The striker situation at Arsenal

Robin van Persie is probably the best striker in the world at the moment, he’s admired across the globe for what he does.

His movement, intelligence, and ability to find the back of the net from almost any angle sets him apart from most of Europe’s elite.

But nobody’s perfect right? Everybody has a downside, a negative. And while Arsenal‘s captain is a prime example of perfection, he doesn’t possess that uncanny ability to stay clear of injuries. That’s the main problem with van Persie, injuries; and a lot of them.

When he is fit to play, he is a devestating striker feared by the majority of defenders across the world, without a doubt.

His goalscoring record speaks for itself. He has 28 goals in 30 appearances this season, and scoring 35 goals in a calendar year, just one short of Alan Shearer’s all-time record of 36, is definitely not a fluke.

But another statistic which isn’t so good, is his injury record, which you will see below:

2004/05: 262005/06: 242006/07: 222007/08: 152008/09: 282009/10: 162010/11: 25

They are the amount of appearances Robin van Persie has made in the league for Arsenal over the last 7 years out of a possible 38.

Now you can see straight away that something isn’t right there, the Dutchman has never made over 30 league appearances in a season.

This current season could definitely see him surpass 30 games, he’s already made 23 and we still have 3 and a half months to go.

Let’s be honest, van Persie is Arsenal’s only world-class striker.

The Park Chu-Young deal is seen as a bad one by many people, he’s on top form for South Korea, and wasn’t doing too bad for Monaco either, but he was set to have a medical at Lille. He’d get a lot of game-time at Lille, much more than he’s had at Arsenal, playing just 8 minutes in the Premier League.

I see his move to Arsenal as a transfer to increase shirt sales in Asia, and nothing more.

Marouane Chamakh isn’t exactly prolific, he enjoyed a solid debut season at Arsenal netting 11 goals and 8 assists, but he has revealed that he has found the Premier League “too rough,” claiming he has been “battered and bruised.”

It’s clear to see that Chamakh doesn’t like the no-nonsense approach from the defenders in this league, he has also been criticised by many of the Arsenal supporters for being “too scared to shoot,” when he gets himself into good positions.

Chamakh is lacking in confidence, anybody can see that. Last month he said the following:

“I am 27 and I need to play. I cannot stay like this forever. I won’t leave in January, but I will take an important decision in June.”

So whether he has a future at Arsenal remains to be seen.

Another Arsenal striker whose future is currently in doubt is Carlos Vela, who said the following earlier this week:

“It is too early to talk about these issues, but I do not close the door to Real Sociedad. But, if you cannot reach an agreement with Arsenal, you cannot do anything.

As I said, I’m happy here and would like to help the team stay up. Then we’ll see what happens in the summer. Right now, we cannot do anything even if we wanted to.”

He is a talented player but lacks the physicality needed to make it big in the Premier League. A permanent stay at Sociédad could be good for him.

Arsenal have many promising prospects coming through the ranks, and in Joel Campbell, they have a real talent.

He scored 9 goals in 8 games for Costa Rica U17′s, and was then moved up to the Costa Rica U20′s, in which he scored an impressive 10 goals in 13 games.

The transfer of Joel Campbell to Arsenal was completed on August 19th 2011, but he was unable to obtain a work permit. He was shipped out on loan to Lorient, but has failed to really impress, only scoring 2 goals in 14 appearances.

Benik Afobe is another player to look out for, He made his debut for the Arsenal Reserves at just 16 years old. And scored 11 goals in 13 appearances for Arsenal’s under 18 squad.

He was loaned out to Huddersfield two years ago and went on to score 8 goals and get 10 assists in 32 appearances, picking up four man of the match awards in a row.

Huddersfield manager Lee Clarke described him as “another fantastic young player from the Arsenal production line.”

This begs the question, do Arsenal need another striker? Let’s picture it, Robin van Persie gets a customary injury and is out for the rest of the season, what happens next?

Does the out-of-confidence Marouane Chamakh take his place? Park Chu-Young maybe? Recall Bendtner and Vela?

Or should Arsené Wenger put faith in an inexperienced youngster like Joel Campbell?

No, no and no. It’s not good enough, other teams have real back-ups to their top strikers. Manchester United can easily replace Rooney with Javier Hernandéz and Danny Welbeck. City have Aguero, Dzéko, and even the incompetent Carlos Tevéz. (That is if he wants to play of course).

Arsenal need solid back-up, many have been linked over the past month, the latest story linking Daniel Sturridge with a switch to the Emirates. We’ve seen many names, but are they realistic?

Huntelaar has been linked, but Wenger has never shown concrete interest in the Dutchman.

Lukas Podolski has also been linked but we are hearing today that he is ready to put pen to paper on a new contract extension at FC Koln, which is a big blow because the majority of Arsenal fans would love Podolski at the Emirates.

We’ve also heard rumours of Burak Yilmaz, who is unknown to most people, he has said he is interested in a move to Arsenal. He actually has a very pleasing goal scoring record, but in a poor league.

Another rumour is that Matias Suaréz has signed a pre-contract with Arsenal and will join in the summer, but once again, these are just rumours for now.

Where will this solid back-up come from? Only Arsené will know. But in order for stars like van Persie to stay, Arsenal need to show real ambition, and bring in a proven striker in the summer.

Written by Dom Wheeler

Follow him on Twitter @AFC_Wheeler