Jamie Carragher identifies Arsenal’s one major transfer window shortcoming

Jamie Carragher believes Arsenal's failure to land a genuine world-class attacker was the one major weakness of their summer transfer window.

Mikel Arteta strengthened an already formidable squad, but the Premier League champions were unable to complete ambitious moves for either Vinicius Junior or Julian Alvarez.

Christos Tzolis ultimately became Arsenal's only attacking addition, arriving from Club Brugge for £34million, while Gabriel Jesus, Leandro Trossard and Ethan Nwaneri all departed.

Carragher believes Arsenal's problem was not finding another good attacker. They already have plenty of those.

Instead, the challenge was finding somebody capable of significantly raising the level of a team that won the Premier League last season.

“They needed someone to be a gamechanger,” Carragher told Sky Sports. “They tried to get Vinicius Junior, they tried to get Alvarez – that's the calibre of players.”

Arsenal explored both possibilities but neither developed into a transfer.

Vinicius ultimately committed his future to Real Madrid, while Alvarez was not convinced by a move to Arsenal as he continued to favour Barcelona.

Carragher believes those failed pursuits demonstrate exactly what Arteta was searching for.

“It's very hard to improve Arsenal now because they are such a good team, such a strong squad,” he added. “So you're talking about a world-class player as the only one that can improve them.”

Carragher remains positive about Arsenal's existing forwards, particularly Kai Havertz, who has started the campaign with two goals in three appearances.

He also believes Viktor Gyokeres can contribute goals, even if he does not consider the striker an elite-level difference-maker.

That distinction explains why Arsenal resisted simply adding another attacker of a similar standard.

Carragher described their current options as largely “seven or eight out of 10 players”, whereas Arsenal were pursuing somebody capable of being a nine or 10.

“They've tried to get them and haven't been able to get these deals over the line,” he said.

Despite that disappointment, Arsenal have started their title defence strongly. Arteta's side beat Manchester City 3-0 in the Community Shield before Premier League victories over Coventry City and Aston Villa.

Chelsea at the Emirates provides their next major test.

Arsenal's existing attacking options now have the opportunity to show Arteta already possesses enough firepower to defend the Premier League title.

The bigger question may emerge later in the season. If a lack of individual attacking brilliance becomes an issue, the failed pursuits of Vinicius and Alvarez will inevitably return to the conversation.