It was a mixed evening of Champions League football for Arsenal on Tuesday night, as they were held to a draw at home to Bayern Munich but also managed to fight back from 2-1 down.
The fact that Mikel Arteta's side were seen as favourites by so many before the first whistle is a testament to how far they have come, but there was still a lack of clinical finishing at the top of the pitch.
Kai Havertz and Gabriel Jesus were lively for the Gunners but never really looked like scoring themselves, so it's not surprising to see reports linking the north Londoners to one of the best strikers in Europe once more this week, a striker who could seriously supercharge Martin Odegaard's numbers.
Arsenal's search for a striker
According to a recent report from Portuguese journalist Pedro Sepulveda, Arsenal and Chelsea have maintained their interest in Sporting CP striker Viktor Gyökeres.
In fact, the report has revealed that the Gunners are now "preparing an offer" for the prolific Swedish marksman, knowing that his €100m—£86m release clause remains.
Unfortunately for the north Londoners, the Blues are also said to be putting together an offer of their own, so there is a real chance that one side will end up having to pay the clause to prevent the other from getting ahead in the potential bidding war.
There is some good news for the two London clubs, however, as the striker's agent has confirmed that "if Rúben Amorim leaves, it will be more difficult for Gyokeres to stay." As things stand, it looks like the Portuguese manager is on his way to Liverpool.
It looks good for Arsenal, and if they could get this deal done, it would be brilliant news for Odegaard.
Why Viktor Gyökeres could boost Martin Odegaard
So, the first thing to clear up is that Arsenal are not in desperate need of a new striker. Their 75 league goals tally is the highest in the Premier League, and unlike their slight blip in the festive period, the Gunners' frontline has started to put away chances at a reasonable rate.
However, that doesn't mean that there isn't room for improvement.
For example, according to Understat, Arteta's table-toppers are still underperforming their open-play expected goals by 1.1. While that's not an enormous number, it proves that a more clinical striker could get more joy out of the side's creative players.
Appearances
35
Expected Goals
20.3
Goals
27
Expected Assists
8.8
Assists
12
Expected Goal Involvements per Match
0.83
Actual Goal Involvements per Match
1.11
So far this season, the Swedish "game-changer", as Statman Dave dubbed him, has scored 27 goals across all competitions from an expected goals figure of just 20.3 and provided 12 assists from an expected assists figure of 8.8, per FBref.
Now, an overperformance of almost seven is bound to come down slightly in the Premier League, but it shows just how clinical the 25-year-old can be when given the chance, and considering Odegaard creates the third most chances in the league – 78 – he'll get plenty of those.
Moreover, with the Norwegian scoring ten goals in all competitions from an expected figure of 7.1, he might be able to rack up even more goals with the former Coventry City man's impressive assist rate.
Ultimately, while Arsenal are proving that they can score plenty of goals in their current guise, adding the clinical Gyökeres into the mix could take them to another level entirely, as well as supercharging Odegaard's creativity and goalscoring numbers for good measure.
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