Why Wait for Things to Go Wrong? Wenger Should Buy Now

Wenger's latest comment about him only buying a striker if Bendtner fails to return to fitness has got me a little worried.

It's not that I don't rate Bendtner, it's just that it seems to me to be a a risky move on Wenger's part.

Bendtner is big, decent in the air, solid technically, and he has already displayed a knack for scoring important goals (remember that header against spurs?).

This could be his chance to finally shine for Arsenal, and he just might rise to the occasion.

Song, Diaby, and Ramsey have already done it...maybe he can too.

But the question is, what if he doesn't?

What if he has a recurrence of his injury?

The evidence supplied by Eduardo, Rosicky, and Walcott proves that frequent injuries are the norm for players coming from long-term injuries.

And what if he somehow does manage to stay injury free but can't find his form?

Being relied on has had a positive impact on Song but the pressure of it might have the opposite effect on Bendtner, especially if things don't go well for him immediately.

Then again, we haven't had a proper striker for a while now but we've still managed to win five straight games, scoring 14 goals in the process nonetheless. On that evidence a new striker might not be necessary after all, maybe we can afford to take a chance on Bendtner.

If he gets injured or fails to perform, we can just revert back to playing Arshavin in his position, and Eduardo looks like he's starting to re-find his form so we can even count him as an option again.

It looks like Wenger is right, it is 50-50 on whether or not to buy a striker.

I would say, however, that we absolutely, 100 percent have to buy a back-up defender.

It can be argued that we have fall-back options upfront without any new additions, but the same can not be said of our resources at the back. If the situation at Old Trafford has shown us anything, it's that you can't have too many defenders.

Gallas and Vermaelen have played in every single Premiership game so far and this is worrying.

I've been surprised that Gallas has managed to stay fit so far because he usually gets his fair share of injuries, and he always looks so fragile. My heart stops every time he goes into a challenge and stays down a bit too long, or gets up with that grimace on his face flexing his knee or limping gingerly.

The consequences would be dire if he or Vermaelen were to get injured. And even if they don't get injured, it is very likely that their form will begin to suffer due to fatigue.

Senderos is in my mind at least, a decent backup but even he has been struggling with injury and he has a long record of costly mistakes. His limited playing opportunities so far also show that Wenger has probably lost faith in him.

I won't even mention Silvestre.

The backup options don't fill me with confidence and I get the feeling that with everything going so well, disaster is just around the corner and Wenger has to act before that happens.

Imagine if we have to play those games against Villa, Chelsea, Man U, and Liverpool with Senderos and Silvestre at the back, or worse—imagine if one them gets injured as well (it would be less painful if was Silvestre).

A new striker would be welcome, a backup dm would also be welcome, a wide player with pace who can get behind defences and who actually is a wide player (not a striker, or an attacking midfielder, or a fullback) would be nice, but a solid centre back is crucial.

This season promises a lot, this could be the season when we break that drought and I would hate to see it all ruined by poor planning.

Not buying a new striker would be a risk, but not not buying a backup defender would be absolute suicide.