Paul Merson feels Arsenal ‘might need’ Ivan Toney if they are to compete for the Premier League title with the Brentford striker a more sensible addition than Napoli’s Victor Osimhen.
As far as the Gunners icon is concerned, Saturday’s 1-0 defeat at the hands of Unai Emery’s Aston Villa was all the proof Arsenal needed.
Mustering five shots on target and 12 in total without finding a way past an inspired Emiliano Martinez at Villa Park, Mikel Arteta cannot afford a repeat of such wastefulness if they are to go one step further than their near-miss in 2022/23.
“How many teams do anything without a centre forward? What will Arsenal’s downfall potentially be this season? It will be (the issue of having) no centre-forward,” Merson writes in his Sky Sports column.
“They dominated Aston Villa at the weekend, but they couldn’t score a goal.”
Arsenal urged to target Brentford striker Ivan Toney
Brentford, Sky report, want a staggering £100 million for Ivan Toney in January.
And while Merson does have his concerns about whether the late-blooming England international can continue his upward trajectory at the Emirates – highlighting a couple of high-profile errors from his former Brentford team-mate David Raya at Arsenal – Toney’s superb track record on the Premier League stage makes him a better bet than, say, Napoli’s Victor Osimhen or Dusan Vlahovic of Juventus.
“(Toney will cost) a lot of money. I do think he is a really good player, but he hasn’t been at a top club yet and we are seeing that with David Raya and Moises Caicedo at the moment,” Merson adds.
“It’s so different playing for Brentford, no disrespect, to playing for Arsenal. There’s so much scrutiny playing for the top clubs.
Gunners sent Victor Osimhen warning
“It might just be worth the risk. I feel Arsenal might need Toney if they are to do anything this season.
“The hardest job in football is to score goals. There just aren’t many top-quality centre-forwards around. There is Victor Osimhen at Napoli. However, I feel that is a gamble because he would be coming into the hardest league in the world.
“How many times have we seen someone rip it up in another country only to struggle in the Premier League? We’ve seen it too many times.”
Toney scored 20 Premier League goals for Brentford in 2022/23. That is more than any of the players currently at Arteta’s disposal managed, with Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli and Gabriel Jesus netting 15, 15 and 11 respectively.
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