Arsenal emerged from the transfer window without a “10 out of 10” attacking signing, Jamie Carragher said.
Ambitious moves for Real Madrid’s Vinícius Júnior and Atletico Madrid’s Julián Álvarez came to nothing for the Premier League champions.
Christos Tzolis, a £34m ($45m) arrival from Club Brugge, was their only attacking signing while Leandro Trossard (Beskitas), Gabriel Jesus (Barcelona) and Ethan Nwaneri (Borussia Dortmund) departed and Gabriel Martinelli remains in talks with Al Hilal, whose transfer window is still open.
“They have got really good strikers. I like [Kai Havertz] and I think Mikel Arteta likes him, as well,” Carragher said to Sky Sports.
“[Viktor Gyökeres] has been what most people felt he would be when he came — not quite elite but he can still score goals in certain games. They can still use him to do that job this season.
“They needed someone to be a gamechanger. They tried to get Vinícius Júnior, they tried to get Álvarez — that’s the calibre of players.
“It’s very hard to improve Arsenal now because they are such a good team, such a strong squad. So you’re talking about a world class player as the only one that can improve them. They’ve tried to get them and haven’t been able to get these deals over the line.
“There’s no point bringing somebody of the level that they’ve already got. They’ve got five or six players in attack which I would call ‘seven or eight out of 10 players.’ They wanted a ‘nine or 10 out of 10 player’ but couldn’t get it across the line.”
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Arsenal won the Community Shield by beating Manchester City 3-0 and have started their Premier League title defence with a 3-0 win against Coventry and a 1-0 win against Aston Villa.
Arteta’s side host Chelsea at the Emirates on Sunday.
