From Motherwell to Monaco: The 21-goal prodigy that Arsenal should regret selling amid striker crisis

Arsenal’s Premier League title hopes look all but over for another season after a goalless draw at Nottingham Forest again highlighted the Gunners’ toothlessness in front of goal at this moment in time and the glaring lack of a goalscorer at the Emirates Stadium following long-term injuries to Kai Havertz and Gabriel Jesus.

“Arsenal needed a goalscorer before Havertz and Jesus even got injured,” bemoaned Ian Wright on his most recent appearance on the Overlap, while Mikel Arteta himself claimed the team lacked a ‘spark’ in their most recent outing with the Tricky Trees.

“We have always needed a striker. said David Seaman, via BBC Radio 5 Live. “It will be the final piece of the jigsaw that hopefully makes it (winning the title) happen next season.” Meanwhile, Piers Morgan posted on social media: “Crap. The lack of a striker has destroyed our season.”

Over the next few weeks and months, you can expect many an article highlighting who Arsenal should target to take on the all-important role in attack - and plenty of pundits discussing who they’d like to arrive whether it’s Alexander Isak, Benjamin Sesko, Ollie Watkins - or even bringing Thierry Henry out of retirement… third time’s a charm right?

But this is not one of those articles - and instead it’s an even more frustrating story for the Gunners about a talented striker they had on their books only to sell too soon Mika Biereth.

Who is Mika Biereth?

Mika Biereth is a 22-year-old centre forward that is currently making waves in France with AS Monaco after moving to Stade Louis II for a reported figure of just £10.8m during the January transfer window.

He has scored seven goals in six matches in Ligue 1 which is the same figure that the whole Arsenal team combined has managed to achieve in five matches across all competitions in February, with five of those coming against Manchester City.

Biereth was born in London and came through the ranks at Fulham before catching the eyes of Arsenal in 2021. During his final year in the Cottagers academy he scored 25 goals and assisted 15 in 37 appearances for the Under-18 team before moving to the Emirates Stadium.

The Denmark Under-21 international scored 12 and assisted five in 26 appearances for the Arsenal Under-21 team and featured sporadically on the popular All or Nothing docuseries during the 2021/22 campaign as he got invited to train with the first team.

Biereth never played for Arsenal but did feature as an unused substitute in four Premier League games. He spent time plying his trade RKC Waalwijk, Motherwell and Strum Graz and showed signs of promise on loan without ever really making any huge headlines.

“I have been blown away by his mentality coming into this club, because it can be a dangerous thing sometimes that you see yourself as an Arsenal player and not a Motherwell player,” said Stuart Kettlewell at the time, via the National Scot.

However, it was this season when Biereth had just started to explode into life by scoring 11 goals in 16 league games for Strum Graz in Austria while also scoring in the Champions League against both Lille and Girona.

At the end of his loan spell in January, it was expected that Biereth would come back into the team as a backup option for Jesus and Havertz, but instead the Gunners accepted an offer of £10.8m to allow the striker to join AS Monaco. He has now scored 21 goals in all competitions for Strum Graz and Monaco this season. He also has seven assists.

Three days later Jesus picked up an ACL injury to end his season while on 14 February (the same weekend Bireth scored a hat-trick against Nantes) Havertz was also ruled out until the end of the campaign with a season-ending hamstring problem that he sustained during a warm weather training camp in Dubai.

Did Arsenal make a mistake selling Mika Biereth?

Mike Biereth has enjoyed a sensational start to life in French football and is already looking like a steal at £10.8m. The striker, who was compared to Jamie Vardy by The Athletic in 2022, is scoring all types of different goals and is troubling defenders with his excellent movement and goal-scoring instincts in the penalty area.

Of course, it could just be a bright start as we saw with the once formidable Folarin Balogun, who has struggled to match his incredible loan form with Reims since also joining Monaco in 2023.

However, given Arsenal’s lack of a striker and the fact that they are now playing a defensive midfielder in Mikel Merino as a lone striker, most fans with the benefit of hindsight would have wished Arsenal had kept hold of the young Danish prospect for just a little bit longer.