Between the vast frustration that Arsenal did not sign another striker this summer and the fact that he has been injured since May, Danny Welbeck has become somewhat of a forgotten figure at Emirates Stadium.
Welbeck’s signing from Manchester United came out of the blue on deadline day of summer 2014, but there was no such similar deal for Arsenal fans to praise this time around.
But when you look at the previous two windows, other clubs have splashed big cash on potential stars and had to take gambles when recruiting new attackers.
Let’s start with Mario Balotelli for Liverpool. The Italian cost the same as Welbeck (£16m), scored one Premier League goal, and has now been shipped back to Milan.
This summer, Liverpool signed Christian Benteke, forking out £32.5m for the former Aston Villa man, who has had a bright start to life at Anfield. But is he a “world-class” talent like the Arsenal fan base have been demanding? Wind back to last summer again, and Chelsea parted with £0.5m less than that to sign Diego Costa.
The Spaniard is perhaps the only name mentioned thus far that could be labelled as “world-class”- which brings me onto Radamel Falcao. United parted with huge sums of money to sign the Columbian forward on a year-long loan, but the striker struggled to make a huge impact for the Red Devils. This summer, we saw United spend a reported £36m on 19-year-old Anthony Martial from Monaco on deadline day. The young Frenchman clearly has potential, but is now tasked with replacing Robin van Persie and Welbeck at United. I can’t understand Louis Van Gaal’s thinking in letting Welbeck go, only to splash big money on another potential star a year later.
Back to this January, and Man City signed Wilfried Bony for £28 million from Swansea. Bony made just two starting appearances for City in the second half of last season, and eight from the bench.
So my point is, what exactly did our fan base expect Wenger to do? There is no doubt in my mind that he would have gone big for another striker, but if the likes of Karim Benzema and Edinson Cavani are unavailable, who else is a realistic, viable option?
No, a better question is; “Who else is a realistic option that is better than what we already have?”
Yes, we have money to spend, but spending for the sake of it is worse than not spending a huge sum on someone like Martial (whom, I believe will be a huge hit in years to come) but does not address the ‘issue’ now.
I’m also a big fan of Olivier Giroud. He receives a lot of criticism but does such a great job for Arsenal. We’ve struggled for goals at the start of this season, but this is not squarely down to him. Remember, Alexis missed most of pre-season and is just returning to match fitness, and on top of that the squad have struggled for attacking momentum so far. This will come.
Giroud is a great option technically, and within our fluid attacking system. He work’s the channels, freeing space for Alexis, Mesut Ozil and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain/Theo Walcott to attack the central space, but at the same time, he holds the ball up well and allows Arsenal to attack as a unit behind him.
Theo in a centre-forward role does make sense against sides that are going to press high up the pitch, such as at the start of the Newcastle game. It allows the team to build quickly and play Theo through and exploit the opposition with his pace.
Welbeck provides Arsenal with the “best of both worlds”. His hold-up play may not be as strong as Olivier’s, but we all know about his work-rate. In addition, as last season developed, his finishing was looking more of a striker with confidence, both with Arsenal and England.
It was unfortunate that Welbeck could not round off his first season in north London with an FA Cup final appearance, but after notching eight goals for Arsenal and six in five matches for England in their UEFA European Championship qualifying stage, it won’t be too long after his recovery until he starts to find his stride again.
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