According to the Daily Mail on 2 September, with the transfer window having just shut, “Arsenal’s failure to land new centre-forward [was] a major worry for Arsene Wenger amid ongoing fitness fears over Danny Welbeck.”

In this article it was stated that “Wenger has set his sights on a centre-forward; but failed to lure top targets Karim Benzema and Edinson Cavani.”

That in itself was an interesting statement because during the summer Mr Wenger categorically denied that he was trying to sign Benzema. Whether he was trying to buy Cavani is less clear, but it is still worth asking if we should have bought either, and if we had, what the result would have been.

Benzema has scored seven this season – no mean achievement given that he is now awaiting developments in the sex tape allegations against him – which if proven would lead to five years in prison. Cavani has done better, not only avoiding a scandal and possible imprisonment but also scoring nine goals this season.

However Benzema and Cavani play in leagues that are quite different from the Premier League. Cavani with PSG is in a team already ten points clear at the top of the league, a team whose finances make even Man City look over their shoulder in envy. A team in a league that is otherwise so weak that Angers in 5th place are closer to be relegated than to catching PSG at the top. In short it is not that hard to score goals in the French League. After all PSG have a goal difference of +25 after thirteen games!

Benzema is now back in the Real Madrid team, while awaiting further developments in his case, but once again we must recognise just how weak much of that league is. It is commonplace for a team to qualify for Europe from the Spanish league while being closer to relegation than to the top of the league – such is the dominance of the top two or three clubs.

So goalscoring success in the French and Spanish leagues does not always translate into goalscoring success in the tougher English league. The same five clubs might challenge for the top four places most seasons in England, but they are generally not so far ahead of the rest as one can find in France and Spain.

This alerts us to the fact that just being a success in another country does not mean one will be a success in England. But we should also consider that many, many top name transfers simply never deliver at the level anticipated when the millions upon millions of pounds are handed out. Consider Shevchenko, Torres, Wright-Phillips, Mutu, Owen, Andy Carroll… all big money players who simply did not live up to expectations.

So although discussions about buying new players tend by and large to focus on the simple approach of looking at rumours created by a bunch of journalists who like to fill space with the least amount of effort, for the more serious student of the game there are three ways to look at this issue of Arsenal and their need for a striker.

First, it is never a bad idea to think who we’ve got. Just to be sure we haven’t forgotten someone.

Second, there is the issue of how else we could make the situation better.

And third, we have the question (often forgotten) as to whether this player would actually want to come to Arsenal and be allowed to leave his club and then (as noted above) would be a success.

So, to start with what have we got? We’ve not got the highest goals-for record in the league this season, but we are not too far behind our rivals, and given that there is a long way to go, there’s no reason to believe that we won’t be near the top when it comes to goals scored come next May.

What makes me optimistic here is the fact that we actually have four goalscorers in the team: Olivier Giroud, with nine this season (after his score vs West Brom), Alexis Sánchez with seven, and Theo Walcott with four, plus of course Danny Welbeck who has been injured so far.

Now when faced with this statement that we have got four goalscorers, I often hear arguments that Theo and Alexis are not centre forwards and that Giroud misses a lot of excellent chances. Maybe all that is true. But even if it is true, what does it matter? A goal doesn’t count any more or less just because it is scored by a centre forward, a winger, or a full back. A goal is still a goal whether you had two chances and scored two in a game, or ten chances and scored two. In fact a game with ten good chances is more exciting.

“But look at all the goals we miss,” I hear it said. And yes, we miss goals which should have gone in. I know this because when after seeing a match in person I often come home and I watch a recording on Sky or on the BBC and I am endlessly told that “Giroud should have scored there” by men whose own misses in front of goal are now long forgotten.

All players miss goals – the key point is how many we get oveall.

What is good about our position is that we have four goal scorers in the squad, and that even with two of them injured we are still doing ok in terms of the number scored.

But even so, every situation could always be improved. So, how could we make things better?

The most common answer given is that of dropping Giroud and bringing in someone who scores more goals, putting Theo back on the wing with Alexis on the other side. This refines the argument a bit, because we can now simply ask, “who is better than Giroud?”

In the Premier League we have got people like Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez at Leicester, Lukaku at Everton, Ighalo at Watford, Aguero at Man City, and Georginio Wijnaldum at Newcastle.

But what about looking further afield? What about the top goalscorers this season in Europe. There’s Aubameyang at Dortmund, Muller at Bayern, Neymar (Barcelona), Lewandowski playing with Bayern, Griffiths at Celtic, Moukandjo at Lorient, Eder (Sampdoria)…

Immediately we start looking at this list we can see that just the number of goals scored this season is actually not that good an indicator. We have to take into account who else is playing in the team alongside the main scorer, how much he has been injured, how competitive the league is in which he is playing and so on.

So, what is the alternative, if indeed an alternative is needed?

The answer, as so totally revealed by the development of Coquelin and Bellerin last season, is to have the next brilliant footballer already in your ranks. Alex Iowbi perhaps? Certainly Mr Wenger seems to think so.

Now of course the answer might be, “yes, but we need a striker now, not next year” remembering all the while that always bringing in expensive players and not promoting your youth is what Chelsea do, and it means that it gets harder to develop the young players. Because of Bellerin and Coquelin this year, the queue of youngsters trying to come to Arsenal is bigger than ever at the moment. Because of the failure of Chelsea to bring their youth product through to the first team, they are having to throw more and more money at their youth project.

Plus there is the option of moving players to new positions. Who knows how many goals the Ox might score if he got a long, injury free run in the side?

Which brings us to the third, usually forgotten question: whether this player would actually want to come to Arsenal and be allowed to leave his club. There are always rumours of course, but if we don’t want to sell our top players (and think of the howls there would be if we suddenly looked to be selling Coquelin, Alexis, Ozil… ) why should PSG or Real Madrid or anyone else sell their players to us? Both PSG and Real Madrid are much richer than Arsenal and can afford to pay salaries and transfer fees that even with Arsenal’s new found profit are out of our reach.

Ozil most certainly did come to Arsenal because Real Madrid were re-shaping their team and needed some quick cash to help see through the Bale deal. But more importantly than either, Ozil came because he believed that Arsene Wenger could help make him into an even better player. Not every player has that belief – and like it or not, that too is a major factor.

Pulling it together, it is clear that although the press reduce transfers to simplistic offers of money to clubs and players who will do anything for more cash, thankfully the world isn’t always like this.

Of course, if a brilliant opportunity came along (like the signing of Henry or Vieira) Arsenal should go for it. But otherwise, if I were the Arsenal manager, I’d sit on my hands in January.