Arsenal legend Robert Pires tells Arteta the ‘real striker’ he must sign if Gunners want trophies

Arsenal last won the Premier League title at the end of the 2003-04 campaign, and they will hope to be third-time lucky this season after finishing second behind Manchester City in each of the last two seasons.

The Gunners are currently six points behind league leaders Liverpool (who have a game in hand) after 23 games and are looking to strengthen their attack during the ongoing January transfer window to boost their chances of pipping the Reds to the title in the final months of 2024-25.

Arsenal have been linked with a couple of attackers so far, but their former star Robert Pires believes Victor Osimhen is the ‘real striker’ manager Mikel Arteta needs to sign if his old club are serious about winning major trophies.

“I think the criticism [of their frontline] is definitely unfair,” the 51-year-old told the Daily Mail.

“I don’t like to compare different times but I was a lucky man as I played with great players.

“Today football has changed a little bit but if we analyse the current Arsenal players then the quality is there. In my opinion, Arsenal need a real striker because if they want to win some games they need this like Liverpool and Man City have.

“Of course, I respect a lot of the decisions of Mikel Arteta and Arsenal a lot but in my time I used to play with Thierry Henry, Dennis Bergkamp and Nwankwo Kanu so we had three real strikers so it was easy sometimes to score goals. But maybe this is the new football, so we have to adapt to the philosophy.

“Victor Osimhen. He has a good profile to play for Arsenal and the players such as Gabriel Martinelli, Martin Odegaard, Havertz and Bukayo Saka.

“But I’m not the owner or manager – I’m just an Arsenal fan who will always support them. If we can bring in one player though it’d have to be Osimhen.”

Pires won four major honours at Arsenal and was part of their 2003-04 Invincibles side, and he knows one or two things about strikers capable of winning trophies.

Osimhen would be perfect for the Gunners and could be available this month as he is currently on loan at Super Lig club Galatasaray from Napoli.

The 25-year-old Nigeria international has 16 goals in 20 games for the Turkish top-flight club after ending his time with the Serie A club with 76 goals in 133 appearances.

He could be the one to take Arsenal to the next level, but they do not have him on their radar and are looking at other options in their bid to land a striker before the transfer window shuts next Monday night.