‘That’s a fact’…Mikel Arteta says pundits are actually right about one criticism of his Arsenal team

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Mikel Arteta has been speaking about his Arsenal team and in doing so, responded to Gary Neville’s criticism of them not having a top striker.

Arsenal failed to land a new number nine in January despite being linked with a move for Ivan Toney and others all throughout the window.

Of course, that lack of a striker and the fact Gabriel Jesus doesn’t seem to be able to keep fit or score the goals required, has led to pundits – including Gary Neville – suggesting Arsenal won’t win until they have that striker.

However, Mikel Arteta has hit back at Neville’s suggestion and while he agreed with the fact that Arsenal haven’t had that player for some time, the Spaniard believes his team can still do it in other ways.

Mikel Arteta hits back at Gary Neville over Arsenal’s lack of a striker

Speaking to Sky Sports about his Arsenal team and answering questions about certain pundit comments on his side, Arteta actually agreed with the comments on the lack of striker.

‘Well that’s a fact. We haven’t had a player who has scored 25-30 goals in I don’t know how many years. It’s what we have and within that, we believe we can be very close to that, and we’re going to try for sure,” Arteta said.

Arsenal will keep going

While there is a validity to the point Neville and others make about Arsenal and their lack of number nine, the fact that the Gunners remain in contention is admirable.

Arsenal will always keep going under Mikel Arteta and they have shown a lot of bottle and resilience at times this season in certain games.

Sure, Arteta would love that number nine and someone like Erling Haaland. But those players are hard to find.

Right now, Saka has 11 goals while Trossard and Jesus have eight, with Odegaard and Martinelli not far behind with seven apiece. If those players can all get to double figures, then it might not matter in the end anyway.