Arsenal take on Watford on Sunday afternoon at Vicarage Road, with Mikel Arteta’s men hoping to move up to fourth place before Manchester United take on their bitter rivals, Manchester City.
Should the Gunners manage to clinch three precious points against the Hornets, it will be the second time this season where they have managed to win four Premier League games in succession.
To apply context and demonstrate how impressive this would be, only the top three sides within the division outside of Arsenal have managed to accumulate twelve points in a row.
Ahead of the Premier League encounter, Arteta has been speaking about a wide range of topics, one of which is the type of profile of player he would like to lead the line.
Both Alexandre Lacazette and Eddie Nketiah are out of contract in the summer, with neither looking likely at this stage to commit their long-term future to the club.
Regarding Lacazette, the Frenchman has never managed to show any level of prolific form since arriving in north London.
The 30-year-old was signed for a fee in the region of £50 million in the 2017 summer transfer window but has failed to score more than 14 Premier League goals in any single campaign since.
The ability to apply a ruthless touch in front of goal is imperative for most strikers, regardless of the system and Arteta reiterated this in his latest interview.
He puts the ball in the net, that’s priority number one,” Arteta said when asked about what he wants from his future star striker.
“Goal threat. Any successful team needs enough goal threat in the squad. Without it, you have nothing. You can play good football but you need enough goal threat in the team.
The other thing is that he has to complement the other people we have, personally and on the pitch, and for that, we need the right profile.
“We need a profile where you can exploit his qualities at the same time as the qualities we already have, so we don’t have to transform our way of playing again to adapt to that specific player.
“He has to have a certain age, a certain level of experience, and he has to be able to come here and play under the pressure of being at Arsenal.”
The ability to drop deep, operate in tight spaces, and link attacks together are big strengths within Lacazette’s game, and clearly, Arteta values those specific qualities and is keen on identifying a profile who possesses these attributes as well.
Armando Broja, Dominic Calvert Lewin and Alexandar Isak have all been linked with moves to the Emirates previously and it will be interesting to see what happens in the upcoming window wit regards to a new striker.
