Arsenal just suffered an easy defeat against Newcastle in the first leg of the Carabao Cup semi-final. They were opened the scoring by a player with the number 14. And then, when he scored the winning goal to seal a 2-0 win for the Magpies, Anthony Gordon had a celebration that recalled Thierry Henry before. These are all reminders that make The Gunners fans crave a true striker.
Overall, the "Gunners"' performance at home at the Emirates was extremely bad. Their wasted chances were the main reason for the 2-0 defeat, making the return match more difficult.
Alexander Isak has shown Arsenal what a complete striker can do on the pitch. The Swedish striker clearly has a long way to go to be on par with Henry. However, with his current form, Isak is one of the best strikers in the Premier League.
"New Newcastle had two chances and Isak took advantage to score. That's what you get when you have real quality up front," admitted Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta.
The call for Arsenal to bet on the transfer market with Isak or a similar striker will get bigger and bigger. Especially when The Gunners' strikers continuously miss the opportunity of a decade.
Arteta's side ended the match with a total expected goals (xG) of 3.12. This is the highest number of any Premier League side without a goal in any game this season.
Just looking at the statistics shows Arsenal's waste. With all the chances, Arsenal only had 3 of their 23 shots on target.
"If you look at what both teams have shown, the result doesn't reflect the overall progress of the game. In fact, Newcastle have been very effective with the chances they have, but we have not," said Arteta.
Isak has now scored 50 goals for Newcastle in all competitions since his debut in August 2022. Of the Premier League players, only Erling Haaland (105) and Mohamed Salah (73) have scored more goals than Isak in all competitions during that time.
Since the 1987-1988 season, the nine teams have had a 2-goal lead after a first-leg Carabao Cup semi-final win away from home. And among them, there are 8 teams in the finals.
Thinking about that, Newcastle manager Eddie Howe said: "This is a great comeback and I think every team needs a good striker."
Just after Isak was substituted in the 65th minute for injury concerns, Arteta looked at Newcastle's technical area. Perhaps, the Spanish strategist is thinking about something...
