Now Arsenal must mean business 

I’ve already said it 312 times but hopefully no more: do Arsenal genuinely want to challenge for the top honours, or are we playing at it?

You cannot finish second in the Premier League three years in a row and reach the Champions League semi-final without realising what you’re missing.

Then you have to act on it.

The transfer window remains open till September 1, but Arsenal’s signs are looking very strong. 

Towards the end of last season, opposition fans took it in turns to sing ‘Second again olé olé’ at us.

It was meant to be an insult, but other than City and Liverpool supporters who’ve seen their team win recent titles, most opposing fans would crawl 100 miles backwards to finish second once.

Mikel Arteta and our players have worked super hard these last three seasons to target glory, but to know that injuries and glaring limitations undermined our true potential was more galling than any chants.

The media joins bandwagons slowly.

We got told late last season that we should have signed a striker in January.

No, we should have signed a striker last summer and the summer before that.

I felt quite disillusioned after our PSG exit. It dawned on me: we’ve been trying to land the top honours but we haven’t replaced Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alex Lacazette and they left in 2022. We didn’t even replace Eddie Nketiah.

How were we attempting to win serious trophies without a proper striker?

Why?

I say it endlessly: the world is full of footballers.

Sign one.

You wouldn’t expect to play five-a-sides on a Monday night after work without a striker.

Yet Arsenal have hamstrung themselves for three years, with Kai Havertz more a midfielder than a striker and then Mikel Merino definitely a midfielder.

We must take ourselves seriously. 

Read Simon Rose in every print issue of the Gooner Fanzine