Arsenal must go all-out to sign Newcastle United striker Alexander Isak this summer after failing to land Aston Villa’s Ollie Watkins.
The Gunners had a disappointing winter transfer window. The club were tipped to make a couple of attacking additions after injuries to Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Jesus.
Arsenal registered a stunning 5-1 win over Manchester City in the Premier League last weekend.
The Gunners had five different goalscorers, including Ethan Nwaneri, who scored in stoppage time.
The January transfer window was a quiet one for Arsenal, despite Mikel Arteta being keen to add to his squad over the window.
The Gunners didn’t add any new signings to their squad, despite their need for attacking reinforcements. It’s a situation the Arsenal boss has admitted his disappointment at.
Speaking in his pre-match press conference ahead of the Carabao Cup clash against Newcastle, he said: “We had a clear intention which is always there is a window open to explore the opportunities to improve our squad with players that can impact it.
Eyes will however turn to on the pitch matters, with Arsenal travelling to St James’ Park tonight (Wednesday), looking to turn around a 2-0 deficit in the Carabao Cup semi-final.
Ahead of that game, we’ve taken a look at a couple of the stories doing the rounds and given our own thoughts on the situations.
FC Barcelona have been careful with their player contracts in recent times. After some painful and unfortunate incidents in the past that came as a result of poor contract management, the Catalan club seems to have learned things the hard way. Fortunately, however, Barcelona is much more cautious now.
This was evident enough when the club decided to give priority to player renewals over bringing in new signings during this recent winter transfer window. Ultimately, after the entire fiasco with Dani Olmo’s registration, the club seemed to realize that they must solve existing issues before they bring in any new faces.
As a result, one of the first contracts they ended up renewing was that of Uruguayan defender Ronald Araujo. With reports and rumors suggesting a potential move to Serie A side Juventus, Barcelona acted quickly and extended his stay through a contract renewal.
Now with a new deal that runs until 2031, the Uruguayan centre-back’s services have been secured for the long-term. However, as highlighted by Fabrizio Romano, the player himself recently confirmed that he was always clear about what he wanted:
Ultimately, these words will be reassuring for Barcelona as they see one of their key players commit himself to the club for the years to come. Despite the challenge of taking on the likes of Inigo Martinez and Pau Cubarsi for minutes under Hansi Flick, Araujo seems to be up for the challenge.
A head-turning statistic, with Barcelona star Robert Lewandowski featuring as a central protagonist, has this week come to the fore online.
This comes amid confirmation that the Polish international sits 2nd on the list of players to have opened the scoring most frequently in Europe’s top five leagues this season.
Frontman Lewandowski has of course enjoyed a prolific campaign to date, to the tune of a hefty 30 goals in 32 appearances across all competitions.
The 36-year-old this past weekend proved himself decisive once more, netting the only goal in Barcelona’s hard-fought victory over Deportivo Alavés.
As much means that Lewandowski has opened the scoring in a league fixture on seven occasions in 2024/25.
This is good enough for joint-2nd in the same category taking into account the top five leagues in Europe.
Pedri is enjoying a special season under Hansi Flick at FC Barcelona in 2024/25, showing why he is regarded as one of the best midfielders in the game.
The 22-year-old is proving to be a key difference-maker for the best, both physically and performance-wise.
After a few irregular seasons, during which he faced recurring fitness problems, the Canary Islander has now found stability and is absolutely thriving.
Pedri’s performances from the midfield this season have not gone unnoticed, with AC Milan and Croatia legend Zvonimir Boban heaping praise on the Barcelona superstar.
One of the five club captains this season, Pedri has led the team by example with his brilliant and mature performances on the field.
So far in 2024/25, the 22-year-old midfield ace has featured in 33 matches for Barcelona across all competitions – missing just one match, that too due to a stomach bug. During this period, he has scored and assisted four goals apiece.
Given his importance to the team, Barcelona recently secured the long-term future of Pedri, tying him down to a new and improved contract until the summer of 2030.
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has provided an update on Ben White and Bukayo Saka ahead of the second leg of the Carabao Cup semi-final at Newcastle United on Wednesday.
The Gunners registered a stunning 5-1 win over Manchester City in the Premier League last weekend. They will aim to carry the momentum into the League Cup tie.
Fabrizio Romano has shed light on how and why Arsenal failed to sign a striker in the January window, though the Gunners have Alexander Isak and one other striker in their sights for the summer.
Arsenal fans across the globe were crying out for their club to sign a potent new striker in the winter window. Numerous frontmen were linked and Arsenal did lodge a bid totalling £60m for Aston Villa’s Ollie Watkins.
However, the timing of the bid – very soon after Aston Villa agreed to sell Jhon Duran to Al-Nassr – ensured Watkins was never going to receive the green light to leave.
RB Leipzig’s Benjamin Sesko was another on Arsenal’s radar, while has consistently reported Alexander Isak of Newcastle is Mikel Arteta’s dream target.
However, Newcastle value their superstar striker a long way north of £100m and Leipzig had zero intention of losing Sesko mid-season.
The end result saw another window come and go without Arsenal signing a striker. But speaking on his YouTube channel, Romano confirmed Isak and Sesko are now concrete Arsenal targets for the summer.
Ornstein shared what he knows about Arsenal’s search for a new striker.
The journalist had bad news to bring on the Alexander Isak front, claiming that a deal would be very difficult, but he says that Benjamin Sesko is a much more realistic potential signing.
Sesko has been linked to Arsenal as of late, and Ornstein thinks this one could happen.
Isak scored 17 league goals the year he turned 21, which is a fantastic return, and Sesko is on course to do something similar this season.
Of course, development in football isn’t linear – just because Isak kicked on to become a Premier League star doesn’t necessarily mean Sesko will, but history does show that footballers are likely to continue to grow and improve at the age of 21.
Sesko has youth and time on his side, and who knows? Perhaps in a few years’ time he will be viewed as a better striker than Isak if he develops as a player can at his age.
The Gunners were heavily linked with numerous big names throughout January, like Ollie Watkins, Benjamin Sesko and Alexander Isak. But, despite Mikel Arteta publicly pleading for reinforcements on several occasions, Arsenal still didn’t welcome any new faces to the Emirates Stadium.
The Spaniard was desperate to bolster his squad, yet nobody was brought in. Mathys Tel emerged as a late option for Arsenal, but Tottenham Hotspur wasted no time in securing the Bayern Munich forward’s signature.
With the Gunners six points behind Liverpool, who have a game in hand, in the Premier League title race, there’s even more pressure now on Kai Havertz to find the net – and stay fit. In the meantime, Arsenal can begin planning for the summer.