Kai Havertz haslit up his Arsenal career in the past month, scoring four times in the past four games. He is set to start for the Gunners in arguably their biggest game of the season on Tuesday night against FC Porto despite all three of Gabriel Jesus, Eddie Nketiah and Leandro Trossard all being available.
Come the end of 2023 with points being dropped and goals a rarity, the desperate calls for Arsenal to go into the January transfer market and land a top striker were at their peak. However, it has proven not to have been needed, with 33 goals scored in the eight league games this year and former Arsenal defender and club Invincible Martin Keown was ahead of the curb on the topic.
Keown spoke to football.london in association with TNT Sports the exclusive home of the UEFA Champions League, Europa League, and Europa Conference League. When asked about the talk that the Gunners needed and perhaps still need a centre-forward, it was shut down strongly.
“Well, I thought it was lazy journalism. I was doing a game, I was asked a question, ‘Oh when Arsenal didn't get the goals they needed against West Ham, 30 shots at goal, no goal and everyone was jumping on the bandwagon saying they haven't got a striker.’
“I thought, well, actually what they need to do is work better with the ones they’ve got and find solutions. We've seen Saka now scoring off his right foot in quick succession, next one, hits it with his left.
“It was all becoming a bit too predictable and I think that’s changed now, they've become unpredictable in how they do it. They keep changing, slightly the way that they’re playing, the structure of their midfield and I think that's clever.”
Arsenal lineups vs Porto as Gabriel Jesus returns and Oleksandr Zinchenko
Read on football.london