‘Does have a great chance’: Pundit says 28-year-old could genuinely start this season up front for Arsenal

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Arsenal have a real conundrum right now.

The Gunners have just lost their number one striker to injury just one week out from the start of the season.

The north London club do have some other options in their squad in the shape of Folarin Balogun and Eddie Nketiah, but according to Adrian Clarke, another player could start the season up front.

Indeed, speaking on the Handbrake Off Podcast, Clarke stated that he believes Leandro Trossard has a great chance of starting this season up front.

Trossard could start up front

Clarke gave his verdict on Arsenal’s striker crisis.

“Nobody fits the bill of being that target man do they? Havertz can do it, but I’m not sure if we want to play him there,” Clarke said.

“One of the things that struck me about the Barca game was that Jesus was very rarely at centre-forward, it was usually Havertz or Trossard or one of the others.”

“It doesn’t really matter who we use, but I think Trossard does have a great chance of starting there maybe against City and potentially against Nottingham Forest as well.”

Harsh on Balogun

It would be really harsh not to give Folarin Balogun the chance to start this season up front.

He’s more of a natural striker than Trossard, and he’s coming off the back of a fantastic loan spell in France. What more does he have to do to get gametime for Arsenal?

Of course, Trossard is more experienced at this level and probably suites that pseudo-false-nine position in Mikel Arteta’s side, but sometimes, a player has earned a chance, and it feels like Balogun really has earned this opportunity.