Jamie O’Hara believes Arsenal won’t win the league without a 25 goal a season striker.
The Gunners have had the perfect start to the 2024/25 season, winning their opening games against Wolverhampton Wanderers and Aston Villa.
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Mikel Arteta’s side will be pushing to win the title in their third consecutive attempt after missing out to Manchester City again last year.
But ex-Tottenham midfielder O’Hara finds it hard to believe Arsenal will do so without a prolific striker, with them yet to sign a no. 9 that will score then more than 25 goals a season.
Arsenal fan Rich called O’Hara and Jason Cundy up on the Sports Bar on Monday night to bring up the point the former made on Sky Sports.
“You kicked off going ‘Oh I’ve had a couple of Arsenal fans that think that they don’t need a 25 goal season striker’” he said. “Then [you] made the valid point that no team has won the Premier League without one.
“I look and looked and looked and couldn’t find one. So I’ve got to give you kudos for that.”
He continued: “And I said I didn’t think we would lose to Aston Villa and I still don’t see any reason why we won’t win the league.
“But on the point you made about a 25 goal a season striker… So the point I want to make to you is, if you’re not conceding goals and we’re scoring goals like we did, is it necessary we get a 25 goal striker?”
O’Hara replied: “My argument is the same Rich, as you just said. No one’s won the Premier League without one.
“So, the proofs in the pudding at the end of the day. Yeah you score a lot of goals and you might win the Premier League without one.
“But no one has!”
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Last season, Arsenal’s top scorer was Bukayo Saka, with the winger netting 16 times in 35 league appearances.
Meanwhile, Manchester City pipped them to the title with a 25 plus goal striker, with Erling Haaland bagging 27 goals in 31 Premier League games.
However, after Sergio Aguero left Man City for Barcelona in 2021 and before Haaland signed from Borussia Dortmund in 2022, Pep Guardiola’s side did spend a whole season without an out-and-out no. 9.
Kevin De Bruyne was their top scorer when they won the league in 2022, bagging 15 goals. As a team, Man City scored 99 goals, making them the fifth highest scoring team in the league’s history
Liverpool relied on Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane’s firepower in 2020, too, with the winger netting 19 times and Mane bagging 18 goals.
Upon inspection, 14 of the last 18 seasons had a team with 20+ goalscorer.
A team has won the Premier League with a player scoring 25 plus goals on only eight occasions.
Premier League winners’ top goal scorers
- 92/93 – Man United (Eric Cantona/Mark Hughes – 15)
- 93/94 – Man United (Eric Cantona – 18)
- 94/95 – Blackburn (Alan Shearer – 34)
- 95/96 – Man United (Eric Cantona – 14)
- 96/97 – Man United (Ole Gunnar Solskjaer – 18)
- 97/98 – Arsenal (Dennis Bergkamp – 16)
- 98/99 – Man United (Dwight Yorke – 18)
- 99/00 – Man United (Dwight Yorke – 20)
- 00/01 – Man United (Teddy Sheringham – 15)
- 01/02 – Arsenal (Thierry Henry – 24)
- 02/03 – Man United (Ruud van Nistelrooy – 25)
- 03/04 – Arsenal (Theirry Henry – 30)
- 04/05 – Chelsea (Frank Lampard – 13)
- 05/06 – Chelsea (Frank Lampard – 16)
- 06/07 – Man United (Didier Drogba – 20)
- 07/08 – Man United (Cristiano Ronaldo – 31)
- 08/09 – Man United (Cristiano Ronaldo – 18)
- 09/10 – Chelsea (Didier Drogba – 29)
- 10/11 – Man United (Dimitar Berbatov – 20)
- 11/12 – Man City (Sergio Aguero – 23)
- 12/13 – Man United (Robin van Persie – 26)
- 13/14 – Man City (Yaya Toure – 20)
- 14/15 – Chelsea (Diego Costa – 20)
- 15/16 – Leicester (Jamie Vardy – 24)
- 16/17 – Chelsea (Diego Costa – 20)
- 17/18 – Man City (Sergio Aguero – 21)
- 18/19 – Man City (Sergio Aguero – 21)
- 19/20 – Liverpool (Mo Salah – 19)
- 20/21 – Man City (Ilkay Gundogan – 13)
- 21/22 – Man City (Kevin De Bruyne – 15)
- 22/23 – Man City (Erling Haaland – 36)
- 23/24 – Man City (Erling Haaland – 27)
“When you think about it, there ain’t,” O’Hara said, trying to illustrate teams have always had a player that will hoover up a huge number of goals. “[Mohamed] Salah when Liverpool won it, [Ruud] Van Nistlerooy, [Wayne] Rooney, [Carlos] Tevez, [Sergio] Aguero, [Erling] Haaland, [Thierry] Henry.”
Rich interjected then, and said: “Alright, you’ve made your point. I don’t think we need to sign [Ivan] Toney. If we sign that [Victor] Osimhen from Napoli, I don’t know how quickly he’d fit in our system and the way we play.
“Maybe we can do it.”
Arsenal have been linked with Napoli’s Victor Osimhen and Brentford’s Ivan Toney in their pursuit of a goalscorer.
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But Rich isn’t convinced they are the right strikers for the Gunners.
He added: “I don’t know if there’s a right striker out there for us to buy. Because you’re right, J, the stat is out there but I don’t know if the striker is out there that would fit into our team.
“I think a Nico Williams or an Eze would make us better.”
Arsenal face Brighton at home on Saturday, exclusively live on talkSPORT, with the Seagulls also having a perfect start to the Premier League campaign.
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