Ask anyone: an Arsenal fan, an Arsenal executive, an Arsenal coach, an Arsenal hater, an Arsenal skeptic, an Arsenal believer, an Arsenal bus driver, an Arsenal mascot, an Arsenal cook, an Arsenal chairman, an Arsenal hairstylist, an Arsenal historian, an Arsenal spewer of opprobrium.
Ask them what Arsenal need to do if they want to win the Premier League, and almost all of them will say: Sign a striker.
At ESPN, we just published a fantastic, detailed breakdown from Mohamed Mohamed on the potential strikers Arsenal could sign this summer. And you don't need any fancy stats or models to explain why a star center forward could put Arsenal over the top.
Over the past three seasons, no Arsenal player has scored more than 17 non-penalty goals in a season. And over those three campaigns combined, only two players have even broken the 30-goal mark: Bukayo Saka (37) and Gabriel Martinelli (30).
Arsenal are likely going to finish second in the Premier League for the third season in a row, despite their highest goal scorers averaging between 10 to 15 goals per season. Also, those top two goal scorers are not strikers! So, if you just plug in a real goal-scoring center forward between Saka and Martinelli, Arsenal will score more goals. And if Arsenal score more goals, they will win more points. And if they win more points, they will finish in first place instead of second.
Pretty simple, right?
Not quite. Arsenal need to find a way to score more goals, but if we look at the current state of European soccer -- and back over the past decade -- then it becomes pretty clear that scoring more goals and signing a star striker don't always go together.
From Arsenal to Liverpool to Manchester City, and from PSG to Real Madrid, the evidence continues to mount that maybe signing strikers isn't as important as everyone seems to think when it comes to winning soccer games.