Arsenal’s striking shortage laid bare as fourth place slips from their grasp

Amid the hopelessness of Arsenal’s offering at Newcastle on Monday there was a five-minute spell midway through the first half when it seemed they might, just might, have come to their senses. Unsurprisingly, Bukayo Saka was behind it: a darting run on to a give-and-go with Martin Ødegaard was straight out of his playbook but Dan Burn blocked the attempted finish; then there was a nip inside and a low shot that, although reasonably struck, did not overly trouble Martin Dubravka.

Had Saka given Arsenal’s Champions League hopes fresh life from one of those glimmers, it would have been his 13th goal of the season in all competitions. He could yet add to his tally at home to Everton on Sunday but given he leads their goalscoring charts, mental gymnastics are not required to understand the problem. In peacetime football, only one of Arsenal’s top scorers, Brian Kidd in 1975-76, has managed fewer than 12; on the previous occasion, in 1912-13, Charles Lewis scored four and Arsenal were relegated.

Nowadays, their concerns are loftier but a lack of potency is the primary issue for Mikel Arteta to address this summer. When he flung on Alexandre Lacazette and Nicolas Pépé after Ben White’s own goal, having already deployed Gabriel Martinelli from the bench, it was hard to believe these were changes that would tip the scales. Necessary surgery has been performed on Arsenal’s defence over the past two years but on nights like Monday, when both centre-halves were hardly match fit and Newcastle asked constant questions, their inefficiency further forward is laid bare.

A counter-argument to the focus on a top scorer is that good teams share goals around. Arsenal can claim to have done that: Emile Smith Rowe, whose drop in output has