Arsenal are in serious danger of breaking an unwanted Premier League record. With 11 games left, Mikel Arteta's side are on course to finish without a player scoring 10 or more goals.
Since 1992/93 and the league's inception, the lowest managed by the club's top scorer has been 11. That has happened twice, but each was joined by another player managing 10.
In each of the past 12 seasons there have been at least two players reaching double figures. Across 32 years of the Premier League it has happened 27 times.
Kai Havertz has nine and will not be adding to his total due to a season-ending injury picked up last month. Gabriel Martinelli is next up with six and has not played since the start of February. He is set to return after the international break but that will leave just nine league games left.
If Martinelli hits the ground running - which is a big if given his patchy form for much of the past two years - then he may manage to climb up to 10 goals. It would still be the fewest ever by Arsenal's top scorer in a Premier League season.
There is, perhaps, more hope that Bukayo Saka can do it. He is on five but boasts a much more impressive and consistent record. Like Martinelli, Saka is not expected back until late March and would need to score at more than a goal every two matches. He has hit that rate before but is also on a lengthy lay-off and will have gone four months without playing and five without scoring by the time he is on the pitch again.
Leandro Trossard and Mikel Merino both have four and are starting more often than not but neither have been enough of a threat for Arteta. Martin Odegaard has looked extremely rusty since December.
Havertz was on course to at least match his 13 league goals - 12 without penalties - from last season. His unfortunate injury has left Arsenal exposed to the elements. All the while, a player they let go over the summer has grabbed the attention of Europe with his exploits.
Now up to 24 goals and counting, 22-year-old Mika Biereth is onto his third club in the space of eight months. Having left Arsenal to join Sturm Gratz, 11 goals from 16 league appearances in Austria - as well as another three in the domestic cup and Champions League, not to mention his five assists - convinced Monaco to buy him in January after six months.
Biereth had scored 15 times in 37 games for Sturm Graz in the 2023/24 season on loan from Arsenal and was sold for just £4million. His rise had been coming, reflecting the frustration now that not only his goals are being missed but so to is an appropriate transfer fee.
He scored 21 times in 21 Under-18 Premier League matches for Fulham before being snapped up by the Gunners in 2021. He also had 13 assists in there and made an immediate impact for the Arsenal Under-21s, bagging 11 and assisting four in his first season. A loan in the Netherlands did little to get him going but moving to St Johnstone in Scotland certainly did. Biereth is a natural striker and showed it there.
He has never been like Chido Obi-Martin, dominating up the age groups and therefore getting the eyeballs, but he has been a relentless scorer for a number of seasons now. He never made his senior debut for Arsenal and already has three hat-tricks in 10 games for Monaco in France.
In the shadow of Erling Haaland for his country, Biereth's immense form has made him a player to watch. Now, alongside Folarin Balogun, it is a case of what if for Arsenal.
Balogun was the jewel of academy football when coming through at Hale End. Twenty-two Ligue 1 goals on loan at Stade Reims in 2022/23 helped Arsenal bank £34million but faith may have been misplaced. Balogun's lack of opportunities in the wake of Eddie Nketiah has seen Arsenal hit twice with one move.
Balogun showed the natural finishing ability to make him an in-demand player. Arteta preferred the tried and tested figure of Nketiah instead, essentially shunting Balogun to one side over a series of loans.
All the while, Nketiah has struggled to live up to his own youth prospect tag and only scored five times last season. When Arteta needed him there was very little evidence to make for getting more chances.
Nketiah played in 27 league games but only just clocked more than 1,000 minutes as he was limited, getting three of his five goals in one game against the eventually relegated Sheffield United. He had always been the go-to back-up for Arsenal and Arteta without threatening a starting spot. His profligacy at Crystal Palace has shown why with goalscoring being a problem for much of this season despite another sizeable price tag (up to £30million) being paid.
Only Biereth really has an argument for deserving a shot in the Arsenal team now. He is performing on the European stage and is properly in form. Nketiah and Balogun are not and have helped strengthen the club's financial situation, leading to what is likely to be a big-money striker signing in the summer. The trio have generated a combined £68million, which will go some way to purchasing the next guy picked out to support and compete with Havertz.
That will not help be of any benefit to Artea now, though. Arsenal have scored twice in the three matches since Havertz's injury in Dubai on a warm weather training camp and they both came from Merino against a hapless Leicester City team. They failed to find the net in either of the last two games, dropping points to all but end the title race.
The failure to integrate any of their three biggest centre-forward academy prospects - not to mention Obi-Martin - into the team now looks to have cost them. Biereth, at 22, is the one which will hurt the most.
He was sold for the least money and is now forging his way as one of the next big stars. Thirty-nine senior goals in 18 months spells that out whilst another 33 for Balogun during the same period will sting. Together it is 72. Nketiah only brings 10 across all competitions but still raises the bar to 82 in total for three academy players.
Even if they were not able to dump Havertz out of the side, having the option to rotate him would have been beneficial. Instead, Arteta will go back into the transfer market in the summer with Benjamin Sesko and Alexander Isak on his mind, putting to an end the great striker debate.
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