'Arsenal need a striker badly' | Jay Bothroyd's HONEST opinion on Arsenal!

Arsenal need a striker badly. If Arsenal can get a striker, I'd feel much more confident that they can really put in a good title challenge, maybe even beat Man City or Liverpool to the title. But right now, as it stands, teams will come and play against Arsenal and just sit in. As I say, is this a blueprint for how to play Arsenal at home? 100%. This is why Man City have been the best club, because they find a way. They've got Haaland that you can just toss balls in the box to at the moment. And even when they don't? Exactly. Today I've seen it. Today I've watched the game. West Ham have literally got 10 players defending in the box. Arsenal are trying to score, they've got three in the box. And it's like, you're not going to score unless you commit men forward. If you've got a man, a striker that's occupying the two centre-backs for the whole game, it makes things easier for the players like Odegaard, like Havertz when he's playing, Trossar today, to get up there and get in the box as well. Jesus is not a striker. He's one of our best players, but he likes operating deep and in them wide areas. Martinelli today, when he plays, his good games generally come from when he plays against a team where they've got a high line. So when you see him play against the likes of Liverpool, Tottenham, Brighton, these kind of teams, I wouldn't be surprised if he scores and makes chances. But against teams that are happy to just sit in, be compact, stay on the edge of their box, he finds it difficult to manufacture chances. He doesn't get that many crosses in for the speed he's got. He needs to get more crosses in. And today it was just a really frustrating night. If a goal had come, it would have come from Odegaard because as much as it was a poor performance, he played really well tonight. Does this really put the onus on Arsenal to get active in this January transfer window and push? Because they're not out of this title race, they just missed the chance to go top tonight. No, no, no one's saying that. No one's saying they're out of the title race. Is it the missing pieces of jigsaw for them? Yeah, I think it has to be. There's other additions as well. I think the squad is slightly thin. They're playing in the Champions League this year. Last year, obviously, there wasn't. But I just think Arsenal need a real striker and I've been saying it since Jesus came. Because as much as he's a great player, there's a lot of those players, like Saka's always going to play on the right because he's that good. I think this season he's had 18 goal contributions in 17 games. That's great stats. But then you've got a lot of the same player, Trossard, you've got Martinelli, you've got Smith-Rowe, you've got Rhys Nelson when he's come on. And to be fair, he's come on today and done well. Arsenal don't have a striker and that's just what they need. It's four points from the last four games in the Premier League. How much of a blow is this result in terms of their ultimate title chance? I mean, I don't like to look at the league too much around this time. I like to look at the league at the business end of the season. When you get into February, that kind of time, you need to start looking at the league. Arsenal have been in this situation last year. And unfortunately, I think the last six times Arsenal's been top at Christmas, they haven't won the league. And that in itself is poor, really. But I think this is why Arsenal need to look at it. where you can bring a player out and then put another one back in and the team doesn't weaken that much. At the moment, you take the likes of Saka out, Odegaard out, the team is significantly weaker. And when you're playing in the Champions League, the Premier League, the Cups, there's a lot of games there you need to rotate your squad. Even Phil Foden last night was saying, we're short of numbers. How often do you hear Man City saying we're short of numbers? Because everyone talks about how strong their squad is. Even now, they're short of numbers. Arsenal really need to sign a couple of players, in particular, a striker. We'll see. It's only a few days until that window opens. Also, worth saying, real credit to West Ham. Alphonse Areola, absolute wall, never flustered, always looked comfortable. And the game plan, as you said, Jay, was... He made one great save and that was from Odegaard, right at the end. And he had a 20-yard shot and he's tipped it around the post. Apart from that, he was always in the right position to collect the ball. He's fantastic. Awesome.