As the days count down closer to the start of real football, there are still some fantastic strikers on the market that are primed for Chelsea, Arsenal or others to buy.
There’s just one remaining weekend bereft of Premier League football (discarding pesky international breaks and such) from right this minute until May. What a beautiful feeling that is.
Unfortunately for some teams, their squads may not be completely ready. Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester City have been heavily linked with strikers, more so than usual, for there to at least be a sense of reality to the links.
Manchester City, as always, were being linked with just about every star under the sun but they’ve confirmed the signing of Leroy Sane, likely allowing Pep Guardiola the ability to politely push Wilfried Bony out the door.
Liverpool and Tottenham completed (what appears to be) most of their business early, ditto for Manchester United, outside of a potential Paul Pogba addition.
Arsenal currently have just Olivier Giroud leading the lines and, no, you’re not going to talk me into remonstrating the case why I think you can win a title with Giroud as the first choice striker. I’ll acquiesce to the fact that most are of the opinion that they need an improvement, so let’s talk about it.
Anyway, Danny Welbeck is injured again, leaving primarily Theo Walcott as the competition/backup to Giroud. They’ve been linked with big money strikers for the majority of the past few years, anyway.
Despite signing Michy Batshuayi, Chelsea appear to still be in the market for another striker with Diego Costa’s future in question.
Thankfully for these two clubs, and any other in the market for some attacking verve, there are still more than enough strikers left. These players could improve their sides to give them that extra edge in what’s going to be an incredibly competitive Premier League where a few goals could be the difference at the top of the table.
Quick formatting points: all stats courtesy of WhoScored.com and the numbers in the “league apps” tab is starts followed by appearances off the bench in parentheses. So if a player has: “28 (3)” league apps, it means he’s started 28 matches and entered a treble off the bench.
Next: 5. Carlos Bacca