The January transfer window came and went with no major arrivals or departures at Arsenal, but that’s not to say it wasn’t a busy month at the Emirates Stadium.
Mikel Arteta’s men currently sit second in the Premier League table, but are six points behind leaders Liverpool in a season in which they hoped would see them end their two-decade win for the league title.
One area of the pitch that has now been a long-term need for the Gunners have been a new striker, with the club failing to add a forward to their ranks in the summer and seeing Gabriel Jesus suffer an ACL injury in last month’s FA Cup defeat to Manchester United.
Why Arsenal did not sign a striker in January
With just Kai Havertz as the club’s only senior option up front for the remainder of the campaign, Arsenal did move to address this situation in January, tabling a bid for Aston Villa and England striker Ollie Watkins.
The Gunners had hoped to take advantage of PSR pressure that Villa were feeling, but rather than sell Watkins to a domestic rival, Unai Emery’s side let Jhon Duran make a big-money move to Saudi Pro League side Al Nassr.
Many Arsenal fans hoped that their side would go back in for Watkins after Villa knocked back their bid, but a follow-up offer never materialised and despite late links to Bayern Munich’s Mathys Tel, who would go on to sign on loan for rivals Tottenham, the window slammed shut without any new arrivals at the Emirates.
According to The Athletic, both Arteta and the Arsenal hierarchy were ‘aligned’ in their belief that a ‘body’ should not be signed just for the sake of it.
The report adds that the club wanted a player who would be able to hit the ground running and make an immediate and tangible impact on the title race. While they felt Watkins would be able to do this, they didn't want to pay Villa’s £60million asking price and no other suitable options emerged, with the Mirror noting the board put their foot down and “blocked” the move.
Long-term targets Alexander Isak and Benjamin Sesko were not available in the January window, meaning the impetus is very much on Havertz to carry the attacking load between now and May.
In FourFourTwo’s opinion, Arsenal are asking a lot of Havertz to be the only forward option as the club look to chase down Liverpool and also progress further in the Champions League.
But January is not the time to try and sign such an important player and where Arsenal really fell short was in the summer, when they failed to bring in a new forward. Isak and Sesko remain the kind of targets that Arsenal should be going for, but with values of €75million and €50million respectively on Transfermarkt, neither will come cheap.
