Arsenal’s failure to sign a striker this season has been used as a stick to beat the Gunners with.
The club’s title dream has evaporated in recent weeks, with season-ending injuries to Kai Havertz and Gabriel Jesus leaving the North Londoners light in the final third. Successive games without a goal have left Arsenal 13 points behind leaders Liverpool and facing the prospect of another season of regret.
Mikel Arteta expressed his disappointment at the failure to sign a striker last month, though in truth the damage was perhaps done in the summer. An ambitious bid to sign Ollie Watkins from Aston Villa in January was fanciful – and perhaps desperate.
Arsenal’s feeling of regret might just be further compounded by the performances of Mika Biereth.
The 22-year-old’s exit last summer barely registered among the majority of the Arsenal fanbase, with the forward having failed to make a first-team appearance.
A product of the Fulham academy, Biereth crossed the capital to sign for Arsenal in 2021. He featured four times as an unused substitute in the first team, though the majority of his time in North London was spent out on loan.
One of those loan arrangements was made permanent last summer, as Biereth signed for Sturm Graz in a £4m deal. At that time, the fee was deemed good value for Arsenal.
Biereth, however, has flourished since leaving the Emirates. He hit 11 goals in 16 Austrian Bundesliga games over the first half of the campaign to earn interest from Monaco.
In search of firepower, the French side snapped up the Denmark u-21 international for €13 million in the January window. It’s proven to be an inspired investment.
Biereth breaks Ligue 1 record with treble treble
Biereth has scored 10 goals in just seven Ligue 1 appearances for Monaco, a return that already includes three hat-tricks.
First player in history to score 3 hat-tricks in his first 7 @Ligue1_ENG appearances in the last 70 years! 😳🔥
HE IS HIM. MIKA BIERETH. WHAT A PLAYER. ❤️🤍 pic.twitter.com/XVPNmjgTWh
— AS Monaco EN 🇲🇨 (@AS_Monaco_EN) February 28, 2025
He netted his first senior treble against Rennes on January 25th and has followed that with match balls against Auxerre and Stade de Reims.
No player in Europe’s top five leagues has scored more goals this calendar year than the forward, who has seized the opportunity of first-team football this season.
His exit last summer might just have been the sliding doors moment for both his own career and Arsenal’s Premier League title challenge this season.
