Joe Fitzpatrick 
I often sit and wonder where we would be now if we would have managed to beat Napoli to the signing of Gonzalo Higuain in the summer. Don't get me wrong here; I'm over the moon with the signing of Özil but I always felt like we needed a world-class striker to replace the void left by the humiliating defection of van Persie to Manchester United.
Manchester United have Rooney, van Persie, Hernandez and Welbeck to call upon. Manchester City have Jovetic, Dzeko, Agüero and Negredo at their disposal. Liverpool have the S.A.S. duo of Suarez and Sturridge while we only have Giroud, Bendtner and Sanogo to call upon, because it looks increasingly unlikely that Walcott or Podolski will be utilised as centre-forwards by Arsène Wenger in the immediate future because of their perceived inefficiency when playing with their backs to the opposition goal and inability to hold the ball up effectively. It feels like we are bringing a knife to a gunfight at times because, as honest a pro as Olivier Giroud may be, he is never going to reach the elite level of Suarez, Rooney, van Persie, Agüero or Gonzalo Higuain.
Higuain scored 108 goals in 190 games for Real Madrid and currently has 8 in 15 for Napoli, and he now very much looks to be the "one that got away" from us in the summer just gone.
Giroud is a good player but he doesn't finish enough chances to be considered as an automatic starter at a Champions League club the size of Arsenal, and he definitely can't be expected to play 40 to 50 games a season. He already looks exhausted to this humble observer and, disappointingly, cannot be rested because Bendtner and Sanogo are obviously nowhere near good enough to lead our front line.
Higuain is now an unrealistic target, as is Luis Suarez, but that shouldn't mean that we cannot sign a decent striker in the January transfer-window to boost our chances of silverware come the business end of the season.
Somebody like Karim Benzema would be my dream signing but, at the moment, I'd take the likes of Benteke, Michu or Lukaku to compete with Giroud for a starting berth in our team over Bendtner and Sanogo any day of the week. All three of those players have demonstrated their ability to score goals regularly for teams that do not provide them with as many clear cut chances as Arsenal could, and I'm confident that Giroud would only benefit from a bit of competition for the single striking position in Arsène Wenger's 4-2-3-1 formation. It would of course also allow us to play with two strikers at home as Liverpool and both Manchester clubs often do, and a bit of tactical flexibility certainly couldn't harm our chances of winning our first trophy since moving to Ashburton Grove.
Arsenal are in an excellent position at the moment and, despite the humbling 6-3 defeat at Manchester City, we can't count ourselves out of the title race when we are top of the table as some people already have. In an ideal world we would sign someone like David Luiz or Javier Mascherano to play as a holding midfielder and back-up/competition for our central defenders too but now I'm just being greedy, aren't I?
Arsène Wenger isn't getting any younger, and this current season is the best chance he has had to lift the Premier League trophy since 2007/08, when the horrific tackle on Eduardo by Martin Taylor in the game against Birmingham City derailed our season and effectively ended poor Eduardo's Arsenal career. Let us pray that history doesn't repeat itself this season and Arsène Wenger continues to learn from his mistakes as he obviously has with the appointment of Steve Bould and the re-signing of Mathieu Flamini.
