Watching the 2-0 win over West Brom, one thing was apparent - Arsenal need a potent goalscorer.
Olivier Giroud did well, ran the channels, won a couple of headers and tried to bring other people into play when the ball was at his feet. However, there were quite a few occasions, when Kieran Gibbs, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain or Bacary Sagna played the ball in, Giroud would make wrong run, or was just caught out of position.
The striker will improve, no doubt about it, but Arsenal could use with some immediate success, and a certain Klaas-Jan Huntelaar.
The Gunners are sorely missing a certain Dutchman, who is making waves with their rivals at Old Trafford. So, what better way to replace a Dutch international than with another, and of a similar age?
Huntelaar is your lethal striker, who will put away the chances nine times out of ten. He is not exactly a typical Arsenal forward, who can also provide the assists in spades, while overplaying the ball and trying to score the perfect goal.
The Schalke man, if given a chance will take it - he has the one-mindedness of a striker that is so essential to getting goals. He won't cost much either; at the end of his contract, Arsenal will need to pay only around £6 million ($9.6 million). So, the transfer fee, which Arsene Wenger sometimes hides behind, isn't a problem either.
Huntelaar is 29 years old, so not exactly your typical Arsenal signing again. But Van Persie is also 29. Now, the Schalke striker is nowhere near Van Persie's form right now, but given a chance, literally and figuratively, he can get Arsenal at least 15 goals by the end of the season - even if he is playing in a league he has never been a part of.
According to L'Equipe, Arsenal have already agreed a deal for Huntelaar. We will have to wait and see, how real the reports are, although Arsenal's interest in the striker cannot be doubted.
At the end of January, if all goes according to plan, Arsenal will be without Marouane Chamakh and Andrey Arshavin. There will be the need for another striker, as Wenger himself has admitted.
Arsenal have a creative lineup that consists of Santi Cazorla, Jack Wilshere, Mikel Arteta, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Tomas Rosicky to name just a few. Huntelaar will feel like a kid at a candy store, with the amount of chances that he can conceivably get.
Right now the Gunners, apart from the West Brom game, have been building up their attacks way too slowly. Sometimes, when you know you have a striker in your lineup, who will get even a half-chance on target, it creates a sense of confidence for the players playing behind as well, and with it the penetrative through balls, and the quick passing to build another chance will grow.
Soccer is such a game that, even the smallest of tweaks, can have such a big impact. Right now, because Giroud does not have such a big presence about him, figuratively of course, the defenders and defensive midfidelders pay most of their attentions towards Cazorla and Wilshere.
However, if you put a high-quality international caliber player like Huntelaar in your team, you immediately take the entire attentions of your two central defenders, leaving Cazorla and Wilshere with a bit more space.
This is all just conjecture of course, but taking a pot shot at a player who will cost very little, is not really a risk.
Klaas-Jan Huntelaar - the name says it all doesn't it, Class. Buying him is surely a no-brainer for Arsenal.
