Wenger will apparently have the chance to sign star striker Jackson Martinez who over the past years has been one of the most underrated players in Europe. The 28 year old has maintained a steady scoring rate (65 goals in 83 games for Porto) and has proven himself not only in the domestic competition but in the Champions League as well. He has been a target for several British clubs including Arsenal for a while but the asking price always seemed too big for some reason. According to Squawka, Porto have not dropped their expectations and are still rumored to be pushing for a £30m price tag.

The Gunners need to do some serious thinking now that the transfer window is just around the corner and while some money does need to be spent on the defensive side of things, the striker position raises some big questions. They already spent big money on Welbeck and may have made a mistake in not bringing in Martinez instead back then. Even if he costs almost twice as much the Englishman, the 28 year old is a beast in front of goal and he is a true fighter. Going the extra mile and spending a bit more might have been the better choice. The question that should be asked right now is if Arsenal should spent £30m on Martinez. Arsenal’s attack is doing great and have joined the elite group of teams that have scored more than 100 goals during this season. The only slight problem is that those goals have been scored by a number of players which is a bit of a rarety and cannot be relied upon to happen every season, so you need two 25 goal strikers and while Giroud or Sanchez may be ONE, to really move ahead you need two genuine world class strikers capable of scoring in the mid to high twenties and with all three of Giroud, Sanchez and Martinez likely two will score 25+ and one might have a career season and bang in 30 especialluy when you consider what an attacking force Arsenal are. The team could only benefit from having another high-scoring striker -an upgrade over the Campbell/Podolski/Welbeck/Sanogo options used in the first half of the season – imagine replacing the goals from that foursome with the 25+ goals from Martinez. Hopefully Wenger is able to find a way to bring him to the Emirates if he wants to. The only players Wenger should be looking at is upgrades to current players and Martinez could well be an upgrade if he can adapt to the Premier League – a big if i grant you.

If you look at the statistics Martinez has amassed at Porto compiled by Wikipedia they make pretty impressive reading. A few highlights are pretty mind-blowing like scoring the second goal in the final match of the 2012-13 season which assured the 2–0 victory thus confirming Porto’s 3rd consecutive Portuguese league title. The goal was his 26th goal in the league, giving him the top goalscoring award. He also won the Portuguese SuperCup earlier in the season, was top goal scorer, and won the league title (in just his 1st season playing Europe). As American network ESPN recognised, Martínez was far and away one of the best signings for the 2012–13 season following his sensational European debut. Martinez has also had some success in the Champions League most notably when he scored 2 goals after the 90th minute mark vs Shakhtar Donetsk to secure a seemingly impossible away draw.

The man certainly has the x-factor which is a shit-term I grant you and sorry for using it but you would have to say he has that certain “je ne sais quoi”, that something special so Wenger should go for him since I think he is an upgrade over Podolski and Sanogo who are going to be nothing other than bench warmers. So with Samchez, Giroud, plus Welbeck is a good 4rd striker, along with the addition of Jackson Martinez you would have a strike force with no equal in the premier league. So the question remains will Arsenal go in for him and can he reach the same heights in England? Arsenal may have to move fast with Liverpool, Tootenham and others also rumoured to be looking for strikers and he is seemingly bound to be on the move and after the Mephis Depay signing by Man United the pool of strikers available is already shrinking.