The summer has not yet arrived and fans and newspapers are compiling huge lists of players they would like and think Arsene Wenger will sign, most of whom it is almost 100% likely we will NOT see in an Arsenal shirt next season.

So far I have heard Gianluigi Buffon, Florent Malouda, Ledley King, Dimitar Berbatov, Fernando Torres and more recently Goran Pandev. Most of these players will cost an awful lot of money and many of them we don’t really need. Yes we do need a new goalkeeper but with reports of a deal for Fabianski being finalised that problem has been addressed and in true Arsene Wenger fashion – a near unknown who will replace the current number, who we can hopefully get one more useful year out of.

One name that is not in the list above is Samuel Eto’o. This is because I believe this is the one player we need to challenge for the title. Why I will come to later. However the question is getting him here in the first place. It is unprecedented that he has fallen out with his current club. Therefore they will look to offload him at a cheaper price than normal but still for a decent amount. The Arsenal board say Wenger has the cash to buy one £40million player. Now I don’t think he will cost that much but near enough. One advantage we have is Eto’o is a very good friend of Thierry Henry. He was once asked the three strikers he would like to play with, he replied “Thierry Henry, Thierry Henry, Thierry Henry.” Henry is currently our captain and I am sure he will be next season. He has called for bigger signings and Wenger wanted to sign him before. If it came down to Arsenal, Chelsea or Liverpool I would hope our style of play and the friendship between Eto’o and our captain would persuade him to join us.

How would Eto’o fit into our team? For me, the same way he did for Barcelona, in a 4-3-3. Barcelona wanted Henry to play in their central three and I can see it work for Arsenal for a number of reasons. The first being our players actually seem to fit 4-3-3 rather than 4-4-2. Van Persie plays wide right for Holland with Robben on the other flank. He likes to cut inside and use his deadly left foot. His best performances have arguably been for Holland and made Van Basten come out and say he was going to be one hell of a player. Then we come to Henry himself. We all know he likes to cut out to the left and cut in. In this new strike trio he has the freedom to do this. Eto’o could be the man to finish what we create and therefore having him as the pin could work so well, like it did for Barca. The beauty is that the three of them are interchangeable with Adebayor or Bendtner or Walcott easily able to come in.

Then we have the midfield, Wenger has played four central nidfielders this season in Cesc, Gilberto, Rosicky and Hleb. The last two cut in and their best positions are not as wide midfield players. In a central midfield trio they get to play their best positions and arguably have a bigger impact. Again any three out of Gilberto, Fabregas, Rosicky, Hleb, Diaby and Denilson can play in this formation, with no one having to be shifted out to the wings. This formation won Chelsea two consecutive titles and once they changed to a 4-4-2 they lost the title. Formations are so important and they have to be adapted to the squad and ours simply isn’t adapted to a rigid 4-4-2.

Signing Eto’o involves buying one player only and otherwise keeping a nucleus together, too many signings could mean another season of transition. One thing we have to be careful of if we play this formation is that it doesn’t become too defensive. Granted, the 4-5-1 got us to the Champions League final but for the Premiership it is too defensive. Our problem has been goals and an attacking 4-3-3 could be the answer. The defensive cover could come from Van Persie and Henry if needed but ultimately the three strikers release some pressure on the back four as the opposition would have to be careful of leaving enough players to deal with what could be the deadliest striking trio in the world.

Yes we lose Eto’o and Adebayor to the African Cup of Nations in mid-season, but in this time we can use Theo more and Bendtner or even Rosicky as the third man.

To summarise, a 4-3-3 fits our squad and to make us contenders again I feel Eto’o would make us complete. That is unless Wenger feels that the defence needs one more defender with experience, especially with Kolo also off to the ACN next season. Ok so maybe two signings after the keeper, but the key is to sign that one man in Eto’o to transform our team.