Ruthless Finisher Must Be at the Top of Arsenal's Summer Shopping List

It came during the 83rd minute of Arsenal's 1-1 draw with Manchester United at Old Trafford, the moment telling Gunners manager Arsene Wenger signing a ruthless finisher should be his top transfer priority this summer.

Having equalised via yet another deflection-aided strike, a very familiar pattern in recent weeks, Arsenal pushed for a winner. With United looking more tired than any top-four Premier League side ever should, the Gunners put together a rare quality passing combination.

Aaron Ramsey, Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil executed an exchange that ended with the latter sliding a pass to the near post for Olivier Giroud. The centre-forward made one of his trademark runs but typically couldn't oblige with a finish.

Giroud hit the side netting when it would have been easier to score. The wayward finish was just so typical of the misfiring Frenchman.

It was so typical because, as he often does, Giroud did everything right. That is everything bar the finish, you know, the most important part.

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His movement was subtle and the run was well-timed to leave his marker trailing and create ample space for a shot. But no such subtlety and guile was evident when Giroud connected with the ball, failing to wrap his favoured left foot around the ball to sweep it in.

Every striker misses chances; the forward hasn't yet been invented who's automatic. If he had been, he'd probably be playing for Barcelona or Real Madrid.

But quests for perfection aside, Giroud just misses too many chances. The squandered opportunities are very costly.

Fluffing his lines late on at Old Trafford cost Arsenal two points. Tally wasted points like those up over the course of a season, and you get a pretty clear indicator why the Gunners are third in the league instead of champions elect.

That's precisely why signing a more accomplished, ruthless finisher has to be Wenger's top priority ahead of next season. It's more important than adding a taller, more commanding goalkeeper, a quicker, rugged centre-back or a strong and dynamic holding midfield player.

Only then will the Gunners close the gap on Chelsea. It certainly won't happen with Giroud leading the line.

That much was clear even before the 83rd minute when Giroud earlier squandered another great opportunity. A pull back from Ozil that went behind him still found its way to Giroud after the ex-Montpellier man muscled Marcos Rojo and killed the ball with a cushioned first touch.

Sadly, Giroud's supporting leg then gave way as he tried to lift the ball over United goalkeeper David de Gea. The result was a save the Spaniard should never have been given the chance to make.

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Again, Giroud had done everything right except finish.

These aren't isolated examples either, despite Giroud's generally decent goal tally. Since joining the Gunners in 2012, he's scored 57 goals, according to the club's official site. But there'll be just as many costly misses to add to the same tally.

The truth is Giroud has likely reached his ceiling as a Premier League forward. He's always going to be a 17-25 goal striker across all competitions. He'll also never have the pace needed to adequately stretch top defences, a major problem in the otherwise smart counterattacking approach Wenger adopted at United and during other tough away games this season.

After three full seasons, it's unrealistic to anticipate a sudden jump to the kind of production a title-winning squad needs from its main striker. Crossing fingers and hoping Giroud makes the grade is only going to hold Arsenal back.

But it's not a problem isolated to Giroud alone. For instance, ex-Red Devils man Danny Welbeck is another striker who can't match solid core attributes, namely pace, strength and work rate, with the instincts and quality of a ruthless finisher.

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Former Gunners title-winning centre-forward Alan Smith doubts both Giroud and Welbeck will ever be good enough. He believes the chance to sign some of the game's more marquee forwards should be too enticing to resist for Wenger, per a column for The Telegraph:

"

The record shows that this manager will persevere. But supposing someone like Karim Benzema became available. That would really send out a message. With Benzema leading the line, Arsenal’s attack suddenly compares favourably with Chelsea’s and that of Manchester City. United would do well to get anywhere near.

"

Smith may see Benzema as an upgrade on Giroud, but the latest rumours suggest Gonzalo Higuain may be the apple of Wenger's eye. Arsenal have apparently joined Juventus and Atletico Madrid in the bidding for the prolific Napoli powerhouse, per Spanish website Fichajes.net (h/t Metro's George Bellshaw).

Another Fichajes.net report (h/t Bellshaw) suggests Barcelona's Pedro could be available for Arsenal at as little as £10.8 million.

Admittedly, both rumours seem a little fanciful. But they also strike at the heart of what the Gunners really need most this summer—namely, more forwards.

Arsenal legend Thierry Henry got it right when he recently called for the club to recruit at least two more strikers in his Sun on Sunday column (h/t Mirror's James Whaling): "I am convinced we won the league at Arsenal not due to the fact I was banging in goals but because the club had a good squad. Sometimes when I was being given a rest, Sylvain Wiltord or Kanu would come in and Dennis was always there."

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The current squad certainly isn't blessed with as much talent in forward areas. Giroud has struggled after a midseason hot streak. Meanwhile, Welbeck remains extremely goal shy.

It doesn't help that Theo Walcott's contract standoff seems set to linger. The cheetah-fast forward expressed his frustration at not playing ahead of an uncertain summer, per the London Evening Standard's James Olley: “No, I can’t give you an update on the contract situation. I just want to continue playing my football and we will see where it takes me at the end of the season."

Combine this much uncertainty among the incumbents with question marks surrounding disappointing on-loan trio Lukas Podolski, Joel Campbell and Yaya Sanogo, and Wenger can't overlook forward reinforcements.

The lack of talent and options in attack is harming the Gunners. They've scored just four goals in their last four league matches.

All of those goals came away from home. Significantly, though, three of those successful strikes needed deflections to divert them between the posts.

Kirsty Wigglesworth/Associated Press

Two of those came in the 3-1 away win over Hull City. Even three goals in this context left Wenger ruing his team's missing quality in front of goal, per Arsenal.com: "The surprising thing of the night is that we scored the goal that we didn’t necessarily deserve to score and we missed the chances we should have scored."

The string of less-than-clean strikes certainly reveal how much trouble the Gunners have had finishing off moves with composure and class.

Those troubles were most decisively summed up in failures to score at home to Chelsea and Swansea City, failures that let five points slip away. Along with the two dropped at Old Trafford, those lost points have likely cost Arsenal a highest league finish since 2005.

A failure to address the problem by adding at least one ruthless finisher this summer will certainly derail Arsenal's title challenge next season.