THERE is one obvious way to dampen the frustrations that the Arsenal fans have started the new year with, and that’s for the club to push all the pussyfooting aside and go out and buy a proven goalscorer.

Back-to-back defeats against West Ham and then Fulham have cast a grey cloud over the Emirates Stadium and the Gunners’ Premier League title credentials.

In both games what was evident was that Mikel Arteta’s side are in desperate need of a striker, and the rumour mill has responded by linking them with a host of marquee signings, including Brentford forward Ivan Toney, Napoli’s Victor Osimhen, Juventus No 9 Dusan Vlahovic, Bayer Leverkusen’s Victor Boniface and Inter Milan marksman Lautaro Martínez.

Arteta spent the end of 2023 playing down Arsenal’s pending delve into the January transfer market. After the West Ham defeat the Gunners boss said: “What we have is the players that we have, the players that I love the most. What we have to do is try to get better situations, and more training, put them there and raise their confidence.”

His tone sounded somewhat more tense days later following the loss at Craven Cottage, with the Spaniard adding: “We want to win games and in order to do that we have to improve with players, so that after 20 league games we have the chance to be the best in the league with these players. They are really good and we’re going to continue to go with them.”

And that’s the fear that many Gooners have: that Arsenal and Arteta will just “continue to go with” players who are either in need of a rest, or who would benefit from having fresh faces around the training ground challenging for a starting berth.

The good news is that it seems unlikely that the Gunners won’t bring in reinforcements, with suggestions that Arteta is searching for as many as three new players: a full-back, a midfielder, and, hopefully, a forward.

The odds on that forward being Toney took a hit this week as it emerged that the only way Arsenal could sign the player is if they pay Brentford’s asking fee up front – which is thought to be in the region of £100million.

The Gunners found a creative way to work around Financial Fair Play rules in the summer when they signed David Raya on loan from Brentford with an option to buy, an agreement which is fully expected to be fulfilled at the end of the season.

However, Premier League rules state that Arsenal won’t be able to repeat that trick with Toney because no top-flight side can have more than one player on loan from another Premier League club at any time.

As a result in-form Bayer Leverkusen frontman Boniface, who has scored 10 goals in the Bundesliga this season, could prove to be the front-runner, especially with a price-tag thought to be in the region of £35m.