Jermaine Pennant: Arsenal Needs a Superstar Left Winger
Jermaine Pennant fears Arsenal’s attack has gone backwards – and he believes a “superstar” left winger is no longer a luxury, but a necessity.
Arsenal’s left flank stripped bare
Twelve months ago, Arsenal paid big money to bring in Viktor Gyokeres as the long-awaited answer to their No.9 problem. Twenty-one goals in his debut season suggested they had finally cracked it.
He is now watching Kai Havertz start through the middle.
On the left, the picture is even starker. Leandro Trossard, scorer of some of last season’s most decisive goals, has gone to Besiktas. Gabriel Martinelli, a symbol of the Arteta era’s early rebuild, has packed his bags for Al-Hilal after seven years in north London.
The safety net is gone. So is the depth.
Arsenal have turned to Christos Tzolis on that flank, a talented option but an unproven long-term solution at the very top level. Behind him, the options look thin enough that Eberechi Eze, a natural midfielder, is being talked about as cover out wide.
For Pennant, that is a red flag.
“I think Arsenal are weaker”
Speaking to GOAL in association with NetBet Casino, the former winger did not sugar-coat his assessment of Arsenal’s summer business in attack.
“They have to at some point because teams are not going to sit dormant,” he said when asked if he expects the club to move for a “superstar” left winger. “Teams around them are not going to not strengthen in those areas. Come January, I'm sure the likes of Chelsea, Man United, Liverpool and Man City are going to go in the market again and strengthen again. So they have to.”
Then came the blunt verdict.
“And this is weird saying, but I think they've actually got weaker. I think Arsenal are weaker, especially going forward anyway, than they were last season. Because they've lost some really clutch individuals.”
Trossard sits at the heart of that argument. His goals in tight moments – West Ham, Aston Villa and others – helped tilt the title race. Those contributions are now gone.
“I think without Trossard they probably wouldn't have won the league,” Pennant said. “Then they've lost Martinelli, yeah, his number's dwindled but again it's still a good impact player you can bring off the bench. They've lost him.”
In their place? Tzolis, and not much else on that side.
“They've not really replaced that apart from Tzolis. So if he gets injured or whatnot, their left side's kind of doomed. You’ve got to put Eze out there, he's not a winger, he's a midfielder.”
Big targets, bigger prices
Arsenal have at least explored the market at the very top end.
They monitored Vinicius Junior during his delay in signing a new Real Madrid contract, only to see the Brazilian remain a cornerstone at Santiago Bernabeu. When Bradley Barcola became available as Paris Saint-Germain opened the door to a sale, Arsenal asked the question.
The answer was £123 million. Liverpool were willing to play at that level. Arsenal walked away.
It underlined two realities: Arsenal are now shopping in the elite aisle, but they still have lines they will not cross.
Even so, the club’s spending in recent windows suggests Mikel Arteta will not be short of funds if he decides that left wing cannot wait until the summer. The purse strings have loosened. The need is starting to feel urgent.
Havertz up front, Gyokeres on the fringes
The centre-forward situation only sharpens the debate.
“Yes, they’ve strengthened at the back,” Pennant conceded. “So I think going forward they definitely need to strengthen. Because they've probably fallen out of favour with Gyokeres and they've reverted back to Havertz, who was never really their 15, 20-goal-a-season guy.”
Havertz has led the line at the start of the 2026-27 campaign. Gyokeres, the supposed answer to the No.9 riddle, has had to settle for cameos off the bench.
Around them, though, the rest of the frontline is firing. Martin Odegaard has rediscovered his creative spark, dictating games again from his playmaking role. Bukayo Saka already has two goals to his name and looks as relentless as ever cutting in from the right.
The results back Arteta. Three Premier League games, three wins. A statement Champions League victory over Napoli. No obvious cracks in the numbers.
Yet the imbalance is hard to ignore. One flank bristles with Saka’s certainty. The other leans heavily on Tzolis staying fit and thriving.
A perfect start – with one obvious question
Arteta can rightly argue that he has “all the tools” to launch another trophy push. The early-season form is spotless, the defence looks stronger, and the spine of the team feels settled.
But the Premier League does not stand still. Neither do Chelsea, Manchester United, Liverpool or Manchester City. Pennant expects them all to dip back into the market in January.
If they do, and Arsenal do not, that left side will stay under the spotlight.
The Gunners have built a squad capable of going toe-to-toe with anyone. The question now is simple: will they find the superstar for that vacant left-wing throne before it costs them again?
