Martin Keown doesn’t believe Arsenal need to sign a new striker but says there is another ‘problem’ Mikel Arteta must address before the summer transfer window closes.
Arsenal take on Manchester City in the Community Shield on Sunday, before kicking-off their Premier League title defence against Coventry City next Friday.
Over £150million has already been spent this summer, most notably on Bruno Guimaraes and Christos Tzolis, but the Gunners are still working on adding some more firepower to their squad before deadline day on September 1.
After failed moves for Morgan Rogers and Vinicius Junior, Arsenal are now in negotiations for Galatasaray striker Victor Osimhen.
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The prolific Nigerian would surely be a welcome addition, with the jury still out on Viktor Gyokeres, Gabriel Jesus close to joining Napoli and Kai Havertz struggling with injuries.
But Keown believes there is only one position that Arteta needs to strengthen in this window, and it’s not centre-forward.
Asked by Hayers TV if Arteta needs to make more big signings to retain the Premier League title and finally win the Champions League, Keown bluntly replied: ‘No.
‘I wondered whether they might look again at a striker. But they obviously feel now Havertz has come through the pre-season… I think that’s really critical and he’s got that base for the season, so no.
‘I think Myles Lewis-Skelly is coming into midfield, so you’ve got competition there. [Martin] Zubimendi is now in a fight for his first-team place. So that looks good.
‘The defenders, you got [Riccardo] Calafiori, [Piero] Hincapie, there’s a lot of guys in there. William Saliba won’t start the season, but [Cristhian] Mosquera has been excellent in pre-season, he really looks sharp.
‘[Marli] Salmon is a youngster coming through. So, you don’t want to be blocking the pathway for these players, but only the manager will know what he wants next. You’ve always got to have players in mind.
‘Right-back could be a problem if Jurrien Timber’s not going to be ready because obviously Ben White’s had a few injuries, but Mosquera again can go into that position. So, that might be something they’re looking at, to bring a right-back in.’
Timber was forced to pull out of the Netherlands squad for the World Cup because of a persistent groin problem and Arteta has confirmed he will miss the first few weeks of the season.
White suffered four separate injuries last season, missing 13 games, and has been linked with a transfer away from north London.
Keown will be pleased to know that signing another right-sided defender is on Arteta’s agenda, with reports on Friday emerging that talks have begun to sign Jarell Quansah from Bayer Leverkusen.
The England international is said to be open to moving to the Emirates just a year after he joined Leverkusen from boyhood club Liverpool for £30million.
Naturally a centre-back, Quansah can play right-back too, doing so during England’s run to third-place at the 2026 World Cup.
While some fans may be underwhelmed to see Arsenal signing more defenders than attackers, Keown doesn’t see it that way, adding: ‘They proved it [that they have a good defensive core] last year.
‘You might have looked at it and thought we had too many left-backs, but in the end we used all of them and [there were] multiple changes to the back-four. I’d like to see a bit more stability.’
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