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There is a long list of strikers being targeted at Arsenal ahead of the summer window. Some are really big hitters, like Alexander Isak at Newcastle and Victor Osimhen at Napoli, but there are others who are lesser known, with Joshua Zirkzee at Bologna being one of them.
He is a striker Arsenal have been eyeing according to well received reports. Arsenal's interest in Zirkzee was first broken in January by Sam Dean in the Daily Telegraph and it's a link that continues to bubble as we head into the summer. He is an interesting player, who looks set for a big move soon.
I won't pretend to be an expert on him, he's not someone I've seen much of, but he's obviously got a lot of potential and would add something to Arsenal's team that they don't really have in attack. Whether he will move the needle enough for Arsenal though at this point I am not sure.
I feel like Arsenal are at a point now where any big money signings really need to come in and improve the team quickly and I'm not sure Zirkzee does that. It would be a case of buying power and while there is always room for that, Arsenal really need a striker to come in and hit the ground running. That's why I still feel they should throw everything at getting Isak out of Newcastle.
I think Eberechi Eze or Michael Olise would be a good fit for Arsenal this summer. I know the club is looking for a new attacking player who can add a bit of X-Factor to the team, who can come in and do something that is missing.
We have seen Arsenal struggle at times against the low block this season. I think back to the second leg against Bayern in the Champions League and they were defending their lead by going deep in those last 25 minutes. Arsenal didn't have anyone on the field that night who looked like they were pulling something unexpected out of their bag and opening it. Someone like Eze or Olise can do that, especially the latter, as we saw especially with his impressive performance when Palace beat Manchester United 4-0 last night.
I look at Olise and wonder if he is an Arteta-type player. He is probably the biggest fan of the Spaniard's style of play and will have to work hard to improve what he does off the ball to fit in at Arsenal. But his quality is there for all to see and I think he can improve any top team, including Arteta's.
Marc Guehi is another Palace player who has been linked with Arsenal. They've been watching him for the past few seasons, but I'm not sure if that interest is still there. He is a good player, but I think Arsenal have other priorities when it comes to improving their defensive tactics.
There have been many slippery slopes when it comes to Arsenal transfers over the past few years. If things had gone differently players like Lisandro Martinez, Mykhailo Mudryk and Moises Caicedo would have all been wearing red and white.
Caicedo was a player they really wanted and were willing to pay a huge fee for. But they wouldn't pay Brighton's asking price so they left after seeing multiple bids rejected in January, 2023.
Apparently they were going to sign Declan Rice the following summer, but as far as I know they would still be looking for the West Ham captain even if they had managed to get Caicedo in the summer. The strategy was to try to get both of them, not just one.
Caicedo has not been a huge success for Chelsea, although he has started to improve as the season has progressed. He is obviously a top player and I think we would have seen him reach his peak sooner had he moved to Arsenal rather than Chelsea.
It's an easy place for a player to settle at the moment and Arteta has shown how he can develop players quickly. Look at the example of Kai Havertz.
Chelsea's problems are very widespread and it is difficult for any player to come into that club right now and show his good form right away, maybe Cole Palmer aside. So I don't really look at Caicedo and look at it as a blocked bullet.
To be honest, it's the same with Mudryk. I just can't shake the feeling that both players would have done very differently had they walked into Arsenal's dressing room than Chelsea's.
Arsenal deserve a lot of credit for their results in recent weeks. They did everything they could to put pressure on Manchester City, getting huge wins in high-pressure situations, but each time City just shrugged off that pressure and did their own thing.
Unfortunately for Arsenal, I don't see that changing in the last few weeks of the season. City could not have chosen three better players to play with from now until the end of the season than the ones they have. Tottenham and West Ham are in chaos at the moment, as their defeats at the weekend showed, while Fulham have been on the beach for weeks.
I always thought that if City were going to drop points it would be at Nottingham Forest and if Chris Wood had been more clinical that day, it could and probably should have. City have also lost one at the City Ground. They rode their luck in one direction and took chances in the other. That was their biggest win on a day they were far from.
That has always looked to me like their hardest running game and I haven't seen anything recently that has changed my mind. I think Arsenal will win their last two games. But it still won't be enough to secure this elusive first title in 20 years.
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