Persie’s departure in 2012. He arrived from Borussia Dortmund with a reputation for being a bit of a nightmare, but he kept his head down until his final year – when Arteta froze him out and forced him to leave in January 2022. Not replacing him remains a monumental mistake.

The Gabonese hitman scored 92 goals in 163 games and captained Arsenal to FA Cup glory in 2020 – still Arteta’s only major trophy as manager. What this team would give for a 28-year-old Aubameyang right now…

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