What Arsenal's hierarchy said they were missing after last season's Champions League exit came back to haunt them again vs Newcastle - opinion

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Arsenal’s hopes of securing a first trophy since 2020 were dealt a major blow on Tuesday as they suffered a Carabao Cup first-leg defeat at home to Newcastle.

The Gunners once again dominated the possession but struggled to make their authority count as the visitors proved more clinical when it mattered.

This has been the big theme for Mikel Arteta’s team so far this season: a failure to take their chances due to a lack of firepower.

After coming up short in the Champions League and Premier League last term, the North London club identified what was missing, although over the summer they failed to address this deficiency.

Arsenal failed to act on what they identified as their biggest weakness

Last season, a report from the Athletic claimed that in the aftermath of their Champions League exit to Bayern Munich, Arsenal’s hierarchy believed the team were missing a ‘certain X-factor in attack’.

Bayern were going through a tough patch while Arsenal were flying, however, the Germans still managed to look more threatening than the Premier League giants.

Their inability to see off a struggling Bayern Munich was put down to them missing ‘something special to unlock defences on the biggest occasion’.

But here we are nine months on against Newcastle and we have just witnessed Arsenal again missing exactly what they were versus the Bavarians.

Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal project is painfully missing a proper centre-forward and it was a deficiency which needed addressing last summer.

Arsenal tried to sign Benjamin Sesko from Red Bull Salzburg, however, after missing out on the forward, they opted to postpone their hunt for a new number nine.

That decision not to give it everything in the hunt for a new striker continues to prove baffling as Alexander Isak showed Arteta exactly what his team are missing.

Strikers Arsenal could sign this month

It’s remarkable to think that just over five years into their project under Arteta and Kai Havertz, Willian, Marquinhos, Leandro Trossard, Gabriel Jesus and Raheem Sterling are their only attacking signings.

The Spanish manager cannot keep waiting around for the perfect forward to become available, his team needs goals and they need them now.

Here are four strikers Arsenal could make a move for in January if they are serious about winning a trophy this season.