After spurning chance after chance against Southampton on Tuesday night Arsene Wenger was forced to defend his decision not to sign a striker during the January transfer window.
Tuesday’s goalless draw means that Arsenal have now dropped nine points from their last four games, dropping them to fourth in the table and five points behind leaders Leicester.
Having added only midfielder Mohamed Elneny to his ranks in the January transfer window, Wenger was again forced to defend his decision not to bring in any firepower despite Arsenal having gone 270 minutes and 34 shots at goal in the Premier League without scoring
‘If you knew a world-class striker who could have strengthened our team, you should have told me before the transfer deadline was over,’ he replied when asked if he should have signed a forward.
‘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.’
This is Arsenal’s best chance in a decade to win the Premier League and why they did not spend the cash on another top striker is beyond me. Why wait until the summer to potentially sign Javier Hernández or Mauro Icardi when they could have been available in January? Yes Arsenal might have had to overpay them to sign them now instead of in six months, but nobody would have cared if the goals led the Gunners to their first title since 2004.
