Arsenal are being linked with another striker ahead of the summer window.

Arsenal are said to have ‘already had some contact’ with a Serie A club over the possible signing of a striker. The Gunners will almost certainly sign a new frontman this summer having been left very short at the top end of the pitch.

The Gunners failed to land a new frontman in the winter window, and they were made to pay within a week or so, with Kai Havertz tearing his hamstring and being ruled out for the rest of the season.

Coupled with Bukayo Saka’s absence for the rest of the season, Arsenal are now very short up top, while Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli are also out currently, both likely to return within a month.

Arsenal will already be doing their homework on summer striker signings to make sure they don’t end another transfer window without having landed a new attacking addition, and according to CaughtOffside, the Gunners have already made contact with Atalanta over the possible signing of Mateo Retegui, who has 20 goals in 22 league games since joining Atalanta from Genoa over the summer.

Despite having signed Retegui for around £18million, it’s reported Atalanta will want around £50million to sell this summer, with PSG and other also being linked. Although, that could still be a deal that costs Arsenal less than some of the more high-profile targets this season, and the Italy international is still only 25 years of age.

Merino fills the gap

In the meantime, Arteta initially turned to Leandro Trossard to fill the striker role against Leicester City, but the second half saw him turn to Mikel Merino, who made a huge impact. The Spaniard scored twice while operating in the role and showed serious promise as a false nine ahead of an important run of games.

Arteta said of Merino at full-time: “Mikel has got that. He’s a goal threat, because he can smell danger, he can anticipate the action, he’s got really good timing to arrive into certain areas and then he obviously has the capacity to execute with that part of his body. He needed the delivery, certainly had that as well and he put it into the back of the net.”

Asked if Merino will continue in the role, Arteta added: “We’re going to have to share that, we know that. We’re going to have various contexts; sometimes we’re going to have to make a sub because a player isn’t performing, or because the opposition is doing something else, or because someone’s a yellow card, or it’s fatigue, that’s going to restrict what we do really in terms of the personnel. We have prepared for different scenarios then those have to work, hopefully they will work as good as Mikel worked today.”

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