Building the summer list: Strikers

Here's who the numbers like as we look ahead to the next window

Winter window shut, time to talk about the summer.

We’ve all been far, far too preoccupied with actual football matches and what business may or may not transpire in January to actually think about what Arsenal may do (or so they will do and then not actually do, depending on your jadedness level) in the coming offseason. But as a guy who thinks too much about player movement, it’s officially time I started thinking about which positions Arsenal should be shopping for and which players they should target in each of those positions.

In a move that should surprise pretty much no one, I decided to start with … striker! Gabriel Jesus will almost certainly remain on the injured list into the late months of 2025, which means Arsenal will need backup (and/or competition) for Kai Havertz for the first several months of the 2025-2026 campaign.

If you’re new here, this recurring piece is where we take numbers from the current campaign and use it to find the best potential fits for Arsenal. A bit of a summary/set of disclaimers below, with a couple of new things to keep in mind!

• This list is created relying fully on statistics from this season. Players are rated using a whole bunch of data points of varying weights.

• Minimum for inclusion was 7.0 90s, or 630 minutes.

• I didn’t follow a hard-and-fast age limit this time, instead going with a mix of up-and-coming and day-one impact guys.

• All scores are subject to an adjustment according to league strength, so you shouldn’t have to mentally raise or lower rankings to make it more “fair.”

• Big update: Opta unfortunately has decided to shut off some of its advanced stats for certain leagues for a bit while they evaluate whether it’s worth their investment, so our ability to provide more detailed looks at guys from the Eredivisie, Primeira Liga, Belgian Pro League and other similarly-ranked leagues is gone. So while I can’t give you radars on every target, I’ll still call some guys out below from those leagues and give you radars when I can. As a result, there will be fewer radars but just as many writeups.

• New feature: It’s highly possible (likely) that I end up deeply regretting this, but I’m going to tack on a top-of-mind valuation for players. This isn’t meant to be permanent, nor is it the result of hours of research (I would for instance treat anything you see in a film study as far more authoritative), but hopefully it gives a ballpark idea of what I think a guy is worth at a certain point in time.

• Last but not least: I always encourage a healthy dose of the eye test before forming a final opinion on any player, so please consume this list responsibly.

Alright, let’s get into it.