Arsenal enter the new season with what many inside and outside the club regard as the strongest overall squad in world football, yet a glaring failure to add a game-changing forward has left manager Mikel Arteta facing a familiar dilemma heading into the campaign.
The issue traces back to Arteta's comments in Budapest after Arsenal's Champions League final defeat, when he called for bold, urgent action to push the club to another level. "We will have to start making some very important decisions if we want to reach another level," Arteta said at the time. "We are going to have to show that ambition because we are more than capable of doing it, but it is going to demand us to be very ambitious, very fast and very smart."
That appeal was widely interpreted as a plea for a marquee attacking signing. Instead, Arsenal's summer business, while active in other areas, failed to deliver the required spark up front. The club strengthened its defense significantly with the arrival of Ezri Konsa and bolstered midfield options, but the attacking line actually appears thinner than last season. Arsenal lost three forwards ready for Premier League football while bringing in only Christos Tzolis, an unproven talent signed as cover following Leandro Trossard's exit.
Sporting director Andrea Berta now finds himself under scrutiny, with some questioning his multi-target, deal-making approach given results at previous clubs. Supporters of Berta point out that his method did land Konsa and Bruno Guimaraes, the latter already looking like a transformative addition to the squad. But that same scattergun strategy was deliberately not applied to the search for a left-sided forward, given the limited number of elite options — most contracted to major Spanish clubs.
Arsenal believed they were close to landing Vinicius Junior before Real Madrid moved to secure him with a new contract, a deal driven partly by Florentino Perez's reluctance to lose such a prized asset. Julian Alvarez, another target discussed at length internally, also opted against a move to north London. Sources close to the club argue that walking away from those pursuits, rather than settling for lesser alternatives amid inflated market prices, was ultimately the more disciplined route.
Elsewhere, Arsenal missed out on Aston Villa's Morgan Rogers, who instead joined Chelsea — opponents Arsenal face this weekend. Some within football believe Arsenal hesitated too long while focused on bigger targets, allowing the valuation to escalate following Chelsea's pursuit of Elliot Anderson. The club's own explanation is that they were unwilling to disrupt a player's World Cup buildup and were not prepared to match Chelsea's asking price.
Criticism has also emerged over the timing and rationale behind Arsenal's forward-line departures, described by one source as "all over the place." Others argue that departures, including Gabriel Martinelli — who has previously spoken about wanting to leave — were shaped by longer-term planning rather than late-window panic.
With no marquee arrival to lean on, attention turns to Arteta's tactical ingenuity. Eberechi Eze is expected to take up a left-sided role he was originally earmarked for, a shift that could see full-backs Riccardo Calafiori and Piero Hincapie push forward more aggressively — a pattern already visible in Bukayo Saka's goal against Aston Villa. Saka and Noni Madueke offer further left-sided versatility, while Mikel Merino, now fully adapted to a central striker role and back from World Cup duty, provides another option.
Arsenal's hope is that better fitness levels for Kai Havertz, Martin Odegaard and Saka — all of whom endured lengthy injury absences last season — will ease pressure on the frontline. Still, questions remain over whether Arteta will manage his squad's workload differently given the demands of a congested calendar.
Should gaps persist, Arsenal are expected to revisit the market in January, with Bournemouth's Eli Junior Kroupi mentioned as a potential target, while shifts in the situations of both Alvarez and Vinicius cannot be ruled out. There is also some regret at the club over not pursuing Antoine Semenyo earlier in the year, when a move looked both feasible and comparatively affordable.
Despite the frustrations, Arteta remains one of the few managers afforded full control over long-term squad building, a status reflected in the side he has assembled. But for all its depth and balance, the one unresolved need in attack continues to define the conversation around Arsenal as the season begins.
Based on reporting from The Independent.